There are several problems with using
this passage, however. One is that it proves too much, since Joseph was said to
have settled his father and brothers in “the land of Ramesses” (Gen 47:11) some
430 years before the Exodus (Exod 12:40-41). This had to have been long before
the beginning of the Rameside era in the early thirteenth century. Elsewhere
Israel is said to have settled in the land of Gideon (Gen 45:10; 46:28, 29, 34;
47:1, 4, 6, 27; 50:8; Exod 8:22; 9:26). This region is called Ramesses only
three times in the OT.
Another problem is that Exod 1:11
characterizes Ramesses and Pithom as supply cities (מִסְכְּנוֹת), whereas
Ramesses II built Pi-Ramesses as his capital city. Elsewhere in the OT supply
cities are outlying cities built to store supplies and never capital cities (1
Kgs 9:19; 2 Chr 8:4,6; 16:4; 17:12; 32:28).
This evidence appears to suggest that
the name Ramesses is a later scribal updating for what may have
originally been Avaris in the text of Exod 1:11 and Goshen in the
text of Gen 47:11. A later scribe may have updated the text to make it
intelligible to the readers in his day, sometime during or after the reign of
Ramesses II. If this is the case, Exod 1:11 cannot be an indication of a thirteenth
century date for the Exodus.
This type of later scribal updating is
evidence elsewhere in the Pentateuch, Joshua and Judges. The most obvious of
these scribal updatings is the city of Dan (Gen 14:14; Deut 34:1 which until
the time of the Judges was named Laish (Judg 18:29). It would not have been
possible for Moses to call it Dan. Likewise, the city of Hamah is always called
by that name in the Pentateuch (Num 14:45; 21:3; Deut 1:44) although it was
called Zephath until the early days of the Judges (Judg 1:17). Other candidates
for each post- Mosaic updating in the Pentateuch are Bethel, whose earlier name
was Luz (Gen 12:8 [twice]; 13:22 [twice]) and Hebron (Gen 13:18; 23:19; 37:14;
Num 13:22 [twice]), whose earlier name was Kiriath Arba (Gen 23:2; 35:27), (Andrew
E. Steinmann, From Abraham to Paul: A Biblical Chronology [Saint Louis,
Miss: Concordia Publishing House, 2011], 56-58)
Further Reading:
Biblical Prophets Changing their Words and the Words of Previous Prophets