I've been doing research on a book on the life of Joseph, and am troubled by trying to pin down the approximate time of the Exodus. I'm thinking from all the study I've done ca 1440 BC. If that is so, that puts Joseph roughly in mid-eighteenth century BC. I'm not sure, however, if this coincides with the reign of the Hyksos rulers, and also what dynasty of the Pharaohs that would fall under. Bottom line, based on your study, when did the Exodus occur? -- Jim Plaisted
Most scholars place the Exodus sometime in the 1400s or the 1200s, conservatives tending to favor the former time period. 1 Kings 6:1 seems, at face value, to point to the 15th century date. Moreover, scholars are not all agreed that the "king who did not know Joseph" was Hyksos (Asiatic). I tend to favor the traditional date of 1446 BC, but I have sympathy for at least one of the alternative suggestions: 1290 BC. (But do our readers really want to read a protracted discussion of Old Testament chronology?)
For more on this, see any Old Testament survey, such as John Drane, Introducing the Old Testament (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1987), 57-58.
