This is acknowledged to be the most difficult portion of Scripture chronology, and affords another opportunity for some to choose a longer period and some a shorter. Our object being simply to understand Scripture, we must have no choice either for long or short.
We start with an inclusive period named in Kings 6:1, “And it came to pass in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month Zif, which is the second month, that he began to build the house of the Lord.” Our work is to see how this passage agrees with other parts of Scripture, and how the 480 years agree with the details.
Years
Years. In the wilderness (verse 18)
40
During the Judges (verse 20) -
450
Reign of Saul (verse 21) -
40
530
This with the reign of David -
40
Years of Solomon’s reign -
3
573
Volumes have been written upon these two computations — the 480 of 1 Kings 6, and the 530 of Acts 13 Some have concluded that the one in Kings must be an error; and others have concluded that Paul must have made a mistake. But it is strange that so few have noticed that in Acts 13:20, there is a different reading in some of the earliest Greek manuscripts — a reading which, apart from all questions of systems of chronology, has been preferred by some of the best editors to the one in the common Greek text and the authorized version.
They believe that Paul said, “He divided to them their land by lot, about 450 years; and afterward he gave them judges:” and not 450 years during the judges: the difference being in a transposition of the words.
Years
Years. Isaac, when Jacob was born (Gen. 25:26)
60
Jacob when he stood before Pharaoh -
130
Israel in Egypt——
215
Israel in the Wilderness—-
40
To the division of the land—-
7
(About 450 years.)——
452
But if this reconciles Acts 13 with 1 Kings 6, we have still to reconcile the 480 years with the various periods of the judges. It is well known that if all the periods of servitude and the times of the judges are put down consecutively, they amount to considerably more than 480 years.
There are several methods of meeting the difficulty.
1. By not reckoning the various periods of servitude, but considering them all as canceled. This would cut out the following oppressions: —
Years.
The King of Mesopotamia——
8
The Moabites——
18
The Canaanitish King Jabin—-
20
The Midianites——
7
The Ammonites———
18
The Philistines———
40
111
There may in prophecy (the seventy weeks for instance) be time that is not reckoned. If the prophecy is concerning the Jews as the people favored of God; and if for a season those people are declared to be not reckoned as God’s people, that time may be overleaped in the prophecy. But this date in the book of Kings is history. Surely the words, “It came to pass in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt,” and so on, are too plain and literal to be taken in a mystical sense. It is plain history. Besides, if the servitudes are cut out, the time will not at all agree with the 300 years of Judges 11:26.
2. Others think that we may reckon from the settlement in the land, instead of from the Exodus. This would cut out the forty years in the wilderness, and the seven years to the division of the land.
But though, morally, the coming out of Egypt, and the settlement in the land, may be the same, yet for a date in history it is hardly probable that the one would be used for the other.
3. Another mode is to translate the several passages that speak of the land having rest forty years, eighty years, and so on, thus: “the land had rest the fortieth year,” that is, forty years from the time that the land had rest before; and so of the other passages. The result of this would be that the forty years spoken of in Judges 3:11, would include the eight years of oppression that preceded it; and the eighty years of Judges 3:30, would include the eighteen years of oppression by the Moabites; and so on.
But, in the first place, it is doubtful whether the original will allow of the above translation, and one passage seems fatal to this mode of interpretation: “When the Lord raised them up judges, then the Lord was with the judge, and delivered them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge” (Judg. 2:18). Now if the deliverance was all the days of each judge, it will not at all agree with the land having rest for a brief period in the fortieth year, in the eightieth year, and so forth
4. Another way of reconciling the apparent differences is to suppose that all the periods named are not consecutive. And this appears somewhat probable; for, by a careful perusal of the book of Judges, it appears evident that often the land as a whole is not spoken of. For instance, one passage speaks of an oppression and a judge in the north, stretching towards the center, but not reaching to the south. Another passage gives an oppression and deliverance in the south, and reaching towards the center, but not affecting the north.
Again, take the song of Deborah: she only names a part of the tribes, and some of these she seems to chide for not assisting in the wars. Of Reuben she asks, “Why abodest thou among the sheepfolds to hear the bleatings of the flocks?... Gilead abode beyond Jordan: and why did Dan remain in ships? Asher continued on the sea shore, and abode in his breaches” (Judg. 5:16-18). Deborah does not name Judah or Simeon, either as fighting or staying away. These with Dan occupied the south; Reuben, the southeast.
