Does the 400 year count start from Isaac’s birth?
The essay “430 Years: Canaan and Egypt?” looked at the evidence for reading the 430 years in Exodus 12.40-41 as referring to the time period between Abram entering the land of Canaan and the Exodus. It left off with raising the question of the 400 years mentioned in Genesis 15.13.
And He said to Abram, “Know for certain that your seed will be a sojourner in a land not theirs and they will serve them, and [by them] they will be oppressed ~ 400 years” # (Gen 15.13 – dmd)
Does this verse mean that Abraham’s seed would be enslaved for 400 years? That’s a common interpretation today, but does that interpretation hold up under examination?
Researching the question of the 400 years required a closer look at the grammar of of the original Hebrew. However, since a grammar analysis of the original Hebrew is highly technical and probably not of great interest to the majority of people, this essay will not include that analysis but rather move straight into the translation discussion. The translation discussion is also technical, but hopefully it is of some interest to readers.
My translations of Genesis 15.13:
From the Hebrew Masoretic:
‘And He said to @Avräm, “Know for certain that your seed will become a sojourner in a land not theirs and they will serve them and they will afflict them: 400 years.”’
From the Greek Septuagint:
"And it was said to Habram, ‘You will surely know that your seed will be a sojourner in a land not his own and they shall enslave them, and they will mistreat them, and they will humble them, 400 years."
From Stephan’s quote in Acts 7.6:
"But God spoke this, that his seed would be a sojourner in a land belonging to another and they will enslave them and they will mistreat 400 years"
Looking at the Hebrew Masoretic
‘And He said to @Avräm, “Know for certain that your seed will become a sojourner in a land not theirs and they will serve them and they will afflict them: 400 years.”’
The first part of the verse is a straightforward translation. “And He said to Abram, “Know for certain that your seed will become a sojourner in a land not theirs.” Abram’s descendents would live in a land not belonging to them, just as Abram was already living in a land not belonging to him (Canaan was the Promised Land, and not the Owned Land). However, YHWH does not name the land in which they would be living. Identifying the land as Egypt came in hindsight.
The second part of the verse “and they shall serve them and they shall afflict them” is a bit more complicated. A literal English translation of the Hebrew is confusing because a straight translation of the pronouns makes it sound as though Abram’s seed will both serve and afflict those living in a foreign land. Substituting the nouns for the pronouns makes the meaning clearer in English.
And He said to Abram, Know for certain that your seed will be a sojourner in a land not theirs and Abram’s seed will serve the inhabitants of the foreign land and the inhabitants of the foreign land will afflict Abram’s seed ~ 400 years #
This is what is called a chiastic construction (a-b, b-a). In this case, it does not translate well straightforwardly into English. Translators have made the choice to translate the second verb in the passive voice (it’s in the active voice in Hebrew) in order to convey the meaning accurately. My translation adds ‘by them’ to retain the chiastic construction.
And He said to Abram, Know for certain that your seed will become a sojourner in a land not theirs and they will serve them, and [by them] they will be afflicted ~ 400 years #
The verb ‘serve‘ translates the verb ‘øavädh‘ in Hebrew, which here means ‘to work or to serve.’ This is the same verb used in Genesis 2 to describe Adam’s serving the ground. In this grammar usage, it does not mean ‘to enslave,’ although in a different grammar usage, it can mean ‘to enslave.’ Young’s and Green’s literal translations do not translate the verb with ‘enslave,’ and neither do the Geneva Bible, the English Standard Version, or the King James Version.
The verb ‘afflict‘ translates the verb ‘øänäh‘ in Hebrew. It means ‘to afflict, oppress, subdue, or humble.’ This grammar usage intensifies the verb ‘afflict‘ but it does not connote slavery. Again, with a different grammar usage, it would mean slavery, but it does not mean ‘slavery‘ in this verse. Young, Green, and the English Standard Version follow the King James Version in translating it as ‘afflict’ while the Geneva Bible goes with ‘entreat them evil.’ TWOT #1652[1] discusses how God uses this affliction to humble the recipient into absolute dependence on Him.
So, this verse does not refer to slavery, but rather to service and affliction, which YHWH permits in order to humble Abram’s seed so that they will depend on Him. The idea that YHWH @Élöhîm was telling Abram that his seed would be enslaved is an interpretation made after the fact, years after the children of Israel were, in fact, enslaved by the inhabitants of a land not belonging to them. What YHWH @Élöhîm says to Abram does not require an understanding that his seed would be enslaved. It’s questionable whether Abram understood YHWH to be saying so.
