Exodus Date Testifies of Christ

The Exodus account includes detailed patterns which testify of its precise date and that Jesus Christ was the Messiah whom Moses typified.

The date of the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt at the time of Moses has been a subject of uncertainty and controversy for centuries. The Bible indicates that it was about 1400-1500 BC but many modern scholars have placed it about 1200 BC based on Egyptian chronology. Thus, even the century in which it occurred has been uncertain.

This article continues the chronology begun in the last three of this series^[1], employing sacred calendars to pinpoint the date of the Exodus to the very day. Sacred patterns are then used to witness that this date is correct. More importantly, however, those patterns testify that Jesus Christ was the promised Messiah including symbolism even of his birth date. In order to understand the significance of those patterns, let us briefly review the order and timing of events of the Exodus.

The Exodus from Egypt

Some time before the birth of Abraham’s sons the Lord gave him the land of Canaan for an inheritance for his descendants. When Abraham became concerned that he still had no children, the Lord explained that this would all take time. Abraham was told his descendants would spend 400 years in servitude in another country, and that only then, when the iniquity of the local Canaanites was full, would his descendants return in the fourth generation to possess the land ^[2].

When Abraham’s grandson Jacob, who was renamed Israel, was 130 years old, he took his 70 descendants to Egypt to survive a famine. They included his son Levi, and Levi’s son Kohath ^[3]. At first they lived in peace, but later the Israelites found themselves in bondage. After an unspecified amount of time, Kohath’s grandson Moses ^[4] was called by the Lord to deliver the Israelites. When Moses was 80, he went with his brother Aaron to plead with Pharaoh for the freedom of the Israelites ^[5]. When Pharaoh repeatedly refused, Egypt was plagued many times by the Lord, culminating with the deaths of all the firstborn of Egypt on the night of the first Passover. The next day about two million Israelites left with the spoils of Egypt, exactly 430 years to the very day since the sojourn of Israel had begun ^[6]. Three days after that Exodus, the Pharaoh reconsidered and led his army to bring them back. The escapees were overtaken at the Red Sea, which was divided by a great wind all night at the command of Moses. The Israelites crossed the sea safely the next day on dry land, but the Egyptians were drowned when they pursued, as the waters closed over them.

Exactly one month after they left, they arrived at the wilderness of Sin and were out of food ^[7]. Beginning the next day, the Lord provided manna, a miraculous food which appeared on the ground each morning for six days, with a double portion on the sixth ^[8] and then none appearing on the seventh ^[9], when they were commanded to rest. That proof of God’s providing for them continued for forty years, so that the rising generation had a weekly reminder of the existence of God ^[10].

On the first day of the next month they reached the foot of Mr. Sinai ^[11]. The Lord soon commanded Moses to have all the people prepare for two days so that they could see the cloud descend onto the mount and hear his voice for themselves ^[12]. They did so and on the morning of the third day, there was thunder and lightning, fire and smoke, and they heard the terrifying voice of a trumpet give a long and loud blast. Then they all heard the voice of God revealing the Ten Commandments, a covenant between Israel and God ^[13]. The people all accepted with one voice the words of the Lord as a covenant and Moses set up twelve pillars, sacrificed animals, and sprinkled the “blood of the covenant” onto the people so they could never forget the importance of the Ten Commandments ^[14]. Then seventy of the elders of Israel ascended the mount with Moses and Aaron and were allowed to actually see God ^[15].

After everyone heard the terrifying voice of God, they feared death if the were to hear or see more. They asked Moses to return to the mountain to get more laws, which they promised in advance that they would obey ^[16]. The dark cloud continued to cover the mountain top for six days, and on the seventh God called Moses up the mountain where he remained forty days ^[17]. During that time the people feared he had died, somehow forgot their covenant, and convinced Aaron to make a golden calf to worship. On the mountain, God gave Moses many laws, including detailed instructions on how to build a tabernacle and to perform priestly ordinances. At the end of forty days, God presented Moses with two stone tablets with the Ten Commandments engraved on them by his own hand ^[18]. When Moses descended down the mountain and saw that the people had so quickly broken their covenant by worshipping an idol of gold, he broke the tablets, destroyed the calf, and had all those who would stand with the Lord slay some three thousand of those who would not. Then he had the people reconsecrate themselves to the Lord.

The next day ^[19] Moses ascended the mount again to plead for forgiveness for his people. The Lord accepted his petition and at the end of forty more days on the mount told him to descend the mount and to return the very next day with two blank stone tablets and a box to protect them ^[20]. This Moses did, and the Lord again wrote the Ten Commandments on the tablets ^[21]. Moses stayed on the mount another forty days ^[22], during which he received more laws. When he descended, his face glowed so brightly that it was covered as a courtesy to onlookers ^[23].

The next five months were spent building the tabernacle as instructed. On the eighth day after the high priest Aaron had donned his garments, the tabernacle was raised on the first day (1 Nisan) of the next year ^[24].

Late in the following summer, when they approached the land of their inheritance, 12 men were sent to spy out the land. After forty days they returned, with ten of them concluding that even God could not overcome the opposing forces. In response, the Lord then decreed that the host were condemned to spend forty years in the wilderness, one year for each day of their trip, until everyone except the two who brought a good report had died off ^[25].

Very little is recorded about the next 38 years ^[26], but then the record goes into detail about the entire 40th and last year in the wilderness. Events that year included smiting the rock to bring forth water when Moses forgot to give the Lord credit ^[27], the brazen serpent on the pole ^[28], the prophecy of Balaam ^[29], the writing of the Book of Deuteronomy ^[30], and the translation of Moses at age 120 ^[31].^[32]

The forty years expired almost immediately after the one-month mourning for Moses ^[33]. Joshua then led the children of Israel into the promised land. It was done miraculously when he parted the Jordan River waters and they passed over into Canaan on the day 10 Nisan, being the first month of the 41st year of the Exodus ^[34]. On that same day, all the men were circumcised ^[35]. Then they kept the Passover and on the following morning the manna ceased ^[36].

Dating the Exodus

When did all of these wonderful events happen? The traditional methods of dating have left an uncertainty of about three centuries, from 1500 – 1200 BC. How could the spread of possible dates be so vast? It is because researchers assign very different confidence levels to different sources. Before proceeding to my proposed dating method, let us briefly review the traditional methods.