Further, look at Gideon: he sent messengers to only three other tribes, Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali (Judg. 6:35). And after the battle he had to make an apology to Ephraim for not inviting them to the war (Judg. 8:1).
Surely all these records, with several others, clearly intimate that the servitudes named did not affect the whole land at one time; and that the judges did not rule over the whole of the twelve tribes; while, on the other hand, when an occurrence embraced the whole, the word says, “all the tribes of Israel,” “from Dan even unto Beer-sheba,” and so forth (Judg. 20:1-2).
From this it would follow, that it might be impossible to make out the chronology of the period with absolute certainty from the Book of Judges; and hence the value of the period of 480 years in 1 Kings 6:1, to guide us: indeed, with this inclusive date, it matters comparatively little whether we can fill in the details or not, except to prove the correctness of Scripture, and the consistency of one part with another.
If we take all that took place towards the north, and place it side by side with what took place towards the south, we shall find that the period is shortened too much, and will not at all agree with the passage in Judges 11:26, where Jephthah says they had had possession of the land 300 years. Therefore, although the servitudes and the judgeships appear to be only more or less partial, yet in the order in which they are related they may be consecutive; and the events recorded, though partial in extent, may have been the only events worth recording.
Judges 3
Gives the first group of Judges.
Judges 4 and 5
A women has to lead forth the army.
Judges 6
Israel had to hide in dens and caves.
Judges 6:30
Gideon’s death demanded for destroying the altar of Baal.
Judges 8
Gideon scarcely escapes civil war.
Judges 9
Abimelech’s treachery to his brethren.
Judges 9
Discord. Abimelech slain by a woman.
Judges 12
Forty-two thousand slain in civil war.
Judges 16
The Nazarite fails, and is betrayed to the enemy.
He falls and is slain.
(Judges 17-21 are not in historical order, but show the moral condition of the people.)
Now while keeping the order of events mostly consecutive, there is one passage that seems to allow of a departure from this rule, and which has been thought to give the key to solve the difficulty. It is in Judges 10:7: “And the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel, and He sold them into the hands of the Philistines and into the hands of the children of Ammon.” Here are named at one time two sets of oppressors: the Philistines on the west, and the Ammonites on the east. Judges 10, 22 and 12 then go on to describe the oppression of the Ammonites; and in Judges 13, we have an oppression of the Philistines. Now, if these two oppressions were at the same time, this fully meets the difficulty. And this may also throw light upon that difficult passage in Judges 10:8, which may speak of “the same year,” and the passage be read, And God “sold them into the hand of the Philistines and into the hands of the children of Ammon. And they vexed and crushed the children of Israel the same year.”
The way Judges 13 introduces the Philistine oppression presents, however, some difficulty; for it seems to speak of it as a new declension and a new oppression. Therefore, the following arrangement of the details of the period, though given as being open to less objection than other modes, is not to be considered as altogether without objection.
THE 480 YEARS OF 1 KINGS 6:1
From the Exodus to crossing the Jordan
40
From the Jordan to the division of the land
7
Rest under Joshua and the Elders] (Judg. 2:7)
12
Oppression by the King of Mesopotamia (Judg. 3:8)
8
Othniel judge——-(Judg. 3:11)
40
Oppression by the Moabites- (Judg. 3:14)
18
Ehud and Shamgar—-(Judg. 3:30)
80
Oppression by the Canaanitish King Jabin (Judg. 4:3)
20
Deborah and Barak—-(Judg. 5:31)
40
Oppression by the Midianites (Judg. 6:1)
7
Gideon—-(Judg. 8:28)
40
Abimelech——-(Judg. 9:22)
3
Tolu———(Judg. 10:2)
23
Jair———(Judg. 10:3)
22
[Eli priest forty years, 1 Sam. 4:18.]
In the West..
In the East.
