Commentaria in Exodum
The Egyptians allowed their own Egyptians who were mixed with the Hebrews to go out, because, dismayed by the death of their own, they either did not notice or did not care about their departure.
BESIDE CHILDREN.—The Septuagint, apart from baggage, not only inanimate but also self-moving, namely little ones and women, says St. Augustine, Question 47.
39. WHICH A LITTLE BEFORE THEY HAD BROUGHT OUT OF EGYPT IN DOUGH.—“A little before,” for it had been kneaded more than an entire day before, and not leavened.
NOR MEAT.—Pulmentum is a relish, namely flesh, fish, vegetables, and whatever is eaten with bread; for the ancients used porridge in place of bread.
40. AND THE SOJOURNING OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL THAT THEY MADE IN EGYPT, WAS FOUR HUNDRED AND THIRTY YEARS.—It is certain, and all the Doctors, Hebrew and Latin, agree, except Eugubinus and Genebrard, that the Hebrews did not dwell in Egypt the whole 430 years. This is plain from the following: for when Jacob, the father of the Hebrews, first went down with his family into Egypt, there went down with him also Caath, the son of Levi. But Caath lived only 133 years, and his son Amram lived only 137 years. Amram begot Moses, and Moses in the 81st year of his age went out of Egypt with the Hebrews, all which are plain from Exodus chap. 6, and Exodus chap. 7, verse 7. Now add the years of each, and you will make not 430 but only 351. For what Genebrard answers, that some years of Caath or Amram are wanting, or that some grandsons are to be inserted between them, is said altogether gratuitously, or rather is feigned.
You will ask, therefore, from what point are these 430 years to be begun, and how are they to be reckoned?
I answer, with St. Augustine, Question 47 on Exodus, with Athanasius, or rather Anastasius, in the Synopsis of Holy Scripture, on Exodus, with Eusebius in the Chronicle, with Salvian, book 1 Antikimenon, with Rupert, Abulensis, Cajetan on Exodus 12, that they are the same years which Moses numbers and which Paul reckons, Galatians 3, 17, and that both are to be begun not from the descent of Jacob into Egypt, but from the 75th year of Abraham, in which year, called by God, he began from his house and his own country, Haran namely, to journey toward the land of Chanaan: for in this year he received the blessings and promises of which the Apostle treats in Galatians chap. 3, as is had in Genesis chap. 12, verse 4.
This is plain first: for it is clear that the Hebrews from the descent of Jacob did not dwell 430 years in Egypt, as I have already shown from the years of Caath, Amram and Moses: which years, if you join them all together, will make up not the sum of 430 but only 351; from these years, moreover, must be deducted the years of Caath in which he lived after he begot Amram, and the years of Amram in which he lived after he begot Moses: for those years of Caath are contained in the years of Amram, and those remaining years of Amram in the years of Moses, in which he lived together with his father Amram. Hence it follows that these 430 years are to be reckoned and begun not from the descent of Jacob, but far earlier, namely from Abraham’s journey from Haran toward Chanaan, and the Septuagint expressly state this in this place, when they render: “But the dwelling of the children of Israel, which they and their fathers dwelt in the land of Egypt and Chanaan, was 430 years.”
Secondly, because the Apostle, Galatians 3, says that the law was given after 430 years to be numbered not from Jacob but from the calling, journeying and promise of Abraham; but the law was given in the same year in which the Hebrews went out of Egypt, namely in the third month after the going out, as is said in Exodus 19, 1.
Thirdly, because we shall most conveniently make out this number if we begin from Abraham’s departure out of Haran: for he was then 75 years old, Genesis chap. 12, verse 4. Hence to the birth of Isaac 25 years elapsed, Genesis 21, 5. For Isaac was born when Abraham was a hundred; from Isaac to the birth of Jacob are 60 years, Genesis chap. 25, verse 26. Jacob, moreover, went down into Egypt in the 130th year of his age, Genesis 47, 9. Now put together 25, 60, 130, and you will have 215 years, namely the half of the years which we seek, so that as many, that is 215, remain from Jacob’s entrance to the going out of the Hebrews from Egypt (as St. Athanasius expressly numbers in the Catena of Francis Zephyrus, at the beginning of Exodus), which it is easy to fit; for if you suppose Caath to have been born in the same year in which he went down with Jacob into Egypt, and to have begotten Amram in the 65th year of his age, as Epiphanius relates in the Ancoratus, you will have 65 from the years of Caath. Again, put that Amram begot Moses in the 70th year of his age, as Epiphanius holds; add the other 80 of the life of Moses (for Moses was 80 years old when he led the Hebrews out of Egypt), and you will fill up the 215 years; join to these the former 215, and you will gather 430: as many as both Moses and the Apostle number. So the Interpreters commonly. Whence it follows that the Hebrews, Lyranus and Cajetan are less right in numbering 210 years from Jacob’s entrance into Egypt to the going out, since 215 are to be numbered, as is plain from what has been said.