Traditional Dating Methods

There are four principal methods to date the Exodus, none of which claims to be precise. Three methods are based on trusting in the Biblical account, and the fourth is to use Egyptian chronology. Let us look briefly at each.

400-year Bondage. The Lord told Abraham that his descendants would be in bondage 400 years^[37]. Using that statement to date the Exodus requires knowing when Abraham lived (we saw the 60-year uncertainty in last month’s article), on knowing if the Lord meant exactly 400 years or about four centuries, and on knowing the beginning point. The obvious starting point is when Jacob (Israel) entered Egypt, but that has serious problems. Moses is the grandson of Kohath, who entered Egypt with Jacob. How could one man and his grandson’s life span 400 years? These people all lived over a century, but one can only stretch the numbers so far. Kohath lived 133 years, his son Amram lived 137 years, and his son Moses was 80 at the time of the Exodus ^[38]. If both Amram and Moses were born when their fathers died, there are only a maximum of 350 years (133 + 137 + 80) available for the Egyptian bondage.

Thus, there is no researcher today known to me who believes the bondage literally lasted 400 years.^[39] One solution is to try to find an earlier point to start reckoning from. Perhaps the most popular choice is to start when Abraham left Haran at age 75 ^[40]. That requires really stretching what the Lord said because Abraham had the vision several years after he left, and he was not in bondage, nor was his son Isaac. It was 215 years from when Abraham was 75 until Jacob was 130, his age at entering Egypt, so that would cut the stay in Egypt to 185 years.

But 185 years is too short a time because when the Israelites left they counted over 600,000 adult men ^[41]. Allowing for women and children, we’d expect that to mean about 2,000,000 people. They only had 70 when they entered ^[42], so now the problem is that the growth rate seems impossibly large.

A more typical solution is to choose the birth of Isaac as the starting point of the bondage, which results in a 210-year stay in Egypt. That is adopted in the Book of Jasher ^[43]. That implies a 5% population growth rate per year, which is much higher than today’s maximum of 3.5% found in Arab countries, but it is not inconceivable.^[44] But now the problem is that we have juggled the years so much to get a reasonable answer that we’ve totally ignored what the Lord told Abraham.

430-year Sojourn. A more promising scripture is one that tries to communicate something very precise about the date of the Exodus. The Exodus was 430 years to the very day from the beginning of the sojourn of Israel ^[45], whatever that means.

We’ve already seen that even 400 years is too long for the sojourn in Egypt, but fortunately some versions of the Bible say the sojourn refers to both the stay in Canaan and Egypt.^[46] Now the question is, where is the starting point? The quick answer is to note that the 215 years from Abraham’s entering Canaan to Israel entering Egypt equals just half of 430. Thus, one can conclude that there were 215 years in Canaan and 215 years in Egypt. That was a popular interpretation at the time of Christ, and was implied by the apostle Paul ^[47], and explicitly stated by the ancient Jewish historian Josephus: “They left Egypt … 430 years after our forefather Abraham came into Canaan, but 215 years only after Jacob removed into Egypt.”^[48] Thus, again reasonable numbers have been obtained by ignoring what the scripture said, which mentioned nothing at all about Abraham.

Temple in 480th year. The Bible states that King Solomon began to build the temple in the 480th year of the Exodus ^[49]. So one approach is to work backward from the time of the kings of Judah and Israel. That is what is done in most Bible chronologies which place the beginning of the temple in 1012 BC and the Exodus 479 years earlier in 1491 BC. This is probably the best traditional dating method because it doesn’t make unwarranted assumptions about starting points of ambiguous prophecies. On the other hand, it is fraught with uncertainties in the dates of the kings which were calculated backwards from the well-established fall of Jerusalem in 587 B.C. But as can be seen from the “Revised Chronology” in the L.D.S. Bible Dictionary under “Chronology”, there is at least a 22-year difference between different options. If correct, the Revised Chronology would move the Exodus up to 1469 BC. But if the uncertainty is only a decade or so, most people would feel that was adequate accuracy.

Egyptian Chronology. Another approach is to trust other chronologies more than the Bible, especially those of Egypt. It has been very difficult to find any description of the plagues of Egypt in a time period that has seemed acceptable and many scholars have concluded that the Exodus occurred about 1200 BC. There is little reason to believe Egyptian chronology because it is based on lists of kings rather then recorded astronomical observations. Moreover, it is strongly suspect because it places the founding of Egypt before 3000 BC and the evidence for the Great Flood occurring in 2343 BC is now compelling. If Egypt was founded after the Flood ^[50], then those dates are indeed off by centuries. In any case, the ages in Egypt are in such chaos that it’s not worthwhile to seek for a firm foundation there. The Bible is much more accurate.

The Exodus Date

Of the four traditional dating methods, I pick the 430-year interval for the reason that we have seen in the last articles that 430 years is a Venus realignment cycle with the Hebrew Calendar, accurate to the very day, just as Exodus claims.
Now the question is, what was the starting point of the interval? We have seen that it cannot be the time that Israel entered Egypt because they couldn’t have been in Egypt more than 350 years. Let us read exactly what the scripture states, and look for a hidden meaning:

Now the sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years.
And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the selfsame day it came to pass, that all the hosts of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt. ^[51]

What if the meaning is, “Now when Israel and his descendants had lived four hundred and thirty years, on that very day, all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt.” In other words, it is telling us that the day on which they left Egypt was Jacob’s 430th birthday. Others have suggested that Jacob’s birth is the right date to reckon from, without realizing that the verse actually is indicating to do just that.^[52]

The birth of Jacob is a perfect starting place, because we saw in last month’s article that it was on Passover, and also on 1 Birth on the Venus calendar, a unique date in history. Reckoning exactly 430 Hebrew years later brings us to Thu 9 Apr 1462 BC as the (Passover) date of the Exodus. As we shall see there is much supporting evidence that that is the correct date.

