Charles Ellicott Commentary 1 Kings 6:1

"And it came to pass in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon`s reign over Israel, in the month Ziv, which is the second month, that he began to build the house of Jehovah." — 1 Kings 6:1 (ASV)

In the fourth year. — This date, given with marked precision, forms a most important epoch in the history of Israel, on which, indeed, much of the accepted chronology is based. In the Septuagint, 440 is read for 480, possibly by an interchange of two similar Hebrew letters, or perhaps by reckoning from the completion of Exodus at the death of Moses instead of its beginning. The Vulgate agrees with the Hebrew text. Josephus, on the other hand, without any hint of any other reckoning in the Scriptural record, gives 592 years.

The date itself, involving some apparent chronological difficulties, has been thought to be an interpolation. However, this view lacks sufficient ground, except for Josephus’s seeming ignorance of its existence and some early quotations of the passage by Origen and others that omit it.

Furthermore, this perspective overlooks the important fact that, disagreeing prima facie with earlier chronological indications in Scripture, it is infinitely unlikely to have been interpolated in this way by any mere scribe.

These indications are, however, vague. The period includes the conquest and rule of Joshua, the era of the Judges down to Samuel, the reigns of Saul and David, and the three years of Solomon’s reign already elapsed. Now, of these divisions, only the last three can be determined with any definiteness, totaling about 83 years. The time taken by the conquest and rule of Joshua cannot be gathered with any certainty from Scripture. The same is the case with the duration of some of the subsequent Judgeships.

Even the numerous chronological notices given in the Book of Judges are inconclusive. We cannot tell whether they are literally accurate or, as the recurrence of round numbers may seem to suggest, indefinite expressions for long periods; nor can we determine to what extent the various Judgeships were contemporaneous or successive. The tradition followed by St. Paul (Acts 13:19–21), assigning to the whole a period of 450 years, generally agrees with the latter idea.

The genealogies given (for example, of David, in Ruth 4:18-22; 1 Chronicles 2:3–15, and elsewhere) agree with the former idea. Therefore, these vague chronological statistics cannot constitute a sufficient ground for setting aside a date so formally and unhesitatingly given at an important epoch of the history, corresponding to the equally formal determination of the date of the Exodus in Exodus 12:40-41. The omission of the date in quotations, again, proves little.

The different date given by Josephus, without any mention of the one we now have in our text, presents the only real difficulty. But it is possible that he may have been inclined to tacitly harmonize his chronology with some other reckoning known in his time among pagan sources; and in any case, it is doubtful whether his authority can outweigh that of our present text and the ancient versions. On the whole, therefore, the reasons given for rejecting the chronological notice of this verse are insufficient.