So how does the 400 years work in this verse? A Hebrew accent called the ‘athnak‘ separates the 400 years from the rest of the sentence. Logically, the 400 years applies to part of the verse before the athnak. For 400 years, Abram’s seed will be a sojourner in a land not theirs and Abram’s seed will serve the inhabitants of the land and the inhabitants of the land will afflict Abram’s seed. But, again, in the Masoretic, Genesis 15:13 mentions neither time in Egypt nor slavery specifically as occurring during the 400 years. To reiterate, that interpretation comes from hindsight.
Since YHWH is talking about what would happen to Abraham’s descendents, it seems logical that He’s starting the count from the birth of Abraham’s son Isaac, his first descendent in the Line of the Promise. In the Chronology, counting 405 years backwards from the Exodus gets to the birth of Isaac. The 400 years is a likely a rounding, but the count does start with Isaac. The Geneva Bible commentary by the English Reform scholars confirms this conclusion.
Just as the Geneva Bible had a note for Exodus 12.16 explaining that the 430 years counted from Abram to the Exodus, so too the Geneva Bible has a note for Genesis 15:13 explaining that the 400 years counted from the birth of Isaac to the Exodus.
Counting from the birth of Isaac to their departure out of Egypt: Which declareth that God will suffer His to be afflicted in this world.
The Geneva Bible also has a marginal note for Acts 7.6 (Stephan’s defense before the Sanhedrin) that speaks to both the 400 years in Genesis 15.13 and the 430 years in Exodus 12.40-41 and Galatians 3.17:
There are reckoned four hundred years, from the beginning of Abraham’s progeny, which was at the birth of Isaac and four hundred and thirty years which are spoken of by Paul, Gal 3.17, from the time that Abraham and his father departed together out of Ur of the Chaldeans.
Masoretic Conclusion
Abram’s descendents did spend 400 years in a land not theirs. Neither Canaan nor Egypt belonged to Isaac, Jacob, or the children of Israel while they sojourned in those lands. Abraham’s son Isaac did not ‘serve’ or ‘work for’ the inhabitants of the land, but he was not welcomed by them either (although some of that was his own fault; passing his wife off as his sister was not appreciated). In fact, the king ordered Isaac to leave their country. There was some minor affliction by the Philistine shepherds in the matter of who owned the wells, which forced Isaac to keep moving until the shepherds stopped complaining.
Even Abraham’s grandson Jacob going to Paddan Aram to find a wife fulfills the prophecy. He lived there for 20 years in a land not his own. He served his father-in-law Laban (an inhabitant of the land) for those 20 years, working for his wives and then his flocks. He certainly saw himself as afflicted by Laban. Not only was there the surprise wedding night and having to serve an extra seven years for Rachel but there was also the matter of the constantly changing wages.
I understand that the common interpretation is that this verse prophesies that Abraham’s descendents would be enslaved for 400 years, but I don’t think that the Hebrew text supports that interpretation unless one brings that interpretation to it in hindsight.
Looking at the Greek Septuagint
"And it was said to Habram, ‘You will surely know that your seed will be a sojourner in a land not his own and they shall enslave them, and they will mistreat them, and they will humble them, 400 years."
The Septuagint translators used three verbs to translate the two Hebrew words in the Hebrew text: doulówsousin, kakówsousin, and tapeinówsousin. The translators chose ‘doulóow’ (which means nothing but ‘to enslave’ or ‘to bring into bondage’) to translate ‘øávädh.’ But again, the grammar usage of ‘øávädh’ in Genesis 15.13 in the Hebrew Masoretic does not mean ‘to enslave’: it means simply ‘to work or to serve.’
While it is seriously questionable whether Abram in his time understood YHWH to be telling him that his descendents would be enslaved, apparently, 1,200 years later, the Septuagint translators did think YHWH was telling him that. They interpreted the Hebrew word in light of the never-to-be-forgotten episode of the enslavement of the children of Israel by the Egyptians and translated it as ‘to enslave.’
Still, since the Septuagint translators preserved the fragment in Exodous 12.40-41 clarifying that the 430 years included the time spent in Canaan, when the children of Israel were semi-nomadic herdsmen, it seems probable that they understood that the children of Israel were not enslaved for 400 years. According to the Chronology, Jacob went down to Egypt in the 215th year since Abram entered Canaan. According to Exodus, the Egyptians did not begin to enslave the Hebrews until the generation of Jacob’s sons had died, with Levi dying in the 307th year after Abram entered Canaan. It is likely that the Hebrews were enslaved for only around 100 years.
The translators chose two Greek words (kakóow, tapeinów) to translate the two concepts found in the Hebrew word ‘øinnû:’ ‘to harm, mistreat, oppress’ and ‘to humble, bring low.’ Again, the idea is that YHWH uses affliction and oppression to humble His people so that they depend completely on Him.