Parting the Red Sea

And what about the Venus cycle? When does the day 1 Birth fall, and is it a holy day on the Hebrew calendar? We have seen that such only occurs rarely, but that it is possible. In this case, the day 1 Birth falls on Tue 14 Apr 1462 BC, the evening of which begins the Last Day of Passover on the Hebrew Calendar. According to Hebrew tradition, that is the holy day on which the wind blew all night, parting the Red Sea. So here we have a double bulls-eye: the 430 years to the very day brings us to the Exodus, and the Venus calendar brings us to the parting of the Red Sea. Thus, let us propose that the Exodus occurred on Thu 9 Apr 1462 BC and that the wind parted the Red Sea on Tue 14 Apr 1462 BC pm*, where pm* refers to the last 6 hours of the day.

How can we know if these dates are correct? The Lord has assured us that he will always provide patterns so that we may know the truth of all things ^[53]. Let us now look at several patterns which are explicitly stated in the Biblical account which testify that this date is correct.

Patterns of Proof

The account of the Exodus is replete with so many patterns that only the correct date will fit all of the patterns. Let us look at several of these.

Sabbath Pattern

Perhaps the strongest calendrical pattern the Lord really emphasized in this account is that of the 7 day sabbath cycle. He was introducing the Israelites to the concept of working for 6 days and resting on the seventh. He used one incredibly strong teaching technique, which would serve to bring up an entire generation for 40 years with a weekly miraculous proof the there is a God. If he were still doing this today, there would be very few atheists. He sent down a daily ration of bread from heaven each day for six straight days from Sunday to Friday, with a double dose on Friday, and then none on Saturdays. If they tried to store that “manna” even for one day, it would rot, except that it never rotted on the Saturday sabbath. Try explaining that away as an anomalous weather pattern. If you actually saw that happen for forty years straight, and then have it cease as soon as you entered the promised land, you would have a sure knowledge that there was a God watching over you. Now let us look at how the pattern fits into the story.

Thursday Exodus. One result of the pattern is the Exodus must have occurred on a Thursday. That is because the manna first appeared 31 days after the Exodus, and it must have begun on a Sunday because it began the 7-day cycle. Counting back 31 days from a Sunday results in a Thursday. Thus, 1462 BC qualifies as a possible Exodus year because Passover occurred on a Thursday that year.

Manna, Christ and Easter. The Savior made it clear that he is the bread of life, and that manna symbolized his coming down from heaven ^[54]. Thus, we might expect the pattern that the day on which the manna began and ended might symbolize Christ’s birth and resurrection, respectively. We are told both manna dates precisely. In this proposed series of dates, the manna began on the day 16 Iyar (second month) on the Hebrew calendar which was Sun 10 May 1462 BC. That day was also Easter Sunday on the Enoch Fixed calendar. That is also the day associated with the birth of Christ on that calendar because it was the day on which he was taken to the temple on the fortieth day after his birth. Moreover, that morning was the beginning of the priest cycle of 168 days.

The day on which the manna stopped was the day after Passover after they had entered the promised land. That was Easter Sunday on the Hebrew Calendar (and our calendar), the day of the waving of the shear offering. That day, Sun 18 Apr 1422 BC, was also the same day on the priest cycle on which the Savior resurrected. Thus, there is a double witness of Easters and of the priest cycle that the manna symbolized Jesus Christ and that these dates are correct.

Ten Commandments on Firstfruits Sunday. There are two indications that the Ten Commandments were given on a Sunday. First, the Lord told the Israelites to prepare for two days and on the morning of the third day a long blast on the trump would herald the coming of the Lord. That is very reminiscent of the many times the Savior said he would rise on the third day from his death. As has been extensively shown in my articles, the Savior died on Friday and resurrected on Sunday morning. Moreover, the long and loud blast on the trump is associated with the resurrection ^[55]. Thus we might expect that the morning of the third day was a Sunday morning. The other indication that it was a Sunday is that Mt.Sinai was enveloped in smoke and clouds for six days beginning on the day of the Ten Commandments. Then it cleared and Moses was called up into the mountain on the seventh day. Again, six days of darkness followed by a sacred call on the seventh sounds a lot like a week.

Thus, it is proposed that the Ten Commandments were given on the morning of the Sunday after the arrival at Mount Sinai. That day was Sun 31 May 1462 BC, being Firstfruits on the Hebrew calendar. Even the fact that the Bible explicitly states that it was in the morning was important, because that part of the day coincided with the Priestly day of 1 Seorim, which name means “grain” and which corresponds to the offering of the wheat at Firstfruits, also known as Pentecost. As a confirming witness, note that on the Day of Pentecost after the Savior’s Resurrection, the priest from this same course was presiding.^[56]

Firstfruits Always on Sunday. Firstfruits, also known as Pentecost or the Feast of Weeks, is always held exactly seven weeks after the Sheaf Offering or Waving of the Sheaf ^[57]. There is an apparent ambiguity in the scriptural instructions of just when to hold the Sheaf Offering, which in turn leads to the same uncertainty in the date of Firstfruits. At the time of Christ the Pharisees always held the Sheaf Offering on the second day of Passover (16 Nisan), and hence Firstfruits seven weeks later on 6 Sivan. But the Sadducees held the Sheaf Offering on the Sunday morning after Passover (15 Nisan), so it fell some time from 16-22 Nisan. Accordingly, Firstfruits for the Sadducees was always on the Sunday from 6-12 Sivan.

In my first articles, I had no clue which of the two interpretations was right, because the Savior’s resurrection fell on a day when both were correct: Sun 3 Apr AD 33 was both a Sunday and also 16 Nisan.^[58] This is the first historical date which clearly shows which of the two interpretations is correct because Firstfruits clearly fell on a Sunday, but it was not 6 Sivan, but rather 8 Sivan. Accordingly, it follows that the Sadducees had the correct interpretation: both the Sheaf Offering and Firstfruits are to be celebrated on Sunday. That differs from the modern Hebrew calendar, which followed the tradition of the Pharisees that Firstfruits is always on 6 Sivan.

Hebrew Easter. Henceforth my articles shall refer to the Sheaf Offering as the “Hebrew Easter” for several reasons. First, the symbolism of offering the firstfruits from the ground is so clearly symbolic of the Savior’s resurrection ^[59] that there is no need to veil the meaning any longer. Second, I make comparisons of dates side-by-side in columns and it is much easier to see the similarity if the same name is used as on other calendars. Finally, and ironically, the formula developed long ago to determine the Christian date of Easter, which was purposely designed so that Easter could never fall on the Jewish Passover, but instead would fall on the Sunday after Passover, turns out to be exactly the correct method for determining the Sheaf Offering.

