OLD TESTAMENT TIMELINE

 

A large amount of archeological and historical evidence has been discovered that corroborates the events described in the Old Testament.  In order that these correlations may be more clearly seen, a review of some portions of Biblical history and Scriptural chronology is first necessary.  That is undertaken here, followed by a list of much of the secular historical evidence, and finally, a visual Old Testament timeline combining both.

This Old Testament timeline is grounded in the genealogy of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ as found in the gospel of Saint (St.) Luke, beginning with the first man, Adam, and ending with the foster-father of Christ, St. Joseph.  The ages of the patriarchs when each fathered the next in line of descent are taken from the Greek Septuagint translation of the Old Testament.   

The Greek Septuagint (hereinafter the “LXX”) is a translation of the Old Testament Hebrew scriptures into Greek that was completed by 132bc (before Christ).1  The early Christian churches regarded the LXX as Scripture,2 and most New Testament quotations of the Old Testament are taken from the LXX.3  The New Testament was written in Greek during the 1st century AD (Anno Domini—"in the year of our Lord") and was also regarded as Scripture,4 though it was not compiled until later.  

Most modern Bible translations use the Hebrew Masoretic text as the basis for their Old Testament, only using the LXX to help discern the meaning of difficult passages.  The Hebrew Masoretic text (hereinafter the "MT") was not finalized until several centuries after the New Testament was written, but it has a long history. 

The LXX has 1386 more years between the creation of Adam and the birth of Terah, Abraham's father, than what is found in the MT.  The difference is due to 12 of the patriarchs being 100 years older when they fathered the next-in-line, one being 50 years older, one being six years older, and there being a second Cainan, not found in the MT, who was 130 when he fathered the next-in-line.  The MT contains only the first Cainan, the son of Enos (Genesis chapters 5 and 11).  Both the LXX and St. Luke's genealogy include the second Cainan, son of Arphaxad, grandson of Shem (Luke chapter 3: verse 36).

A point of dispute among biblical historians is the length of time that the descendants of Abraham and his household—God’s chosen people—were enslaved in Egypt.  Some say 400 years, relying on what God told Abram in Genesis 15:13 (God would later change his name to Abraham): "Your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years.”  Abram had been a stranger from the moment he followed God's command to leave his native land and go to the land of Canaan, and his descendants would be strangers there and mistreated before they ever went down to Egypt (Gen. 26:3, 31:42 & 37:1; Exodus 6:2-4).  God went on to say:

  • In the fourth generation your descendants will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete ... To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates.

(Gen. 15:16 & 18). 

Because of Abram's obedience, through him God would bless all mankind (Gen. 12:1-3 & 22:18).  God changed Abram's name to Abraham and his wife (Sarai)'s to Sarah.  Though they were both advanced in years, God assured Abraham that Sarah would bear him a son—Isaac, and through Isaac God's plan would unfold (Gen. 17:19 & 26:4).  When Abraham's descendants returned to Canaan, they were to destroy the inhabitants (mostly Amorites), tear down their altars, burn the graven images of their gods (idols) and worship only Him—the one true God (Deuteronomy 7:1-7). 

St. Paul would later write to the churches in Galatia that 430 years had passed between God's promises to Abraham and his seed, and the giving of the Law (Galatians 3:16-17).  God's promises to Abraham began before his departure for Canaan.  The promises to him and his descendants quoted above were made about ten years later, 15 years prior to Isaac's birth (Gen. 12:4, 16:3 & 21:5).  Isaac lived to age 60 before fathering Jacob (whose name God changed to Israel).  Israel reached age 130 before moving to Egypt with his family to escape a famine (Gen. 47:9).  The Israelites resided in Egypt as guests, then as slaves, followed by their Exodus from Egypt and their receipt of God’s Law through Moses.  In the MT, Exodus 12:40 appears to say that they lived solely in Egypt for 430 years; the same verse in the LXX says that they were in the land of Egypt "and the land of Canaan" for that length of time.

Moses was the great-grandson of Levi, one of the 12 sons of Israel (Ex. 6:16-20; I [first] Chronicles 6:1-3).  Levi was a grown man when he went down to Egypt, and Moses' grandfather had already been born (Gen. 46:8 & 11).  Moses was 80 when he led the Exodus out of Egypt (Ex. 7:7).  If the Israelites had remained there 400 years or more, at least 320 years would have passed before the birth of Moses, far too long for two generations.

Returning to the genealogy of Jesus, Nahshon was the leader of the descendants (or tribe) of Judah, another of Israel's sons, during 40 years the Jews/Israelites spent in the desert between the Exodus and their entry into the Promised Land (Canaan) (Numbers 1:7).  His son, Salma (Salmon), was young enough to escape the judgment of God, given two years after the Exodus, that all men who had reached the age of 20 (the fighting age) except Joshua and Caleb (and likely the priestly tribe of Levi) would die before entering the Promised Land.  This was because the Jews/Israelites had initially refused to do so for fear of its inhabitants, and is why they wandered in the desert for 40 years (of the 12 spies that had been sent to survey the land, only Joshua and Caleb trusted that God would keep His promise to deliver it to them) (Num. 14:28-33).

