(Vol. v., p. 11.)
Your correspondent ÆGROTUS sees a difficulty in the rapid increase of
the Israelites in Egypt, and proposes to lessen it by doubling the time
of their stay there, and including women in their census. His
criticisms, however, seem to be as inadmissible as his difficulty is
unreal.
For, first, in the place he quotes (Ex. xii. 37.), the number is said to
be "nearly 600,000 _that were_ men," where the Italics are intended to
throw emphasis on _men_; because the Heb. םיִרבָגְּ means men
_as opposed_ to women, _strong_ men, even soldiers. Also, from Numb. i.
2. 46. we see that the number 603,550 included only "every male ... from
20 years old and upward, all that were able to go forth to war," thus
excluding the tribe of Levi (v. 47.). Josephus, indeed, says (_Antiq._
III. viii. 2. and xii. 4.) that it included only the men between 20 and
50 years of age.
Then, as to the time that they were in Egypt: it is evident from Gal.
iii. 17. that, going back 430 years from the Exode, we must come into
the time of Abraham: so that the 430 years in Ex. xii. 40. must begin
when Abraham first went into Egypt. And this is confirmed by the reading
of the LXX there: κατῴκησαν ἐν γῇ Αἰγύπτῳ καὶ ἐν γῇ Χαναὰν, ἔτη
τετρακόσια τριάκοντα. That they remained only 215 years in Egypt, is
not merely the opinion of Professor Lee, as ÆGROTUS seems to think: it
is given by Josephus (_Antiq._ II. xv. 2.), was received by the Jews and
early Christians generally, and is now (at least almost) universally
adopted.
Now, to come to the supposed difficulty itself: none such really exists,
even if we take the higher number and the shorter time, as I think
indeed we ought. The men being taken at about 600,000, we must reckon
the whole people, at least, at 2,000,000. A calculation of no difficulty
shows that if 70 persons increase in 215 years to 2,000,000, the number
of the people must double itself every 14-½ years: or, if they
increase to 3,000,000, the number must double every 14 years. Now,
compare this with what we know about some other nations. Humboldt, in
his _Essai Politique sur le Royaume de la Nouvelle-Espagne_ (tom. i. p.
339.) says:
"The information which I have collected proves that, if the order
of nature were not interrupted from time to time by some
extraordinary and disturbing cause" [_e.g._ famine, pestilence],
"the population of New Spain ought to double itself every
_nineteen_ years. [...] In the United States, since 1774, we have
seen the population double itself in 22 years. The curious tables
which M. Samuel Blodget has published in his _Statistical Manual
of the United States of America_ (1806, p. 73.), show that, for
certain States, this cycle is only _thirteen_ or _fourteen_
years."
Again, Malthus, in his _Essay on the Principles of Population_, p. 6.,
says:
"According to a table of Euler, calculated on a mortality of 1 in
36, if the births be to the deaths in the proportion of 3 to 1,
the period of doubling will be over 12 years and 4-5ths. And this
supposition is not only a possible supposition, but has actually
occurred for short periods in more countries than one. Sir William
Petty (_Polit. Arith._, p. 14.) supposes a doubling, possible in
so short a time as _ten_ years."
What difficulty, then, can there be (knowing the promise in Gen. xvii.
6.) in believing that the number of the Israelites in Egypt doubled
itself every _fourteen_ years?