Resurrection on the Eighth Day. Why do Christians worship on Sunday rather than Saturday? As is well known, it is because the Savior resurrected on Sunday. But was there any special reason that the Savior chose Sunday on which to resurrect? Might he have resurrected on Tuesday? The apostle Barnabas answered that question for us in a book no longer in the Bible. He explained that even as the earth’s temporal existence will be seven one-thousand year days, after which it will be resurrected, so also the Savior resurrected on the eighth day of the week ^[60].^[61] Of course, the eighth day of the week is the same as the first, Sunday, but it is important for us to understand that the symbolism really refers to the eighth day.

Tabernacle Raised. There was one event during the Exodus that seems clearly to refer to the “eighth day” symbolism of the resurrection. The Lord instructed Aaron to begin priestly duties on the day 23 Adar (the twelfth month) and then to “raise the tabernacle” on the eighth day, which was the same as New Year’s Day, 1 Nisan. Raising the tabernacle certainly seems symbolic of raising the body at resurrection, and we even see the eighth day being the same as the first day explicitly stated. According to the results of this article, that symbolism was fulfilled because the day 1 Nisan in the second year of the Exodus fell on Sun 13 Mar 1461 BC. Not only did the year begin on Sunday, which is unusual, but the Priestly course associated with that morning was the same as on the morning of the Resurrection of the Savior. The combination of both only occurs once every 264 years.

40-Day Pattern

The interval of forty days is mentioned four times in the account of the Exodus. Many commentators have noticed this and usually conclude that it is mentioned so often that it must refer to some unit of time like the month, which may or may not actually mean exactly 40 days. That certainly is logical, but they never tell us just what that period of time was called or who ever used it. There is no record I know of that the Israelites used a 40-day interval in their time keeping. So who used it? Reading the scriptures carefully make it clear that it is God who uses the 40-day count. Moreover, he tends to mean exactly forty days when he uses it. Moreover, it was used by the Native Americans as included in the Sacred Round. Let us briefly review that interval so see how it exactly fits in all four patterns of this account.

The 40-Day Short Step. The Sacred Round is designed to count days by forties. It employs two simultaneous counts: the trecena of 13 days in which days are numbered consecutively from 1 to 13, and the vientena of 20 days in which each day is assigned a picture. The vientena begins with the picture Light, followed by Wind, and then Temple. The cycle begins on the day 1 Light, followed by the day 2 Wind, and then 3 Temple, because both cycles advance independently of each other. After forty days, where is the count? The trecena has advanced by 3 cycles of 13 days plus one, so it is on day number 2. The vientena has advanced by exactly 2 cycles of 20, so it is again on the day Light. So forty days after the day 1 Light comes the day 2 Light. Forty days later is 3 Light. Thus, these cycles automatically count by 40-day increments. That unit of time was well known to the Native Americans, but to the best of my knowledge was unknown to the Israelites. The Native Americans referred to it as the “foot” or as the “step” because it was said that God stepped off the universe in these units at the Creation. The evidence in this paper strongly supports that belief. Following their lead, I will refer to the 40-day unit of time as the “short step,” anticipating that we shall also see the need for a longer step.

Three Short Steps. Moses was on the mountain for three sets of forty days. He descended at the end of each, but the scripture makes in clear that after the first two descents that he went up again the next day. On his first descent he destroyed the golden calf, on the second he hewed two stone tablets to replace those he broke, and when he descended the last time, his face glowed so brightly that his face was covered with a veil. Thus, he was on the mountain for 120 consecutive days, or three short steps.

So what is that all about? It was the Lord who called him on the first day and determined the timing of the whole process. To understand what it might mean, let us remember that the Lord told Moses he counts one year to a day ^[62]. Moses lived 120 years, and at the end he was translated which might correspond to his glowing as he descended the mount. Could those 120 days have been a miniature representation of his life?

Moses was 80 years old when he went to Pharaoh, which could correspond to the second descent after 80 days from the mount, so that fits perfectly. Did anything occur when Moses was 40 years old that might correspond to the end of the first 40-day short step? The speech which Stephen gave before his stoning stated that Moses was 40 years old when he killed the Egyptian, which precipitated his leaving Egypt ^[63]. If that is correct,^[64] then we have a perfect pattern match and Moses ascending Mt. Sinai might well have represented his life in miniature (see Table 1).

So what dates on our calendar do they correspond to? The Bible gives the precise date that God called Moses up to the mountain. It was on the seventh day after the six days that dark clouds covered Sinai. The first day of clouds was Firstfruits, Sun 31 May 1462 BC. The following sabbath began on Fri 5 Jun 1462 BC pm*. That was the day 1 Jaguar on the Sacred Round. The Jaguar most likely symbolizes the Aaronic Priesthood, so that seems appropriate. Forty days later was the day 2 Jaguar, one more short step is 3 Jaguar, and the day he finally descended from the mount was 4 Jaguar. That day was Sat 3 Oct 1462 BC, which was also the feast of Tabernacles on both the Hebrew and Enoch calendars. This is an amazingly perfect fit, starting from a date which is specified to the very day in the account. The fact that the 120 days corresponds to three short steps on the Sacred Round, both began and ended on the sabbath, and culminated in a double Feast of Tabernacles on the day representing his translation is much more than we could have hoped for to witness that we have the Exodus date correct.

Transfiguration of Jesus Christ. One striking calendrical witness of Jesus Christ is the similarities of the dates of the transfiguration of Moses compared to the transfiguration of Jesus Christ. Jesus also ascended a mountain and was transfigured such that his face glowed like the sun ^[65], which was just what happened to Moses. When did that happen? It was clearly associated with the feast of Tabernacles because the apostles asked if they should prepare tabernacles for Moses and Elijah which is appropriate on that day. On the other hand, it seems to be associated with the day of Atonement because the voice of God was heard to declare, “This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him,” just as it was heard on the day of Atonement when Jesus was baptized ^[66]. There is exactly one date which meets both criteria, and which was holy on all seven sacred calendars, just as was the Savior’s baptism date. The Savior’s transfiguration must have occurred on the afternoon of Sat 2 Oct AD 32 which was 10 Tishri (Atonement on Hebrew), 14 Autumn (Tabernacles on both the Enoch and Enoch Fixed calendars), 0 Adult on both the Mercury and Venus calendars, 13 Light on the Sacred Round (13 symbolizing culmination and Light symbolizing brilliance), and the first day of a new Priest cycle. Thus, both the transfiguration of Moses and of Christ occurred on double Feast of Tabernacle days, as summarized in the following table.