St. Paul, while preaching the Gospel to the Jewish synagogue at Pisidian Antioch, reminded them of their history:

  • The God of the people of Israel chose our fathers.  He made them into a great people during their stay in Egypt, and with an uplifted arm He led them out of that land.  He endured their conduct for about forty years in the wilderness.  And having vanquished seven nations in Canaan, He gave their land to His people as an inheritance.  All this took about 450 years.

(Acts 13:17-20 [in part]) (450 years is not universally translated as referring to the previous sentences; the KJV, for example, applies it to the thereafter-described period of judges).

Upon arriving in the Promised Land, Salma married Rahab of Jericho, who had assisted the Israelites, and fathered Boaz (Matthew 1:5).  Boaz married the much younger Ruth (Ruth 3:10), who bore him Obed.  Obed fathered Jesse.  Jesse fathered David, the second king of Israel, who established its capital at Jerusalem.  His son, Solomon, began building the temple there four years after David, at age 70, named him as his successor and, soon thereafter, died.

The MT says 480 years passed between the Exodus from Egypt and the beginning of construction of the temple; the LXX says it was 440 years (III Kings [I Kings] 6:1).  Even 440 years requires Boaz, Obed and Jesse to all be nearly 100 years old when they fathered the next-in-line; therefore, it may not have been the intention of the author that the number, whether 440 or 480, be taken literally, though the actual number should be something close.

The lifespans and begetting ages of the patriarchs in this Old Testament timeline are from the New English Translation of the Septuagint (hereinafter "NETS") with one exception.  NETS lists the age of Methuselah as 167 when he begat Lamech; this has him living for 14 years after the Flood.  Because there is variance among manuscripts of the LXX (due to copyist errors) just as there is variance among older MT manuscripts, some copies of the LXX say he was 187, which results in him dying six years prior to the Flood (because his lifespan remains the same).  The MT also has his begetting age as 187.  Common sense dictates that Methuselah died before the Flood, since he was not on the Ark with Noah, so that one change from the NETS was made.

The following are historical and archeological explanations for some dates on the timeline:

1. The Flood: "All the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the flood gates of heaven were opened" (Gen. 7:11 [in part]).   Only Noah and his immediate family survived this punishment for mankind's sins, by following God’s instructions to build an ark (Gen. 6:13-22). 

The Shuruppak flood occurred, at a minimum, in the region of Mesopotamia, ending its Jemdet Nasr period5 in c.2,900bc.6  For Mesopotamians it marked the separation between murky pre-history and recorded history; it also formed the basis of perhaps the earliest written flood accounts: the stories of Atra-Hasis, King Ziusudra and King Utnapishtim.7

Each of these has several similarities to the Biblical event—divine causation with the purpose of destroying mankind, a forewarning to one man to build a large boat (ark) to save both himself and animals, and, after the flood waters have receded, the offering of a sacrifice.8  The Epic of Gilgamesh recounts how, like Noah, King Utnapishtim's ark came to rest on a mountain and, before disembarking, he released birds from it to determine if the land was again dry.9

There is evidence that a meteor or comet caused an approximately 5,000-year-old underwater impact crater in the Indian Ocean (the Burckle Crater);10 a tsunami may have coincided with heavy rain and overflowing of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.  Mesopotamia is where the Tower of Babel (Babylon) was later constructed and is where Abraham would be born, in Ur of Chaldees [kal-dēz].

2. Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah: God rained fire and brimstone upon these cities as a punishment for their exceedingly grave sins (Gen. 18:20 & 19:24-26).  This occurred about a year before Abraham’s son, Isaac, was born.

A meteor airburst may have destroyed cities in the region where Sodom and Gomorrah were likely located, just north of the Dead Sea (Tell el-Hammam excavations).11  In addition to an explosion, the resulting vacuum sucked in salt and other minerals from the Dead Sea and deposited them onto the cities; according to pottery/stratigraphic evidence this occurred sometime between 1750 and 1650bc.12

​​3. Entry of the Israelites into Egypt: although Joseph, one of the twelve sons of Jacob/Israel (the son of Isaac) was brought to Egypt as a slave, being blessed by God, Pharaoh raised him to second-in-command of all Egypt (Gen. 39:1-2 & 41:39-40).  Through Joseph, God saved His chosen people (and the Egyptians) from starvation during a seven-year famine.  Israel and his household were welcomed to Egypt (Gen. 41:46-57 & 47:1-6).

