Often, people attempt to use what they call science to disprove the history in the Bible. One of the accusations concerns the rapid population growth recorded in the Bible during the Israelite sojourn in Exodus. This is the accusation: that to start with 70 Israelite men going into Egypt and end with over 2,000,000 people leaving in just 430 years is an impossible rate of population growth. But a close examination of the Biblical account, human reproduction rates, and math will show that there is really no scientific problem with this passage.
Firstly, let me acknowledge that at first glance, the math does seem to create a problem. The current world population growth rate is about one percent per year. Let’s call this the average Israelite annual population growth rate. Also, let’s suppose that the seventy men whom Exodus tells us went down into Egypt each had an average of one wife and two children at their arrival a population of 280 immigrants in total. If we apply a 1% annual growth rate per year, after 430 years this population would have grown to 20,200 people, far short of the population of 600,000 men plus women and children as indicated in Numbers.
But this math reflects today’s situation. The fact is that population growth can be much faster, and has been in the past. Let’s look at the year 1960. In that year the global population growth rate was 2.53% — quite a bit higher than today. Let’s suppose the Israelites were growing at 1960 rates. Starting, again, with 280 immigrants, we arrive after 430 years at a total of 12,973,875 people, about seven times the number required by the Biblical account.
So what looks like a scientific disproof of the Bible is nothing more than an ignorant first impression that someone had based on the Biblical text. It is exactly just this sort of thinking that caused the apostle Paul to warn his young student Timothy:
20Timothy, keep what has been committed to your care, avoiding unholy pointless babblings, and oppositions from what is falsely called science, 21which some professing have erred concerning the faith. Grace be with you. Amen. 1 Timothy 6:20-21
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population growth, exodus, and numbers
Often, people attempt to use what they call science to disprove the history in the Bible. One of the accusations concerns the rapid population growth recorded in the Bible during the Israelite sojourn in Exodus. This is the accusation: that to start with 70 Israelite men going into Egypt and end with over 2,000,000 people leaving in just 430 years is an impossible rate of population growth. But a close examination of the Biblical account, human reproduction rates, and math will show that there is really no scientific problem with this passage.
Firstly, let me acknowledge that at first glance, the math does seem to create a problem. The current world population growth rate is about one percent per year. Let’s call this the average Israelite annual population growth rate. Also, let’s suppose that the seventy men whom Exodus tells us went down into Egypt each had an average of one wife and two children at their arrival a population of 280 immigrants in total. If we apply a 1% annual growth rate per year, after 430 years this population would have grown to 20,200 people, far short of the population of 600,000 men plus women and children as indicated in Numbers.
But this math reflects today’s situation. The fact is that population growth can be much faster, and has been in the past. Let’s look at the year 1960. In that year the global population growth rate was 2.53% — quite a bit higher than today. Let’s suppose the Israelites were growing at 1960 rates. Starting, again, with 280 immigrants, we arrive after 430 years at a total of 12,973,875 people, about seven times the number required by the Biblical account.
So what looks like a scientific disproof of the Bible is nothing more than an ignorant first impression that someone had based on the Biblical text. It is exactly just this sort of thinking that caused the apostle Paul to warn his young student Timothy:
Related Posts: