The Exodus of the children of Israel from Egypt is a major event in the
biblical book of Exodus (Exodus chapter 13 and following).
Certainly we have abundant intersections between the Israelites and the
Egyptians in the biblical account, and we would hope that such might
establish synchronisms that would lead to objective and reliable dating. However, unlike the
astronomically confirmed chronology of the Assyrians and the
Babylonians in the first millennium B.C., the chronology of Egypt poses a significant challenge.
1
The Wikipedia article describes the problems in Egyptian
chronology, which includes the following:
- Egyptians used no single system of dating.
- Egyptians had no consistent system of regnal years.
- Egyptians had no concept of an era or of named years.
The same Wikipedia article describes the following problems
which are a consequence of the previous three:
- All ancient Egyptian king lists are either comprehensive but have
significant gaps in their text, or are textually complete but fail to
provide a complete list of rulers, even for a short period of Egyptian
history.
- There is conflicting information on the same regnal
period from different versions of the same text.
- For almost all kings of Egypt, we lack an accurate
account for the length of their reigns.
Because of these serious problems stated above, it has not been possible
to unquestionably reconstitute early Egyptian chronology. For
example, the
Amarna Letters clearly show that Amenhotep III of
Egypt and Kadashman-Enlil of
Babylon corresponded with one another, and
thus provide an opportunity for synchronism and more absolute dating.
However, early Babylonian chronology is complicated by 4 differing
chronologies,
2 as follows:
| Chronology |
Ammisaduqa Year 8 |
Reign of Hammurabi |
Fall of Babylon I |
± |
| Ultra-Low |
1542 BC |
1696 BC -- 1654 BC |
1499 BC |
+32 |
| Short or Low |
1574 BC |
1728 BC -- 1686 BC |
1531 BC |
±0 |
| Middle |
1638 BC |
1792 BC -- 1750 BC |
1596 BC |
-64 |
| Long or High |
1694 BC |
1848 BC -- 1806 BC |
1651 BC |
-120 |
Therefore, when one looks at a list of Babylonian kings, it may not be
immediately obvious which of the above assumptions the author uses, and
how this may impact the 14th
3 or 15th
4 century
B.C. dates that are proposed for the
Amarna Letters.
Thus, the controversy over the dating of the early Babylonian kings as
well as the absence of a complete Egyptian kings list with their
corresponding lengths of reign may nullify such opportunities for
synchronisms that could otherwise give unequivocal dates.
According to the Wikipedia article on Egyptian Chronology, astronomical
synchronisms have fallen out of favor as a means to define Egyptian
Chronology because of the uncertainties of the Sothic cycle in Egyptian
history.
In addition, although radiocarbon dating has been done extensively on
wood and other organic materials at Egyptian monuments, multiple samples
from each site have given markedly different results and had not been
precise enough to demonstrate without question the dates of these
monuments or how this could solve the controversy in Egyptian
chronology.
5
Therefore, there has not emerged an objective and scientific basis for
determining the chronology of Egypt, at least in the second millennium
B.C.. In the absence of a complete history of Egyptian kings and
their regnal years, and in the absence of reliably linking that complete
history to known astronomical events, one can never hope to achieve the
certainty and reliability of Thiele's work on the dating of the Hebrew
kings.