This would have occurred during the Hyksos period (c.1650–possibly 1522bc​13) ending with Pharaoh Khamudi's reign.  The Hyksos ruled lower (northern) and part of upper (southern) Egypt and were originally from the East (including Canaan).14  Likely only a Hyksos pharaoh would have placed Joseph, who had come from Canaan, as second-in-command (Egyptians considered themselves superior to others15).  Later, a pharaoh arose who did not know Joseph and enslaved the children of Israel (Ex. 1:8-11).

4. Exodus from Egypt: to free the Israelites and enable them to return to the Promised Land, God chose Moses to lead them and then devastated Egypt with ten plagues (Ex. 7:1-4, et al).  Pharaoh finally freed the Israelites, but changed his mind and led his army into the desert in pursuit.  God divided the water of the Red Sea to allow the Israelites to cross, then released it onto pharaoh’s army and chariots, drowning them (Ex. 14:5-9 & 21-28). 

This likely occurred during the reign of Pharaoh Amenhotep III (1391–1353bc or 1386–1349bc).  In the latter part of his rule he stopped the usual pharaonic practice of leading military campaigns throughout Egypt's empire.16  He is known to have led only one—to quell a rebellion in Nubia—in his fifth year.17   There may have been a brief campaign against the Hittites in year 11 (c.1381bc) and he sent troops back to Nubia for a smaller action in year 26.18  Near the end of his reign, Egypt's empire and prosperity fell into a steep decline that continued into those of his successors.19

The ten plagues likely explain why Amenhotep III's son and successor, Pharaoh Akhenaten, initiated the only period of monotheism (worship of one god) in ancient times besides that of the Jews, for God designed them to systematically undermine the polytheism (worship of multiple gods) of Egypt: "The Egyptians will know that I am the Lord" (Ex. 7:5 [in part]).

The tenth plague slew the first-born son of every Egyptian family, including that of pharaoh (Ex. 12:29).  Akhenaten's older brother, Crown Prince Thutmose, is thought by some scholars to have died as an adult during the third decade of Amenhotep III's reign, because he held other titles (High priest of Ptah, Sem-priest, Directer of the Prophets of Upper and Lower Egypt20) and because someone stood in for the heir of Amenhotep III during his 30th regnal year celebrations (c.1361bc); the assumption is that Thutmose had died shortly prior, not allowing time for Akhenaten to be named as successor in his stead.21

However some, if not all, of Crown Prince Thutmose's titles were given honorarily to the heir apparent, and because so little was recorded about him, he was probably only a few years old when he died.22  Also, the mummy of an unidentified, roughly ten-year-old boy was found buried next to Amenhotep III's wife, Tiye,23 whom he had married by the second year of his reign.​​​​24  If Amenhotep was about 12 years old when he came to power, as is widely believed, Thutmose may have been born in the mid-1380s bc and died in the mid-1370s bc.

Arielle Kozloff holds the opinion that Amenhotep III was a little bit older when he ascended to the throne and that he and Tiye married and had Thutmose before his reign began.25  She places Thutmose’s death during a large gap in Amenhotep's otherwise prodigious record keeping (from c.1380 to 1373bc) with Thutmose in his late teens or perhaps twenties.26  This gap period was likely one of plague and pestilence, for among other things, Amenhotep commissioned hundreds of statues of the goddess Sekhmet in an attempt to ward those off and promote healing, and afterward new priests needed to be appointed throughout the land.​27

A temple at Soleb was built in preparation for Amenhotep III's 30th regnal year celebrations; it contains descriptions of lands and peoples that had been allegedly subjugated by him28 (or perhaps these were intended to assure Egyptians that they faced no threat from foreign powers).  Included among the depictions is "Land of the nomads of [God's name as revealed to Moses]".29  As there was no location with this name or anything similar, it could be referring to the early Israelites before they settled in Canaan.30

5. Conquest of Canaan (the Promised Land): over a seven year period the Israelites conquered land east of the Jordan River (because the inhabitants refused to let them pass peaceably) and after God held back the waters of the Jordan to allow them to cross, most of the Promised Land (between the west bank of the Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea) beginning with the destruction of the city of Jericho (Deut. 2:14 & 2:26-3:2; Joshua 3:15-16, 14:6-10 & 24:11). 

Joshua led the initial conquest of the Promised Land (guided by an angel—likely St. Michael the archangel) (Josh. 5:13-16).  God had allowed Moses to look across the Jordan into the Promised Land before he died, but, in punishment for his sins, He had not allowed him to enter (Deut. 32:48-52).  

