8. (a) How are the years reckoned back to the Exodus? (b) What change affects Bible chronology about this time?

⁸ From 997 B.C.E. to 1513 B.C.E. Since the last of Solomon’s 40 full regnal years ended in the spring of 997 B.C.E., it follows that his first regnal year must have commenced in the spring of 1037 B.C.E. (1 Ki. 11:42) The Bible record, at 1 Kings 6:1, says that Solomon began to build the house of Jehovah in Jerusalem in the second month of the fourth year of his reign. This means three full years and one complete month of his reign had elapsed, bringing us to April-May of 1034 B.C.E. for the start of the temple building. However, the same scripture states that this was also “the four hundred and eightieth year after the sons of Israel came out from the land of Egypt.” Again, 480th is an ordinal number, representing 479 complete years. Hence, 479 added to 1034 gives the date 1513 B.C.E. as the year that Israel came out of Egypt. Paragraph 19 of Study 2 explains that from the year 1513 B.C.E., Abib (Nisan) was to be reckoned as “the first of the months of the year” for Israel (Ex. 12:2) and that previously a year beginning in the autumn, with the month Tishri, had been followed. The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, 1957, Vol. 12, page 474, comments: “The reckoning of the regnal years of the kings is based upon the year which began in the spring, and is parallel to the Babylonian method in which this prevailed.” Whenever the change of beginning the year in the autumn to beginning the year in the spring began to be applied to periods of time in the Bible, this would involve a loss or gain of six months somewhere in the counting of time.

9. (a) How is the record dated back to when the Abrahamic covenant went into effect? (b) How are the first 215 years of this period accounted for? (c) How old was Abraham when he crossed the Euphrates on his way to Canaan?

⁹ From 1513 B.C.E. to 1943 B.C.E. At Exodus 12:40, 41, Moses records that “the dwelling of the sons of Israel, who had dwelt in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years.” From the above wording, it is apparent that not all this “dwelling” was in Egypt. This time period begins with Abraham’s crossing of the Euphrates on his way to Canaan, at which time Jehovah’s covenant with Abraham went into effect. The first 215 years of this “dwelling” was in Canaan, and then an equal period was spent in Egypt, until Israel became completely independent of all Egyptian control and dependency, in 1513 B.C.E.c The New World Translation footnote on Exodus 12:40 shows that the Greek Septuagint, which is based on a Hebrew text older than the Masoretic, adds, after the word “Egypt,” the words “and in the land of Canaan.” The Samaritan Pentateuch does similarly. Galatians 3:17, which also mentions the 430 years, confirms that this period started with the validating of the Abrahamic covenant, at the time that Abraham crossed the Euphrates on his way to Canaan. This was therefore in 1943 B.C.E., when Abraham was 75 years old.​—Gen. 12:4.