Summary of the post The Biblical Dates of the Exodus by Claude.ai on 10/16/2026. This is a very good article and worth reading again. Go here to read about the layman author who is a fan of Wright and Laconia. So, read with caution.
Main thesis
The author argues that the Bible gives no single date for the Exodus. Several different dates can be derived from it, each as “biblical” as the others. His starting point is a conversation in which someone treated the 1446 BCE date as a test of whether a person “believes what the Bible says.”
1. The Early Date (1446 BCE) from 1 Kings 6:1 (Masoretic Text)
The standard Early Date comes from 1 Kings 6:1, which places Solomon’s temple-building 480 years after the Exodus. In ASV wording, this is “the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt.” Taking Solomon’s accession as 970 BCE (following Thiele 1965), the arithmetic is 970 − 4 − 480 → 1446 BCE. The author says this simplicity explains why some treat the date as a mark of orthodoxy.
2. The Septuagint variant (1406 BCE)
The Septuagint (Old Greek) reads 440 years instead of 480 in the same verse, which gives 1406 BCE. Kings is poorly preserved among the Dead Sea Scrolls (4Q54, 5Q2), so those manuscripts can’t settle the question. The surviving fragments show that the text of Kings circulated in several forms in antiquity (Abegg, Flint, and Ulrich 1999). The upshot is that 1446 and 1406 are both “biblical,” and they differ by 40 years.
3. Paul’s speech in Acts 13 (1536 BCE)
Paul’s synagogue speech at Pisidian Antioch lists about 40 years in the wilderness and “about four hundred fifty years” before the judges (Acts 13:17–21, NRSV). Adding Saul’s 40 years and David’s 40 (2 Sam 5:4) to these figures yields roughly 1536 BCE. The author notes this is a minimum, since the speech leaves some periods unquantified. Including them would push the date earlier still.
4. Summing the narrative periods (≈1596 BCE)
Following Hoffmeier (2007, JETS 50/2: 225–47), the author totals every time span in the books from Numbers through Kings, from the wilderness through the judges and monarchy. The total is about 630 years, giving roughly 1596 BCE. The author concedes this ignores possible co-regencies and overlapping periods but thinks it is good enough to make the point.
Summary table of derived dates
| Source | Date (BCE) |
|---|---|
| 1 Kings 6:1 (LXX) | 1406 |
| 1 Kings 6:1 (MT) | 1446 |
| Acts 13:17–21 | 1536 |
| Narrative totals | 1596 |
Conclusions and implications
The derived dates span nearly 200 years. From this the author concludes that:
- Scripture seems uninterested in precise chronology, so “biblical” dates shouldn’t anchor reconstructions of history.
- Face-value readings of chronological data may look pious, but he considers them a hermeneutic that separates scripture from reality.
- To establish what happened and when, archaeology is the better guide. He says a follow-up post will show that the archaeological evidence fits none of these dates, pointing instead to a Late Date.
Critical notes
- The post is a layman’s blog piece. It aims to show the instability of “the biblical date,” and it does not engage in depth with the standard conservative harmonizations.
- Its arithmetic depends on 970 BCE for Solomon’s accession. That anchor is itself debated, and some scholars place Solomon’s reign differently.
- The Acts 13 and narrative-sum calculations rest on interpretive choices, such as the “450 years” and overlapping judges. Defenders of the Early Date would contest these, as Hoffmeier’s opponent Bryant Wood does.
Sources:
- The Biblical Dates of the Exodus – Biblical Historical Context
- Hoffmeier, James K. “What is the Biblical Date for the Exodus? A Response to Bryant Wood.” JETS 50/2 (2007): 225–47.
