Difference between revisions of "Duration of the Egyptian Exile/2"
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(Original Author: Yonatan Novetsky, Rabbi Hillel Novetsky) |
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<h2>Overview</h2> | <h2>Overview</h2> | ||
<p>Faced with the apparent contradictions between the explicit verses which speak of 400 or 430 years and the upper limit of 350 years derived from Moshe’s genealogy, different commentators chose to take some verses at face value while reinterpreting others. This yields a full spectrum of approaches regarding the total number of years the Israelites spent in Egypt.</p> | <p>Faced with the apparent contradictions between the explicit verses which speak of 400 or 430 years and the upper limit of 350 years derived from Moshe’s genealogy, different commentators chose to take some verses at face value while reinterpreting others. This yields a full spectrum of approaches regarding the total number of years the Israelites spent in Egypt.</p> | ||
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<p>Shadal and the Hoil Moshe maintain that the Children of Israel were in Egypt for the full 430 years. They propose that Moshe's genealogy omits several generations and includes only the more prominent personalities. Others view Moshe's genealogy as a full listing and therefore suggest that the nation was in Egypt for much less than 430 years. To do so, they reread the verses which speak of 430 or 400, suggesting that this time span does not begin with the descent to Egypt but with some other event such as Avraham's journey to Israel, the Covenant of the Pieces, or the birth of Yitzchak. Depending on which of these approaches is chosen, the Children of Israel might have been in Egypt anywhere between 210 and 240 years. There is also a compromise approach which suggests that though the original plan was for a full 400 year exile in Egypt, Hashem changed his mind and shortened the stay.<fn>The analysis below will first categorize the approaches by how they attempt to resolve the primary contradiction between the total of 400-430 years and the small number of generations until Moshe. [The methods used are: adding generations, subtracting years from the Egypt portion, or postulating that the plan changed.] It will then discuss how they reconcile the secondary discrepancy between the 400 and 430 figures themselves.</fn></p> | <p>Shadal and the Hoil Moshe maintain that the Children of Israel were in Egypt for the full 430 years. They propose that Moshe's genealogy omits several generations and includes only the more prominent personalities. Others view Moshe's genealogy as a full listing and therefore suggest that the nation was in Egypt for much less than 430 years. To do so, they reread the verses which speak of 430 or 400, suggesting that this time span does not begin with the descent to Egypt but with some other event such as Avraham's journey to Israel, the Covenant of the Pieces, or the birth of Yitzchak. Depending on which of these approaches is chosen, the Children of Israel might have been in Egypt anywhere between 210 and 240 years. There is also a compromise approach which suggests that though the original plan was for a full 400 year exile in Egypt, Hashem changed his mind and shortened the stay.<fn>The analysis below will first categorize the approaches by how they attempt to resolve the primary contradiction between the total of 400-430 years and the small number of generations until Moshe. [The methods used are: adding generations, subtracting years from the Egypt portion, or postulating that the plan changed.] It will then discuss how they reconcile the secondary discrepancy between the 400 and 430 figures themselves.</fn></p> | ||
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Version as of 07:02, 16 October 2015
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