TRADITION VS SCHOLARSHIP
The answer
Exodus 12:40 says the stay in Egypt was 430 years; Genesis 15:13 rounds it to 400. Adding to the puzzle, the ancient Greek and Samaritan texts of Exodus 12:40 count those 430 years as time spent 'in Egypt and in Canaan' together.
Why it’s interesting
So even a single span comes down to us in more than one shape, and the older translations disagree about what the years even cover. Untangling it is a small master class in how numbers travel through the manuscripts.
Genuinely debated
You can know the Bible.
Not just the stories, but the history, authorship, and scholarship behind it.