Mercury’s 39-day Gestation. The planet Mercury disappears for about 35 days when it is on the far side of the sun, which corresponds on its calendar to the 39-day interval between its conception on the day 1 Creation and its birth on 1 Birth. In past articles we have seen that many times, a single 40-day period often corresponds to the forty days beginning on 1 Creation and ending on 1 Birth. This is especially true when the interval corresponds to a birth-like event, such as the Savior being presented at the temple on the fortieth day after his birth, when he fasted for forty days after his (birth-like) baptism, and the forty days of rain at the rebirth of the earth at its baptism. There was another 40-day period during the Flood, being from when the waters abated (150 days after the rain stopped) until when the raven was released ^[67]. Noah was probably not aware of either of these periods, but the Lord was. According to the chronology in these articles, that 40-day period was from Sat 24 May 2342 BC pm* until Thu 3 Jul 2342 BC. On the Lord’s calendars the water abated on the day 1 Water and the raven was released on 2 Water. Again, that is a perfect alignment with the Sacred Round short step (Water being the symbol of baptism) of dates that are given to the very day in Genesis. Genesis is definitely not a bunch of campfire stories, but an inspired document that only God could have written.

Returning to the Exodus account, the 40-day spying episode fits this pattern perfectly. This time we are not told the exact day it started, probably because Moses didn’t keep track of that. (In these articles, I take the position that Genesis could only have been pure revelation from God to Moses, whereas the other four books of Moses contain many revelations from God, but also the words of Moses.) I don’t believe that a 40-day trip was planned because there is no evidence that the Israelites knew of any 40-day period. But the Lord knew it was exactly forty days and made a point that it was symbolic of the forty years they would be in the wilderness. Thus we might expect the period to tie to the Mercury cycle even as the forty years could be a Mercury/Venus realignment interval.

We know when the spying trip began to within about a month, and when we check there, we find an ideal interval with other witnesses that it is correct. Those dates are summarized in the following table along with similar 40-day dates related to the birth of Mercury, and the short step.

A confirmation that the spying dates are correct is that the ending date is also 1 Creation on the Venus calendar, so that the two dates are just the reverse of the dates at the parting of the Red Sea. Now we will see yet another witness of the correctness of all of these dates as we look at the entrance into Canaan after the forty years had expired.

40-Year Pattern

Mercury/Venus/Year Realignment. The Exodus was followed by a 40-year period, which we have seen in past articles is a Mercury/Venus realignment interval with the solar year.^[68] That means that after an interval a few days short of forty years (14,599 days) the mean positions of both Mercury and Venus are within one day of exactly repeating. Because the Venus and Mercury calendars are both aligned with the 13-day count, and because that interval is an exact multiple of 13, that means the Sacred Round fits very well with both the Mercury and Venus cycles. But notice that the repetition has nothing to do with the Hebrew calendar. If the first day of the interval happens also to be a Hebrew holy day, there is very little chance that the last day will be a Hebrew holy day too.

Entering Canaan. Now let us consider the 40-year period in the wilderness. The beginning date on the Venus/Mercury calendars was the Red Sea Parting: Tue 14 Apr 1462 BC, 1 Birth (Venus), 1 Creation (Mercury). Looking 14,599 days later brings us to Sat 3 Apr 1422 BC, 1 Birth (Venus), 1 Creation (Mercury). Was that day a Hebrew holy day? Yes, in this case, it turns out it was 1 Nisan, New Year’s Day. But that date is even more impressive because it is also 1 Light, the first day of the Sacred Round. Thus, it was a triple “beginning” date, being the first day of the cycle on the Hebrew, Sacred Round, and Mercury calendars. Moreover, it was Passover on the Enoch calendar, and began a Priestly week, so it was holy on six of the seven sacred calendars.

How often does such a triple start date occur? New Year’s Day will occur on 1 Light about once every 260 years, and that day would be also 1 Creation (Mercury) one time in nine, or once in 2,340 years. Doing a computer search for all such dates in history verifies that expectation: there were only 3 dates in 7,000 years on which those three calendars had their first days coincide during daylight hours. So just for those three calendars, the entry date into Canaan was a rare date indeed. But if we were also to specify that the date must be either 1 Birth (Venus) or Passover (Enoch), then it would be the only such day in history, and it was both of those. Such a day only occurs once in 14,300 years so it is amazing that the one such date in history just happened to fall precisely to the day at the end of forty years from the crossing of the Red Sea. And of course the triple “beginning” symbolism was ideal because it was the beginning of Israel’s inheritance of the land promised their Father Abraham many centuries previous. The hand of God in designing these calendars becomes more apparent with every date analyzed. And it becomes clear that the solar system did not just happen by chance, but was designed to be a huge timepiece to visualize this incredibly intricate set of calendars.

The 40-Year Long Step. As this article was nearing completion, it was discovered that the same magic that works for counting the 40-day short step with the Sacred Round also works for counting years. Moreover, it works simultaneously for counting with both the Venus and Mercury calendars. This discovery of Thu 2 Oct 2003^[69] opens up an entirely new aspect of the Sacred Round and Venus and Mercury calendars, allowing extended periods to be reckoned in sets of forty years, which thing I never had supposed. It also led to the discovery that same day of probably the best scientific witness yet that Moses typified Christ and that Christ was born during the night preceding Thu 6 Apr 1 BC.

We saw above that the Venus and Mercury calendars realign after forty years. In particular, beginning with the Red Sea Parting day 1 Wind, 1 Birth (Venus), and 1 Creation (Mercury), after forty years we come to 1 Light, 1 Birth (V), 1 Creation (M). What was the very next day? It was 2 Wind, 2 Birth (V), 2 Creation (M). In a manner exactly analogous to the definition of the short step, we can now define a “long step” to be a period of exactly 14,600 days, which can be used as a precise interval to measure time. That is, one long step after 1 Wind is 2 Wind, and another long step brings one to 3 Wind, in a manner exactly analogous to the short step. How long will such steps also keep aligned with both Mercury and Venus? Under the best starting conditions they could keep aligned for up to 6 long steps.

