The first time in the genealogies where there seems like there may be serious reason to doubt a precise chronology of dates is when we get here to Levi, Kohath, Amram, and Moses. Among the mention of these four men there is no year given for when, within their father's life, they were born or died. It only gives the total number of years they lived.

Related to that, the length of time commonly held for when Israel dwelt in Egypt is 430 years, which would mean that Kohath, Amram, and Moses had to be born approximately when there fathers were each around 125 years old—not a likely scenario when we understand that their entire lifespan each was only about that long. Understanding this and because of the missing specific days of birth and deaths of the three men in question, we could be lead to believe there just may be some "missing" names in this lineage leading up to Moses.

For me, this was just too much speculation to be final. But I was clueless on where to get any further information that would lead me to a more solid explanation. Then I thought I would just have to resign to the fact that, maybe, God just did not see it necessary for us to have the specific information to explain this time period. That is when I noticed one of those details that are quite simply miracles of God's providence.

In Exodus 6:20 it informs us that Moses father, in fact, married his own father's sister, Jochebed, and she was Levi's daughter. Having this detail, then, Moses is incontrovertibly linked directly to Levi, Jacob's son. And all this brings us to one specific question. Were the days of Israel's life as a nation in Egypt really 430 years?

There is another option, though. It is, as Paul says, that the time from the point when God gave Abraham the promise "to his seed" when he offered up Isaac (Genesis 22:15-18) to the giving of the law—that is what was 430 years (Galatians 3:17), and not just the time the Israelites were in Egypt.

The only verse that could jeopardize this understanding is Exodus 12:40 where it says that "the sojourn of the children of Israel in Egypt were 430 years." But if you look at this verse in the Septuagint—and older version of this text—you will see that it says how it was "the sojourn in the land of Caanan AND Eqypt " that was 430 years.

And this would agree with what Paul, when he says that from the promise God gave to Abraham to when the law was given, it was 430 years (Galatians 3:16-17)."