Dear Bro Rushmore, I cannot imagine that 70 souls arrived in Egypt and increased to about 2 million (estimates) in a short 230 years (if 430 years dated from Abraham). Is this arithmatically possible? Thank You Brotherly, Jimmy Singapore
As you note, most Bible students acknowledge that of the 430 years from Abraham to the Exodus, Jacob and his descendants were in Egypt until the Exodus for 215 years. Matthew Henry’s Commentary puts the matter in perspective:
Though the accomplishment of promises is always sure, yet it is often slow. It was now 215 years since God had promised Abraham to make of him a great nation (Gen 12:2); and yet that branch of his seed on which the promise was entailed had increased only to seventy, of which this particular account is kept, that the power of God in multiplying these seventy to so vast a multitude, even in Egypt, may appear the more illustrious. When God pleases, a little one shall become a thousand, Isa 60:22.
This citation seems to place an immense amount of confidence in God’s Word, as we ought to do. However, other commentators, etc. propose a number of alternatives to diminish the 600,000 male Israelites of military age plus an estimated one and a half million or so other Israelites. One source removes the numbers under consideration from factual consideration when he writes, “Here now, we have 70 souls who enter Mitzraim to ultimately grow into a nation of 600,000 plus. (Of course, this number has also its own symbolic content and should not be understood as an actual count at all.)” (“Population [1]”). Others simply dismiss biblical numbers generally as gross exaggerations.
However, what should the Bible-believer make of the increase of population from 70 to maybe 2,000,000 or so Israelites in 215 years? First, Exodus 1:7 and 12 state that the Israelite population in Egypt was increasing dramatically, even after they were reduced to slavery. “And the children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty; and the land was filled with them. . . . But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were grieved because of the children of Israel.” With the all-powerful, divine hand of God involved, ordinary advances in population in a fruitful, non-famine affected land would accelerate quite a bit. Under ordinary circumstances in a fruitful land, though, what kind of population growth could be expected? Consider these routes of arriving at the population figures represented in the Bible for the Exodus.
Very simplistically, I think you need to pick an average age for a generation, i.e. how long till having kids, and then what is the average number of kids per person (or family). If I put that in Excel and ignore all previous generations, then if one uses 25 years for a generation and an average of 4.5 kids / person = 9 kids per family, starting with 70 individuals you have about 2.6 million in the generation that leaves Egypt. (“Population [2]”)
If we assume . . . that a generation was twenty-one years, during the course of 190 years (such that the last generation would be in their twenties at the time of the Exodus) there would have been about nine generations . . . every mother . . . would bear six children during the course of her life. We may assume that, on average, these six children would be three sons and three daughters . . . Based on the assumption that the generation that went down to Egypt numbered sixty males who were still of child-bearing age, the next generation would have numbered 180 males; the third generation – 540, the fourth – 1620, the fifth – 4860, the sixth – 14,580, the seventh – 43,760, the eighth – 131,280, and the ninth – some four hundred thousand. Assuming that it was the seventh, eighth and ninth generations that left Egypt, after about 190 years there were six hundred thousand, and after 210 years – all were aged 20. The miracle of the reproductive multiplicity in Egypt was therefore a “hidden” miracle – that despite the hardships of Egyptian subjugation and their persecution, women bore six children, and this average did not waver up until the time of the Exodus. (Medan)
As to the possibility of 70 souls multiplying in the course of 215 years or 7 generations (to take the shorter interval rather than the longer of 430 years) into 2 1/2 millions of persons giving 600,000 fighting men, that need not be regarded as incredible till the rate of increase in each family is exactly known. Allowing to each of Jacob’s grandsons who were married (say 51 out of 53), 4 male descendants (Colenso allows 4 1/2), these would in 7 generations–not in 4 (Colenso)–amount to 835,584, and with surviving fathers and grandfathers added might well reach 900,000, of whom 600,000 might be above 20 years of age. (Bible Tools)
Some doubt has been cast upon the number of the children of Israel who went up out of Egypt as expressed (1) in Exodus 12:37, “600,000 men beside children,” (2) in Numb. 2:32 “603,550,” beside the Levites at the beginning of the 2nd year after they came out of Egypt, and (3) in Numb 26:51, “601,730” at the close of the 40 years in the wilderness. But these doubts are quite groundless. From the going down into Egypt, AN. HOM. 2298, to the Exodus, AN. HOM. 2513, is 215 years. Mr. Malthus has shown that with an abundant supply of food, a given population may continue to double its numbers in about 15 years, and in favoured cases, in even less time. At this rate of increase the 70 souls who went down into Egypt would have multiplied in 225 years to 2,293,760, which is perhaps about the number of the entire population including Levites, women and children; the 600,000 mentioned in Ex. 12:37, Numb. 2:32 and 26:51, would be the adult males. (Anstey)
Under prime conditions without the special help of God, the increase in numbers from 70 to a couple of million persons in 215 years appears feasible. Certainly, with the supernatural determination of God as well, respecting God’s promise to Abraham (Genesis 12:2; 13:16; 15:5; 17:5-6; 11:17-18), the Bible-believer has no reason to doubt the biblical narrative and its implications.
Works Cited
Anstey, Martin. A New Covenant. 25 May 2005. <https://anewcovenant.tripod.com/part1.htm>.
Bible Tools. 25 May 2005. <https://bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Def.show/RTD/ISBE/ID/6452>.
“Gen 46:5-27.” Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible. New Modern Edition. CD-ROM. Peabody: Hendrickson, 1991.
Medan, Rav Yaacov. 25 May 2005. <https://vbm-torah.org/archive/parsha65/13-65shemot.htm>.
“Population Explosion in Egypt [1].” 24 May 2005. <https://www.ottmall.com/mj_ht_arch/v46/mj_v46i71.html>.
“Population Explosion in Egypt [2].” 24 May 2005. <https://www.ottmall.com/mj_ht_arch/v46/mj_v46i67.html#CTY>.