Would God use that long step? One indication that he might is that he says he counts days and years the same, and the Sacred Round and orbits of Venus and Mercury are perfectly arranged to do just that. But perhaps a better indication is that those ideal starting conditions occurred at the birth of Jesus Christ. Evidence indicates that Christ was born on Wed 5 Apr 1 BC pm*^[70] which was 1 Reed, 1 Creation (V), 1 Creation (M). The clue that God might be using this system is that both Venus and Mercury are aligned near the ideal starting positions so that they stay synchronized for 5 long steps, ending at Sun 16 Feb AD 200, 6 Reed, 6 Creation (V), 6 Creation (M). Much more investigation is needed to see if one system of long steps could span all of history, but it is the first promising use of 40-year intervals for that purpose so far. Until now, a few isolated occurrences of 40-year intervals were known, but there was no way to link them together.

Moses Typifies Christ. It is well known that Moses was like unto Christ. He prophesied that one like unto him would come ^[71], and the New Testament verifies that Jesus Christ was indeed that promised Messiah. Moses was a Savior to his people, was an advocate for them, and was a great law giver as was Jesus Christ. Moreover, we have seen how some dates in the life of Moses correspond to Jesus Christ, such as their dates of transfiguration both being the Feast of Tabernacles on two different calendars. Now this newly discovered long step provides yet another witness that Moses typified Jesus Christ, and even indicates the precise birthday of the Savior.

Christ’s Birth Date Symbolized. Having discovered the long step, we can ask if it was used to measure the 120-year life of Moses, being about three long steps. The answer again links directly to Christ. The beginning day of the first long step of Moses’ life was Mon 3 Feb 1542 BC, 1 Reed, 1 Creation (V) and 1 Birth (M). That is exactly the same as the Savior’s birth date on two calendars, being 1 Reed and 1 Creation (V). That day was 26 Shebat (Hebrew). For reasons discussed below, that does not appear to have been Moses’ actual birth date, but shortly thereafter. Counting by long steps brings us to 2 Reed, 2 Creation on Sat 24 Jan 1502 BC, then 3 Reed, 3 Creation on Thu 15 Jan 1462 BC, and finally 4 Reed, 4 Creation on Tue 5 Jan 1422 BC. This final date was 2 Shebat (Hebrew), which starts the next long step. That means that the last day of the 3 long steps of his life ended on 1 Shebat, which is precisely the day on which the Book of Deuteronomy began to be given ^[72]. Shortly thereafter he said that his 120th birthday had arrived ^[73]. Apparently it was right on that birthday that the Lord told him he would be taken in a few days, and on the same day he wrote a song and blessed Israel. Later he ascended the mountain, never to be seen again ^[74]. The traditional day for his translation was early in the next month ^[75],^[76] after which Israel mourned for him for thirty days. There was a thirteenth month ^[77] that year, providing ample time for mourning before crossing the Jordan in Nisan. Thus, the birth date of Moses was most likely some time in Shebat.

Other Calendar Alignments

Moses’ Birth Date

We have seen from the above analysis of Moses’ death date that his birth most likely occurred during the month Shebat, when he celebrated his 120th birthday in the eleventh month of the year. All of the prophets in these articles so far have been born on a Hebrew holy day and so that is the first place to look. There are only two holy days in Shebat. The first is 1 Shebat, but that is too early because according to Deuteronomy his birthday occurred shortly thereafter. The day 26 Shebat is a possibility because it began the first long step of his life, which aligned with the Savior’s birth. But his translation date was sometime after the end of the last long step, so one would expect that his birth may be somewhat before that first long step began. The other holy day in Shebat is 15 Shebat, which is called the New Year for Trees, and is of uncertain origin.

While there is no impressive alignment on the sacred calendars at that time, there was one really remarkable event in the heavens. There was a conjunction of Venus and Saturn on Wed 22 Jan 1542 BC that was so close that the separation of the two planets was less than one thirtieth the apparent diameter of the moon. They nearly appeared to be touching each other, which is extremely rare. Was that rare event a sign of the birth of Moses? That evening began the sacred day 15 Shebat.

The Lord always provides at least two witnesses, and it turns out there was a similar sign in the early days of Adar, the twelfth month of the year, when Hebrew tradition says that Moses was translated. On Sat 6 Feb 1422 BC (4 Adar1) there was a very similar conjunction of Venus and Saturn with the planets again less than a moon-width apart.

The conjunctions of Saturn seems important for the following reason. When the solar system was designed, the Moon and Saturn were apparently intended to be markers of the day-to-a-year ratio. The period of the moon’s phases is about 29.5 days and the period of Saturn’s cycle through the 12 zodiac constellations is 29.5 years. For ease of calculation, let’s round those numbers up to 30. Moses’ life of 120 years can be thought of not only as three long steps of 40 years each, it was also equal to four cycles of Saturn of 30 years each. Similarly, his stay on the mountain was not only three short steps of 40 days each, it was also four lunar months of 30 days each.

Thus, the Lord clearly illustrates his day-to-a-year scheme in his wonderful clock in the sky using the Moon and Saturn. Moreover, he has created fast moving hands like Venus which align with the slow moving hands like Saturn to tell time precisely even as a second hand sweeps over an hour hand to tell time to the very second.

Thus, Moses’ birth date was most likely Wed 22 Jan 1542 BC pm*, which evening began the holy day 15 Shebat. If that is correct, it might shed light on some important dates of the restoration such as the birth date of Hiram Smith on Sun 9 Feb 1800 pm*, 15 Shebat^[78], and the calling of the first twelve apostles on Sat 14 Feb 1835, which was 15 Shebat and also the Last Day of Passover on the Enoch Fixed calendar.

Miriam’s Birth Date

Moses and Aaron’s older sister Miriam was a great seeress,^[79] who was so respected by the Israelites that at her death near the end of the forty years, Israel mourned 30 days for her, just as they did for both Aaron and Moses ^[80].^[81] It is refreshing to see that they paid this amazing woman equal homage to her illustrious brothers. Let us now see how her birth date is also equally impressive to that of Moses, or of Abraham, Isaac or Jacob.

