Landmarks in the Biblical timeline from Noah to Christ (Long Sojourn) aligned with Down’s revised Egyptian Chronology.

The Biblical Chronology (long sojourn) aligned with Down’s Revised Egyptian Chronology.

While the Biblical timeline is fairly established and accepted by most theologians, there is still some debate about the length of time that the Israelites were in Egypt.  This is of critical importance as it would affect all dates prior to the Exodus.

In this alignment, a long sojourn, as recorded in the Old Testament, is assumed to be correct.

This results in very good synchronization between the Bible and History when aligned with Down’s revised Egyptian Chronology.

This is supported by considerable archaeological evidence.

David Down is a well known archaeologist who has been to Egypt numerous times on archaeological missions. He has proposed an alternative time line based upon his extensive archaeological experience excavating the Holy Lands and his knowledge of Egyptian history.

The Traditional Egyptian Chronology based upon the work of Manetho (a priest / historian during the Ptolemaic Period – 3rd centurary BC) is now known to have multiple problems.

Manetho was fortunate enough to have access to the Alexandrian library before it was burnt down and wrote extensively on Egyptian History (Aegyptiaca).

Unfortunately, his works were destroyed too when the Alexandrian Library was burnt down by the Romans.

All we have is the notes of people who read his work  ( Sextus Julius Africanus and Eusebius of Caesarea). They made a list of pharaohs and how long they reigned and grouped them into dynasties.

Since then, historians have come along and used these lists to construct the Egyptian Chronology. Unfortunately, the early historians assumed that only one pharaoh was ruling at a time and built a time line based on sequential reigns.

We now know that many of these dynasties ran in parallel in different parts of the country and what’s more, many pharaohs practiced co-regency at the beginning and the end of their reigns.

Other archaeologists and historians like Usher, Velicovsky, Sweeney, Rhol, Moller and numerous others have suggested alternative Egyptian Chronologies but they do not align completely with the Bible and suggest synchronisms that are not supported by archaelogicial evidence or history.

As there are numerous alternative or Revised Egyptian Chronologies, the one that is used here in this alignment is identified by the person that came up with it, namely David Down.

David Down in his book, Unwrapping the Pharaohs, tries to synchronize it with a Biblical chronology that assumes a short sojourn.  This works well from the Exodus on wards but produces poor sychronisms for Biblical figures prior to Moses.

In this diagram, the Biblical Chronology with a long sojourn has been aligned with the Revised Egyptian Chronology of David Down without changing Down’s revised Egyptian Chronology (with the exception of allowing for co-regency in the 12th dynasty)

The result is almost perfect synchrony between the Bible and History with considerable archaeological and historical evidence to support all of the synchronisms suggested for the pharaohs listed.

A better understanding of the Chronology of the Old Kingdom will hopefully produce more synchonisms which will need to be verified both archaeologically and historically.