Note See foot-note on page 22 — CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.

[B] From the fact that in several genealogies four generations are given to the sojourn in Egypt, the shorter period, from 1706 to 1491, has been generally assumed. But it is almost impossible that seventy people could become two million in four generations by natural increase alone. Moreover, the genealogy of Joshua (1 Chron. 7. 22-27) gives either ten or eleven generations to this period. It is probable that the other tables name only sufficient links to show the line, and omit many of the generations. This was frequently the case with Jewish records. (See the genealogy of Jesus Christ in Matt. 1, where several names are omitted.) We conclude that the sojourn began about 1900 B. C., and the call of Abraham was about 2100 B. C., or earlier; but we give in the text the usual chronology.