So, while the Septuagint translation gives a surface impression that Abram’s descendents would be slaves for 400 years, a deeper study of the relevant verses in the Septuagint finds that, if Scripture is consistant with itself, the 400 years cannot be the length of time the Hebrews were enslaved. The conclusion reached with the Masoretic text still stands: starting with Isaac, for 400 years, Abram’s descendents lived in lands that were not theirs where they were afflicted by the inhabitants at some time during the 400 years.
Looking at Stephan’s quote in Acts 7.6:
"But God spoke this, that his seed would be a sojourner in a land belonging to another and they will enslave them and they will mistreat 400 years"
Next we come to Stephen’s quotation of this verse in his defense before the Sanhedrin, as recorded in Acts 7.6. Stephen is quoting from the Septuagint, but it’s a paraphrase because he leaves out the third verb, ‘tapeinóow’ or ‘humble.’ Biblical scholars have long held that when the New Testament writers quote from the Old Testament, they quote from the Septuagint, and not from the Hebrew texts[2]. They also hold that many of the quotations are a paraphrased version, as opposed to a word-for-word quote, which a simple comparison with the verses as recorded in the Hebrew Scriptures will illustrate.[3] Apparently, that is what Stephen did during his defense.
So, I don’t think this verse really adds anything to the discussion because it is a paraphrased quote of the Septuagint verse I already discussed.
However, the Geneva Bible’s comment on Acts 7.6 is instructive.
There are reckoned four hundred years, from the beginning of Abraham’s progeny, which was at the birth of Isaac and four hundred and thirty years which are spoken of by Paul, Gal 3:17, from the time that Abraham and his father departed together out of Ur of the Chaldeans.
The 16th century English Reform scholars understood that the 400 years counted from the birth of Isaac to the Exodus,[4] just as they understood that the 430 years counted from Abraham to the Exodus. According to an article by Dr. Michael S. Heiser,[5] the Renaissance and Reformation eras saw a greatly renewed interest in the Septuagint. It is reasonable to surmise that the Geneva Bible translators were well aware that, in Galatians 3.15, Paul was referencing Exodus 12.40-41 as found in the Septuagint, and not as found in the Masoretic text. They did not change their translation to reflect the Septuagint Greek over the Masoretic Hebrew texts, but they did note that the 430 years stretched from Abraham to the Exodus and the 400 years from the birth of Isaac to the Exodus.
Conclusion
The common perception that the children of Israel were enslaved for 400 years in Egypt is incorrect. The logical understanding of Genesis 15.13, especially in light of Galatians 3.15 and Exodus 12.40-41 (Septuagint), is that Abram’s seed would be strangers and afflicted in whatever land they would be residing during the 400 years. Only in hindsight was it clear that sometime during that 400 years, they would be enslaved.
Moving On
The conclusion of this side trip that the 430 years refers to the time between Abram entering Canaan and the Exodus, and that the 400 years counting from the birth of Isaac to the Exodus, still leaves the Chronology at 307 years. Extending the chart to 430 years leaves a 123 year gap between the year Levi died and the Exodus. The next step is filling the gap, starting with plugging Moses’ and Aaron’s life dates into the Chronology.
Grace and peace to you,
Dori
Link to essay in ICB Menu
[G] Great [are] the deeds of YHWH ~ <> [D] [They are] the ones sought with care by all delighting in them # <> [H] Majestic and splendid [are] His acts in history ~ <> [W] And His righteousness (tsëdëq) enduring to the continuing future # <> [Z] A remembrance (zëkher) He has made His marvels ~ <> Psalm 111.3-7 (dmd translation)
[1] Harris, R. Laird, Archer, Jr., Gleason L., Waltke, Bruce K. Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (2 vols). Chicago: Moody Bible Institute. 1980, 1124p
[2] “The quotations from the Old Testament found in the New Testament are in the main taken from the Septuagint; and even where the citation is indirect, the influence of this version is clearly seen.” “Bible Translations-Septuagint,” The Jewish Encyclopedia.
[3] McLay, R. Timothy. The Use of the Septuagint in New Testament Research. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans. 2003, 221p
[4] These scholars start the 430 year count when Abram left Ur of the Chaldees with his father instead of when he arrived in Canaan after his father had died. I checked out how that count would work in the Internal Chronology of the Bible and concluded that it did not work. Based on the time clues in Scripture, the 430 years must start when Abraham got to Canaan.
[5] Heiser, Michael S. “The Role of the Septuagint in the Transmission of Scriptures,” www.biblearchaeology.org (2012/02/17); retrieved in April 2014
How old was Jacob when he first met Rachel?
take the perspective of the Storyteller. I look at history as an interactive, dramatic production playing out on the stage of the earth in the theatre of the universe, written, produced, and directed by YHWH @Élöhîm with input by the characters.