While we are not told the year of her birth, histories state that she was older than Aaron, who was in turn older by three years than Moses ^[82]. Could we have a chance of finding her birth date without knowing the year? Some birth dates are so impressive that the chronological clue of the year is not required. It turns out there was a date some four and a half years before the proposed birth date for Moses, which is so closely linked to the Red Sea crossing that it is strongly indicated to be her birth date. Perhaps the Lord knew that the women’s vital stats would tend to be omitted from the scriptures, so he wrote the record in the heavens so clearly that it can’t be missed.

The evening of Tue 28 Jul 1547 BC pm* began the Hebrew holy day 1 Ab, being the first day of the fifth month, also 9 Midsummer (Midsummer Fast, Enoch) as well as 1 Wind, 1 Birth (V), 1 Creation (M). Thus it was a holy day on five sacred calendars. But what indicates this to be her birth date is that the last three of those holy days coincide exactly with date of crossing the Red Sea. Moreover, the tie to her brother Aaron is indicated in that the precise day of Aaron’s death is recorded in the Bible as being 1 Ab ^[83].^[84]

Just how often does a day occur like the Red Sea Parting, being 1 Wind, 1 Birth (V) and 1 Creation (M), not even requiring it to be holy on any other calendar? The results of my exhaustive computer search indicate that there are only two such dates in the 1,800 years from 3100 BC to 1300 BC. Those two rare dates were the Red Sea Parting and the date proposed for Miriam’s birth, and they were both holy on the Hebrew calendar also, which strongly indicates they were not chance coincidences.

Arrival at Sinai

The Israelites arrived at Mt. Sinai on 1 Sivan (the third month, Ex. 19:1), which is minor holy day on the Hebrew Calendar, as is the beginning day of every month. That day, Sat 23 May 1462 BC, was sacred on three other calendars, being 1 Light (first day of Sacred Round), 1 Birth (Mercury), and 4 Late Spring (Firstfruits on Enoch), so it was clearly a day worth recording. Just one week later would be Firstfruits on the Hebrew calendar, on which the Lord would reveal the Ten Commandments to all of Israel.

300-Year Captivity

One sticky problem of the Exodus is just how long the Israelites were in captivity. We saw above that it couldn’t have been 400 years. Israel entered Egypt when Jacob was 130 years old ^[85], which would have been in the year 1762 BC, according to the result of last month’s article that Jacob was born in 1892 BC. Combining that with the current result that the Exodus was in the year 1462 BC implies that the captivity lasted 300 years.
There is an interesting possible day-to-year symbolism suggested by that length of time. It has been proposed that the birth of Jesus Christ on Passover was symbolized by the Exodus at Passover, in that the nation of Israel was “born” on the day of the Exodus after having been gestating in the darkness of Egypt. Even as Israel was “delivered” at its birth, so also was Jesus delivered at birth from the captivity of the womb.^[86] Now that analogy can be taken to the next level. The gestation period of Israel was 300 years and the gestation period of the Savior was nearly 300 days.^[87] After birth, Israel underwent a 40-year period and the Savior was taken to the temple on his 40th day. Here again might be an example of the day-to-year symbolism which the Lord often uses.

So what about the 400 years of bondage that the Lord mentioned to Abraham? I don’t have an answer, but I know I don’t like forcing wild interpretations on a clearly stated meaning in the scriptures. It would be more acceptable to me to think that the 400 years was a mistaken copy of an original prophecy of 300 years, which now appears to be precise. More research is needed to answer this question.

Fourth Generation. At the beginning of this article it was shown that even though Kohath, the grandfather of Moses entered Egypt with Jacob, a 300-year captivity is still possible if both Moses and his father Amram were born when their fathers were over a hundred years old. Even today there are men over a hundred years old fathering children, so that is not an outrageous requirement. The Lord even made a point to Abraham that his descendants would be delivered in the fourth generation ^[88]. But now consider Jochebed, Moses’ mother.

Jochebed. Jochebed was the daughter of Levi, who married her brother Kohath’s son Amram. Her age is not given in the Bible, but she would have to have been over a hundred years old when she bore Moses. That does indeed appear to be a problem, especially because the Pharaoh’s daughter readily invited her to be the infant’s nurse ^[89]. What’s the explanation?

It turns out that the miracle required for this to be true is recorded in Hebrew sources. They state that Jochebed was 126 years old when she married Amram ^[90], who was the same age as she and was even born on the same day. Furthermore, a miracle occurred: “Old as Jochebed was, she regained her youth. Her skin became soft, the wrinkles in her face disappeared, the warm tints of maiden beauty returned, and in a short time she became pregnant.”^[91]

Now is that just an old wives’ tale or could that tale of an old wife be true? It comes from a source of Jewish legends that contains a lot of nonsense. How can we tell if it is true? One way is that the evidence in this paper for the Exodus date is so overwhelming, that something like that must be true if the genealogies given are correct. But another way is to notice that enough information was given to narrow down the birth date of Jochebed to within a year. According to the theory being presented in these articles, if the story is true, there should be a rather impressive date in that year linked to the birth of Moses, especially if both parents were born on the same day.

Amram and Jochebed’s Birth Date. There is indeed a date 126 years before the alleged time of marriage that does offer some supporting evidence both that Amram and Jochebed might have been born on the same day and were 126 years old at their marriage. The day Sat 12 Feb 1674 BC was a holy day on five of the seven calendars, including being 15 Shebat, 1 Water, 1 Birth (M), and 1 Prime (V). As is well known to the reader by now, it is very unusual for Hebrew and Venus holy days to coincide, and for the Hebrew holy day to be that proposed for Moses’ birth, and also to indicate birth on the Mercury calendar only happens about once in 657 years. That is strong enough evidence to recommend this date as worthy of having both parents born on it, foreshadowing the birth of their illustrious son on 15 Shebat.

