The Historical Basis for Faith

Acts 13:16-43

Filled with the Holy Spirit, Paul quietly waited until he was asked before addressing the Synagogue. Near the end of the service, He and Barnabas were asked to share, and Paul brought a message very similar to that of Peter on the day of Pentecost, or what Stephen preached just before being stoned. He starts with material the Jews were very familiar with, their history.

“Then Paul stood up, and beckoning with his hand said, Men of Israel, and ye that fear God, give audience. The God of this people of Israel chose our fathers, and exalted the people when they dwelt as strangers in the land of Egypt, and with an high arm brought he them out of it. And about the time of forty years suffered he their manners in the wilderness. And when he had destroyed seven nations in the land of Chanaan, he divided their land to them by lot.” (Acts 13:16-19)

A major debate today is when the Jews came out of Egypt, and no Egyptian records of Israel’s entrance or exit have been found, despite their having recorded almost everything. Paul’s statement here clarifies some of the problem. Both Joshua and Judges state that Israel served the lord all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua. Caleb was forty when he went to spy out the land, and Joshua was one hundred ten when he died. Assuming Joshua was the same age as Caleb, that would have been over thirty years, but it is probable that Joshua was younger, since he was referred to as a young man when Israel first left Egypt, making the period of conquest even longer. Caleb’s son-in-law was the first Judge, after Israel had turned away from God.

Many Bibles use Usher’s Chronology to date historical events. They largely ignore the length of Joshua’s leadership, and only assign two hundred seventy years to the entire book of Judges, lumping Samuel in to the Judges. Paul describes the period of the judges as being about four hundred fifty years and until Samuel. Adding up the time periods in the book of Judges, one finds a total of close to four hundred seventy years, or a bout what Paul mentioned. No time period is given for Samuel’s or Eli’s leadership except that Samuel was very young when he started, and was old when he anointed Saul to be king. It seems reasonable to assume a period of a bout fifty years, and may well have been longer. Notice Paul’s statement.

“And after that he gave unto them judges about the space of four hundred and fifty years, until Samuel the prophet.” (Acts 13:20)

Using Paul’s statement, the time periods described in Judges, and our assumptions we find that the Exodus would be at least two hundred fifty or three hundred years before the dates sown in many Bibles. This would put the Exodus during the time of the Hyksos period in Egypt, possibly placing it right at the very beginning. The Hyksos were a relatively weak people and it has long been a question how they could conquer Egypt. The destruction of the Egyptian army at the Red Sea and the plagues would have made Egypt far more vulnerable than normal. Few records survive from the early years of Hyksos domination, explaining the lack of mention of the Exodus.

This would place the Israelites coming into Egypt during the period between the Old Kingdom and the Middle Kingdom, a period of famine and unrest, during which few records were kept, again explaining the lack of records of a little group of seventy people entering Egypt. It was during the Middle kingdom that the biggest pyramids and public works were built with slave labor. Toward the end of the period, most construction was with brick rather than stone, and at the last, inferior reinforcement materials were used in making the bricks, supporting the Biblical record. The end of the Middle Kingdom is marked by the Hyksos takeover, which lasted about a hundred years, and began around 1650-1700 BC. The lack of records makes it difficult to fix exact dates during the period.

“And afterward they desired a king: and God gave unto them Saul the son of Cis, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, by the space of forty years.” (Acts 13:21)

After Samuel’s administration, the people decided they wanted a more modern form of government than God had established and demanded a king. God warned them of the dangers, but allowed them to have one. The very first King immediately led them away from following the Lord and had to be replaced.

“And when he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king; to whom also he gave testimony, and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfil all my will.” (Acts 13:22)

Saul’s reign was characterized by a focus on Saul, rather than on God. He used human techniques to motivate the people to fight for Jabesh Gilead, rather than trusting God in I Samuel 11, by using threats. In I Samuel 13, he ignored God’s command, attempting to use religious ritual to motivate his followers, while his own son just trusted God and went to the battle. Finally, he just ignored God’s command completely in claiming what God had commanded to be destroyed for himself, then blamed the people and made excuses when he got caught. He was replaced with David, who devoted his life to obeying the Lord.