Oppression by the Philistines, during which Samson is judge, and Samuel after Eli—-(Judg. 8:1) 40 years
Oppression by the Ammonites (Judg. 10:8)
18
Jephthah—(Judg. 12:7)
6
Ibzan—(Judg. 12:9)
7
From Mizpeh (1 Sam. 7:12,13) to the anointing of Saul 9 years
Elon—-(Judg. 12:11)
10
Abdon—(Judg. 12:14)
8
Saul (in the former part of which Samuel was judge) Acts 13:21
40
David 1 Kings 2:11
40
Solomon 1 Kings 11:42
3
TOTAL
492
Deduct for parts of years being reckoned as full years
12
GRAND TOTAL
480
Observe that 1 Samuel goes back in the history to take up Eli and the birth of Samuel. It finds Israel under bondage to the Philistines, which is doubtless a part of the forty years’ servitude of Judg. 13:1: for otherwise that period would have no termination, and the servitude of Samuel would have no commencement. It is uncertain when Eli became priest; and though he is said to have judged Israel forty years (1 Sam. 4:18), he would most probably have been ecclesiastical judge, and his time not be reckoned separately. In 1 Samuel it was certainly running on at the same time as the Philistine oppression.
As to Saul, Acts 13 gives him forty years; while there is evidently a space between the deliverance at Mizpeh (where the period of 40 years’ servitude expires, 1 Sam. 7:12-17), and where Saul began to reign. In the table nine years fall to this period, which is ample.
Josephus says that Samuel “held the supreme authority twelve years subsequent to the death of Eli.” But this appears to be incorrect; because the taking of the ark coincides with Eli’s death: the ark was with the Philistines seven months, and it was at Kirjath-jearim twenty years before Samuel led on the people to the victory of Mizpeh. So that Samuel must have had authority a much longer time than twelve years after the death of Eli.
This is supposing we are correct in interpreting the twenty years named in 1 Samual 7:2, “And it came to pass, while the ark abode in Kirjath-jearim that the time was long; for it was twenty years: and all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord.” At first sight it would appear as if the passage stated that the ark was at Kirjath-jearim twenty years; but it is quite clear that it was there much longer, for it was taken there in Samuel’s time, and it was not returned till David’s time (2 Sam. 6:2), so that it must have been there more than forty years. But some authorities prefer to translate it, “and it was twenty years, and all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord.” This removes all difficulty.
In 1 Samuel 7:15, it is said that Samuel judged Israel “all the days of his life,” so that he must have been judge many years after Saul was proclaimed king (though it was then, perhaps, as ecclesiastical judge). And the verses that follow (1 Sam. 7:16-17) may refer to the period after Saul was anointed.
1 Samuel 7:1-15, presents a difficulty; for it appears to make it imperative that a long time must have elapsed between Mizpeh (1 Sam. 7:12), and the anointing of Saul, to allow for Samuel to have become old; to have appointed his sons; for them to have proved unfaithful; and for the people to have demanded a king. But the sons may have been appointed before “Mizpeh,” and after “Mizpeh” we have nine years. On reading 1 Samuel 5, 6 and 7, it will be seen that they form one continuous narrative, and that anything else that occurred during that twenty years could not have been introduced till after that narrative was closed. Another subject is then begun about the king, and there is nothing improbable in supposing that the sons were appointed before “Mizpeh,” and there is ample time for all the rest.
That the 480 years of 1 Kings 6 is the actual duration of the period seems confirmed by the genealogy mentioned in Ruth 4:17,21-22; 1 Chronicles 2:11-12; Matthew 1:5; and Luke 3:32.
Salmon and Rachab begat Boaz—1
Boaz begat Obed—-2
Obed begat Jesse——-3
Jesse begat David——-4
Now from the taking of Jericho to the birth of David would be about 350 years, which, for four generations, would be about eighty-eight years to each, which is a long period. But the difficulty is greatly increased by those who insist that the actual period was much longer than the four hundred and eighty years.
The 480 years of 1 Kings 6:1, then, we believe to be the actual period, and but for which there is no other definite date given; and which is confirmed by the 300 years of Judges 11:26, and also by the above genealogy.
The moral order is — Israel is redeemed out of Egypt, and the Law given. Through unbelief they cannot enter the land of promise, but they wander and die in the wilderness, and their children are brought into Canaan. They fall away continually, and the Lord delivers them into the hand of their enemies. But when they cry unto the Lord, He raises up a judge, and delivers them. In sin they demand a king, as the other nations (for God was their King), and Saul is given them; then David; then Solomon, and the Temple is built.