Antiquities 8.3.1 vs 1 Kings 5:1

[Andrew Gabriel Roth]

Shlama all--

Here is a curious question. I was reading in Josephus just now and i randomly opened up to Antiquities 8.3.1. In it Josephus says that Solomon began building the Temple, not 480 years after the Exodus as 1 Kings 6:1 says, but 592 years after this time.

Looking at other chronological info he gives, it seems pretty clear to me that Josephus doesn't place Solomon's reign a century after he is established to have ruled in Tanakh. That being the case, and owing to Josephus' own lineage from being a descendant of preists and kings, it made me wonder: Could it be that Josephus has linked together the Hyksos expusion and the Exodus of the Hebrews as the same event? I wonder this because 592 years from 967 BCE (Solomon's fourth year) brings us to about 1559 BCE, which is roughly contemporaneous with the final expulsion of the Hyksos and the end of the Second Intermediate period.

Or is there another explanation for the 112 year variance?

Any ideas?

[yaaqubyl]

Shlama akhi,

Interesting. Are you familiar with Ahmed Osman's writings detailing the "New Chronology"? I don't take stock in all of his opinions and theories but he does bring out some interesting points related to chronology.

[Andrew Gabriel Roth]

Shlama Akhi Yaquub,

No, sorry, never heard of the guy. But I have heard of some others who have come up with some interesting alternative history. One guy who now does a show on History International called "The Naked Archaelogist" did a really interesting special 2 years ago called "Exodus Decoded". I didn't agree with everything he said, but this was one of his stronger points, about Ahmose and what he viewed as Hyksos/Haibru. Highly controversial linkage to be sure and we may never figure it out totally, but I am for anything that promotes an early Exodus as study point. There is no way Rameses the Great was the pharaoh of the Exodus. My vote is Thutmoses III, not only because he ruled at the right time but his personality fits the bliblical description, AND HE IS THE ONLY PHARAOH THAT WE KNOW OF WHO DIED OF DROWNING. Kent Weeks found the remains of seawater in the guy's lungs in 1970, and we know his first born did not survive to ascend to the throne.

But I digress, and really want opinions rather than giving mine. Where did the 112 years go, or if one is right and the other wrong, how is that? Can they both be right in a way?