Captivity of Jeconiah

The day on which King Jeconiah, also known as Jehoiachin, was taken into captivity many centuries later by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon is the single best established date in the entire Old Testament. That is because it was recorded to the very day both in the Bible and also in the clay tablets of Babylon.^[92] It was Sat 10 Mar 597 BC. That it was New Year’s Day (1 Nisan) on the Hebrew Calendar is recorded in the Bible ^[93], but the point for this article is that the day was 1 Wind and also 1 Birth (Venus), both the same as at the Red Sea Parting. That is such an incredible coincidence, that it was one of the dates which led me to discover this entire chronology. It is important to emphasize that it was not a date I discovered using my new methods. It is a date well know in history which I learned from reading scholarly works. There is only a 1 in 584 chance that any given date will coincide with 1 Birth (V) and only 1 in 11,680 chance that it would also be 1 Wind. Said differently, 1 Birth (V) and 1 Wind only coincide about once every 32 years, so for that one day to be when Jeconiah was taken was extremely unusual. And to have the symbolism of the day when most of Jerusalem was deported coincide with a day when they began their journey to the promised land seems clearly to be beyond chance. The fact that the deportation day was important in the Lord’s chronology is clear because it is listed by Matthew as a key chronological marker in his genealogy of Christ ^[94].

The precise date of Jeconiah’s release is also recorded in holy writ: 25 Adar, year 37 of the Captivity. That corresponds to Tue 16 Mar 560 BC ^[95]. While that date is nothing special on the Hebrew calendar, it just happened to be the day 1 Wind, the very day his captivity began on the Sacred Round. The hand of the Lord becomes more apparent with each date discovered.

Ezekiel Rehearses the Exodus

The Prophet Ezekiel was one of the many taken to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar and he kept a very precise record of the exact dates on which many events occurred. He measured time from the above date that Jeconiah was taken captive, so we can know many of his dates to the very day. One event he records happened “in the seventh year, in the fifth month, the tenth day of the month” ^[96]. On that day, certain of the elders of Israel asked Ezekiel to inquire of the Lord about something. The Lord refused to answer their inquiry, but instead went on for an entire long chapter rehearsing the entire story of the Exodus. It must have been a completely unexpected answer. But thanks to Ezekiel, the date it was given was recorded which helps to explain why the Lord might think it was appropriate to speak of the Exodus on that day. On the Sacred Round and Venus calendar, the day Mon 6 Aug 591 BC coincided precisely again with the Red Sea Parting, being 1 Wind and 1 Birth. Again, that was an exact date specified in the Bible, not one discovered by searching for an alignment. But how could this alignment have occurred again only 6 years after the captivity of Jeconiah, which such alignments only happen about once every 32 years? The occurrences are not evenly spaced. These are two of the three such alignments during the sixth century BC, and they were both days explicitly recorded in the Bible. The following table summarizes many events which occurred on 1 Wind on the Sacred Round. A complete listing of all the dates published in my work on all seven sacred calendars can be found on my website.^[97]

Connclusion

In this article the date for the Exodus of Thu 9 Apr 1462 BC was proposed based on a novel interpretation of the 430-year sojourn of Israel. Then twelve precise dates were examined, which were recorded in the Bible to the very day relative to the anchor date of the Exodus. All of those auxiliary dates testified that the Exodus date is correct, and that those dates were recorded because of their symbolic significance. In the former articles in this series, only a few dates were specified in scripture to the very day and year, such as the day of the Great Flood and of the birth of Isaac. As in those cases, the odds of even one of those dates being a holy date on two or three sacred calendars is negligible, but to have all twelve of them be such rare and meaningful dates is totally beyond chance. Moreover, many dates which were recorded only to the year were derived and shown also to be far beyond what could be expected by random alignments. Therefore, it is concluded that the proposed dates are all correct.

Perhaps more important that the exact date of the Exodus, it was also discovered that several of the dates testify strongly that Jesus Christ was the promised Messiah, and the great prophet who would be like unto Moses. In particular, the dates of the transfigurations of both Moses and Christ were shown to both be on the feast of Tabernacles on two sacred calendars. Moreover, the day beginning the three 40-year periods of Moses’ life coincided with the birth date of Jesus Christ. Thus, the symbolism of the sacred calendars indeed witnesses of Jesus Christ and of the creation of the solar system as a precision timepiece.

1. ↑ Pratt, John P., “Venus and the Beginning of Mortality,” (9 Jul 2003), “Astronomical Witnesses of the Great Flood,” (13 Aug 2003), “Divine Calendars Testify of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,” (11 Sep 2003).
2. ↑ Gen. 15:13–16
3. ↑ Gen. 46:4,11
4. ↑ Ex. 6:18–20
5. ↑ Ex. 7:7
6. ↑ Ex. 12:40–41
7. ↑ Ex. 16:1
8. ↑ Ex. 16:18, 29
9. ↑ Ex. 16:25–26
10. ↑ Ex. 16:35
11. ↑ Ex. 19:1
12. ↑ Ex. 19:6
13. ↑ Deut. 4:12–13, 5:2-22
14. ↑ Ex. 24:3–8
15. ↑ Ex. 24:9–12
16. ↑ Deut. 5:27
17. ↑ Ex. 24:16 18
18. ↑ Ex. 31:18, Deut. 5:22
19. ↑ Ex. 32:30
20. ↑ Ex. 34:1–3, Deut. 9:18
21. ↑ Deut. 10:1–4
22. ↑ Deut. 10:10
23. ↑ Ex. 34:28–35
24. ↑ Ex. 40:2,17; Jasher 83:1-4
25. ↑ Num. 14:29–35
26. ↑ Deut. 2:14
27. ↑ Num. 20:2–13
28. ↑ Num. 21:4–9
29. ↑ Num. 22-24
30. ↑ Deut. 1:3
31. ↑ Deut. 34:5–8
32. ↑ Even though the Biblical account states that Moses died, it was well known to the Jews that he was really translated. See Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, IV.viii.48.
33. ↑ Deut. 34:8
34. ↑ Josh. 4:19
35. ↑ Josh. 5:2–9
36. ↑ Josh. 5:10–12
37. ↑ Gen. 15:13–16
38. ↑ Ex. 6:18, 20; 7:7
39. ↑ Stephen, before he was stoned, gave the straightforward interpretation that the 400 years was all in Egypt, but he most likely had never added up the ages Acts 7:6–7. In this review of traditional methods, I wish to acknowledge helpful charts supplied by Joyce Marie Peabody.
40. ↑ Gen. 12:1–4
41. ↑ Num. 1:46
42. ↑ Gen. 46:27
43. ↑ Jasher 81:3
44. ↑ The equation used to calculate the growth rate required for N years is Rate = ((2,000,000/70)^(1/N))-1. An excellent summary of many scientific arguments is The Exodus Case by Lennart M