Scarabs inscribed with Pharaoh Amenhotep III's cartouche were found in tombs at Jericho (Egypt ruled Canaan at the time, though it's power was waning31); Jericho was, therefore, destroyed after Amenhotep III's reign had begun (in c.1391bc32) and, because these devotees had perished and were buried, probably well after.33

Several of the letters that were written by Egypt’s Canaanite vassals to the pharaohs during, or just prior to, the Amarna period begged for help in fighting off attacking Habiru.34  The Amarna period began in c.1346bc when Pharaoh Akhenaten moved his court to the new capital he was constructing at what is now called Amarna.35  It ended sometime after Pharaoh Tutankhamun abandoned Amarna, along with his father's monotheism, in the third or fourth year of his reign (c.1329bc).36  Tutankhamun left behind international correspondence in the form of small, clay cuneiform tablets—the Amarna letters.  Based on the chronology of events described in the Amarna letters, the particular letters in question were probably written in the latter part of this period.37

Habiru was a term meaning "outsiders” and was applied to nomads, fugitives, bandits, and workers of inferior status;38 it became another name for the Israelites.  “All Israelites were Hebrews, but not all Hebrews were Israelites."​​​​​39  These letters describe a severe war in which cities are being lost to the Habiru.40  One from the king of Gezer (located west of Jerusalem) to an unnamed pharaoh captures the mood:

  • I have listened to the words of the messenger of the king, my lord, very carefully.  May the king, my lord, the Sun from the sky, take thought for his land.  Since the 'Apiru (Habiru) are stronger than we, may the king, my lord, give me his help, and may the king, my lord, get me away from the 'Apiru lest the 'Apiru destroy us.​​41

During the Amarna period Egypt lacked enough troops to stop such aggression,42 and only afterward did the pharaohs resume the practice of leading troops into the field that had been halted under Amenhotep III.43  According to the Bible, Egypt's army had still not recovered from the incident at the Red Sea when the Israelites entered the Promised Land (Deut. 11:4).

6. Kings Solomon and Rehoboam:

(a) The Israelites never took Gezer, choosing instead to accept tribute from the city.  When a few centuries later a pharaoh did arrive, he did not come to protect it:

  • Pharaoh the king of Egypt came up and took Gezer, and burnt it with fire, and slew the Cananite that dwelt in the city, and gave it for a dowry to his daughter, [King] Solomon’s wife.  So Solomon built Gezer, and Beth-horon the lower … and all the towns that belonged to himself, and were not walled, he fortified.

(III Kings [I Kings] 9:16-19 [in part]).

Among the discoveries at Gezer is a layer of destruction that dates to sometime between 1097 and 999bc (testing is from the southern part of the city only).44  This is followed by fortification construction that began between 1023 and 942bc and is notably different from prior levels, pointing to a political change in the city.45  These results are from Carbon-14 [C-14] testing with a 95.4% probability.

(b) After ruling over Israel for 40 years, Solomon was laid to rest.  In the first year of his son (Rehoboam)'s reign that kingdom came to an end when, due to abuses on both their parts, the ten northern tribes, led by Jeroboam, split from the tribes of Judah and Benjamin (III Kings [I Kings] 11:42-43 & 12:18-21). 

Four years later, in punishment for Jerusalem’s sins, God allowed Pharaoh Shishak to raid the kingdom of Judah.  After taking strong cities, he marched on Jerusalem.  The city repented, so God caused him to spare it, though he took the treasures of the temple and the palace and the golden shields that King Solomon had commissioned (III Kings [I Kings] 14:25-26; II Chron. 12:2-9).  Shishak may have known about this wealth in advance, having harbored the rebellious Jeroboam from Solomon's wrath in the last years of Solomon's reign (III Kings [I Kings] 11:40).

Pharaoh Shoshenq I ruled Egypt from c.945bc till his death in c.924bc.46  His name was often inscribed as Shoshek.47  Because hieroglyphics has no vowels, it is identical to that of the biblical Shishak.  Near the end of his reign he led a successful campaign into Israel that may correspond to another layer of destruction at Gezer (which lies on the route to Jerusalem) dating to sometime between 991 and 930bc (C-14 testing with a 95.4% probability and a possible leeway of 10–20 years given the limited number of measurements).48  In the four years following Shoshenq (Shishak) I's death, his son, Osorkon I, bestowed a mega fortune in gold and silver upon Egypt's temples, at least 383 tons.​​​​49

In conclusion, this Old Testament timeline contains the prophets Elijah and Jonah due to their importance to the New, as well as the Old, Testament.  Elijah came with Moses to converse with Jesus at His Transfiguration about His own upcoming exodus.  While they had ceased living on Earth long before they met with Christ, there is no reason to doubt that they were both physically present.  Elijah had been taken up alive to heaven in a whirlwind (IV Kings [II Kings] 2:11) and, sometime after Moses' death, St. Michael the archangel had retrieved his body (Jude 1:9).  Jonah is included because Christ drew comparisons between Himself and Jonah, who had also been willing to sacrifice his life to save others (Jonah 1:12). 

by Mark A. Calhoun

Composed: 2024