You will say: in what sense, then, does Moses here assert that the Hebrews dwelt in Egypt 430 years? I answer, because they passed the greater part of the time dwelling fixedly in Egypt, where also they suffered the most grievous things; next, because the first sojourning of Abraham was in Egypt, Genesis 12, 10, and the last likewise was in Egypt; and the denomination is taken from the beginning and the end, because the rest is interposed between them; for Scripture numbers these 430 years to show that as many elapsed from the giving of God’s promise concerning the land of Chanaan to be possessed, until it was fulfilled and performed; for after 400 years of sojourning and servitude in Egypt, to be numbered in like manner from the birth of Isaac, God promised Abraham the land of Chanaan, Genesis chap. 15, verses 13 and 14; and here He performs and fulfils the same: for in the 430th year (reckoning from the calling of Abraham) in which the Hebrews received the law at Sina, they were made into a people and Church of God, and began to advance to Chanaan, promised to Abraham; and they would have been brought into it at once by God, had they not murmured against God Himself: for because of the murmuring they wandered 40 years through the desert of Arabia, which lies between Egypt and Chanaan. Add that it is not said here that they dwelt 430 years in Egypt, but that the dwelling was of 430 years: which you may conveniently take in this sense, that Moses means their dwelling came to the 430th year of Abraham’s sojourning, namely from Haran, a sense which the Hebrew better admits, as Cajetan rightly observes. So Judith, last chapter, verse 28, is said to have remained in her husband’s house 105 years, that is, up to the 105th year of her age. For it is not likely that Judith passed 105 years after marriage in her husband’s house. Similar things I have shown in the chronology of the Judges and Kings.
Note: The going out of the Hebrews from Egypt happened in the year of the world 2454, 797 years after the flood, 505 years from the birth of Abraham, 215 from the descent of Jacob into Egypt, 144 from the death of Joseph, 480 years before the building of Solomon’s temple, 1496 years before Christ, 356 years before the Trojan war. See more in the chronological table which I set forth at the beginning of Genesis.
Justin Martyr, Clement and Africanus are mistaken, therefore, who assign this going out to the time of King Inachus and the flood of Ogyges; for this happened in the time of the patriarch Jacob. Again, about this time, namely 15 years before the going out of the Hebrews from Egypt, namely in the 65th year of Moses, Troy was founded; its first king was Dardanus, who reigned 64 years. So Eusebius. Finally, hear St. Augustine, book 18 of the City of God, chap. 11: “Moses,” he says, “led the people of God out of Egypt in the last time of Cecrops, king of the Athenians, when Ascatades reigned among the Assyrians, Marathus among the Sicyonians, Triopas among the Argives.” For Cecrops began to reign at Athens in the 35th year of the life of Moses, and reigned 50 years, as Eusebius teaches in the Chronicle, and from him Tornielli.
41. THE SAME DAY,—on which 430 years before Abraham began to journey into Chanaan. So some. Secondly and more genuinely, “the same day,” of the pasch, namely, of which in verse 17; unless you prefer to refer this to the whole host, as if to say: All together, although they were of so great a number, went out of Egypt on the same day in ordered array. So Abulensis. For this was as it were a miracle.
Note: This day of the Pasch, or first of unleavened bread, on which the Hebrews went out of Egypt, was a Friday, God so disposing that it might congruously signify the Friday on which Christ, our phase, was immolated, and led us out of sin and hell and freed us. That this is so is plain from the fact that on the thirty-first day from the going out of the Hebrews from Egypt it began to rain manna for them: that day, however, was a Sunday, as will be plain chap. 16, verses 1 and 5. Now if the thirty-first day was Sunday, then the first (namely of the pasch, on which they went out) was Friday, as is plain to one counting back.