NOTE: Dating the Pharoah's of Egypt is a very inexact science. If you
get three different books listing the kings of Egypt, you will get three different
dates for any particular one. Everyone has their own dating methods and poccedures.
Therefore, the dates listed in the following pages are flexible and are by no means
thought of as being set in stone so to speak.
One of the sources of the following dates is Biblical Archaeology Review, Sept/Oct 2001. How We Know When Solomon Ruled
The dating of Jacob's, Joseph's and the Israelites time in Egypt can only
be dated from extra-Biblical sources since the Bible did not use or even
have the conception of our Gregorian Calander. The effort to place the dates
on the Egyptian period in the Bible was greatly enhanced by the discovery
of a the Assyrian Eponym Lists. The Assyrians were a powerful empire in
the time of the Kings of the Bible. This List shows the years reliably
dated as 910 to 649 BC, each year named for the Prime Minister elected
for that year. In the year called Bur-Sagale (also noteed as Assur-dan III), the Assyrians note a
powerful event.....a solar eclipse. Astronomers of today compute this eclipse
as only being seen in the region on June 15, 763 BC. Ninety years earlier,
in 853 BC, the Battle of Qarqar took place and which the Assyrian King
Shalmaneser III claims to have won over a Syrian-Palestinian coalition
including King Ahab of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. Which was at the
end of Ahab's reign since that was the only time that he was on friendly
terms with the Syrians. Another important piece of information came from
the Black Obelisk which Shalmaneser III erected to celebrate his victory
over his enemies. This shows King Jehu of Northern Israel kneeling before
him in the 18th year of his reign. Compare that to the Eponym List and
we get the date is 841 BC, Jehu's first year. Ahab and Jehu were 12 years
apart according to the List, so the resulting dates are 853 to 841 BC between
Ahab and Jehu. The Bible tells us of two kings between Ahab and Jehu; Ahaziah, who ruled for two years (1 Kings 22:51), and Joram (or Jehoram), who ruled for 12 years (2 Kings 3:1. You may notice that the Bible lists 14 years between Ahab and Jehu. Is this a conflict?
No. It comes from different ways of designating the first and last years of a king's reign. King's do not conviently die on the first day of the year or the last day. So the Assyrians attributed the half of the year used by the dead king to that dead king. His successor's reign then officially started on the beginning of the next year. The Israelites used the Egyptian method of attributing the half year to the new king. So taking that into account, the List and the Bible correlate each other. Starting with Ahab, he died in 853 and accended to the throne in 874
BC. His father Omri reigned tweleve years being crowned in 886 BC. Elah
his predecessor reigned for just two years 886 - 887 BC.
Another Biblical backing comes in the book
of Judges (11:26), when Jephthah reminds the king of Ammon that the Israelites
have been in Ammon for 300 years....dating back to having at least have
been established in Ammon no sooner than 1400 BC.
by Kenneth A. Kitchen
Now the lengths of the reigns of the kings of Israel are documented in
the Bible pretty well. In the following listing of dates, I will switch around
the proper arrangement of BC dates...from highest to lowest...for ease of reading.
His father Baasha ruled for twenty-four years, 887 - 910 BC.
Nadab, son of Jeroboam, ruled for two years, from 910 - 912 BC.
Finally Jeroboam, who took the throne of the Northern Kingdom from Solomon at his death in 931 BC,
reigned for twenty-two years being in power from 910 - 931 BC.
Since Jeroboam siezed the throne at the death of Solomon, and Solomon reigned
for forty years, that places his dates as being 931 - 971 BC and
of his father David , 971 - 1011 BC. Now according to the Bible, the temple
of Solomon was started in the fourth year of Solomon's reign, 976 BC, which
is also the 480th year since the Exodus according to the Bible. This
places the Exodus at 1456 BC (give or take a few years).
In the Book of Exodus, we find that the Israelites were there for 430 years
and so Jacob's migration was in 1876 BC. Joseph's enslavement and lifetime most
probably dates therefore about 1880's or 1890's BC. This would place Joseph's good
terms with Pharoah in the time of the reign of Sesostris III (1881 - 1840
BC) *see additional information on my Historical Joseph*. This Pharoah was this period's only main expansionist and consolodated
the lands of local monarchs of Egypt under his control. In the Bible, it tells
us that the Pharoah made Joseph "vizor" of all Egypt. This position was created
in the 2200's BC as a way to help curb the rising power of local governors. This
position was typically given to a family member or close friend and only answered
to Pharoah himself. This coinsides perfectly with the Biblical story of Joseph's administration and his land
aquiring advice for Pharoah. Also, the captiol of Egypt at this time was not located
in Memphis (the traditional place where it most often was located), but rather in
Lisht, very close to the Delta Region. This would have made it even more likely of a
Asiatic interacting with the Pharoah of the time. Paintings in the time of Sestrosis I,
show Aisatic traders coming to the local governors of Pharoah, wearing garments of enormous
color and design.....perhaps indicating the designs and styling of Joseph's "coat of many colors".
It is good to note that it is in the succeeding Thirteenth Dynasty that Asiatic names
appear in the King's List of Egypt for the first time, indicating a probable increase in power and prestige for
Asiatic people after the time of Joseph. Before the Twelfth Dynasty, these people's
were looked down on and despised, just like the Story of Joseph tells us.
Joseph then died in the next reign of Phaorah, Amenemhet III in about 1806 BC. This accounts for Joseph being able to
take a huge burial party to Palestine to bury his father Jacob but yet
not being able to do the same for his own burial. The new Pharoah did not
know Joseph as a close friend as his predecessor, and the Dynasty was becoming unstable ...only
25 years from falling.
The Twelfth Dynasty came to an end just 25 years after Joseph's death. Then
for the next 200 years, the Hebrew lived in comparable peace with the Egyptians
and prospered even through the reigns of the insurgent Hyskos, 1730 -
1580 BC. These were an unknown Semetic people, originally called, "Hikau khasut" or
"Princes of the Desert Uplands". Through some incorrect copying and etymology by Manetho, it got
recorded as "Hyskos" or "Shepard Kings". They migrated into northern
Egypt and evently took control while the Egyptian Pharoahs were kept to
the south....the area called the "Northern Kingdom".
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