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The Samaritan version of Exodus says Israel’s four hundred and thirty years were spent ‘in Canaan and in Egypt,’ not in Egypt alone. Rabbinic tradition in the Mekhilta describes this as a change the elders wrote for King Ptolemy and counts differently.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Samaritan Exodus 12:40
Samaritan Penteteuch
Samaritan
39 And they baked unleavened cakes of the dough which they brought forth out of Egypt, for it was not leavened; because they were thrust out of Egypt, and could not tarry, neither had they prepared for themselves any victual. 40 Now the sojourning of the children of Israel and fathers of them, who dwelt in Canaan and in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years. 41 And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the selfsame day it came to pass, that all the hosts of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt.
Mekhilta d'Rabbi Ishmael 12:40
Halakhic Midrash
Rabbinic
[They wrote] (Ibid. 18:12): "And Sarah laughed bikrovehah" ["among her neighbors", and not, literally: "bekirbah" ("within her"), so that Ptolemy would not question why Sarah should be punished for laughing, and not Abraham, if they both laughed inwardly]. [They wrote] (Ibid. 49:7): "For in their wrath they killed an ox" [instead of: "a man" (so as not to give Ptolemy a pretext to call Jews murderers)], "and in their willfulness they razed a manger" [instead of: "an ox"]. [They wrote] (Exodus 4:20): "And Moses took his wife and his sons and he rode them on the bearer of men" [instead of "on the ass" (so that he not say that Moses lacked a horse or a camel)]. [They wrote] (Ibid. 12:40): "And the sojourning of the Jews, their dwelling in Egypt and in other lands was four hundred years." [(and not just: "their dwelling in Egypt," as per the verse, which would be open to dispute by Ptolemy's reckoning)]. [They wrote] (Ibid. 24:5): "And he sent the dignitaries of the children of Israel" [lest "youths" be taken demeaningly]; (Ibid. 11): "And to the dignitaries of the children of Israel, He did not stretch forth His hand." [They wrote] (Numbers 16:15):
Date: 135 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
... The well known explanation that the period of four hundred years, or four hundred and thirty years, is to be reckoned from the time of Isaac's birth or of the 'Covenant between the Pieces' is Midrashic; likewise the addition found in the Samaritan Pentateuch and in the Septuagint in Exodus 12:40 (the Samaritan reads: 'in the land of Canaan and in the land of Egypt'; the Septuagint: 'in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan', supplemented in several manuscripts by: 'they and their ancestors') reflects a similar Midrashic exegesis. According to the simple meaning of the Biblical text, the passages in question have to be explained differently. ...
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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