When was Moses born?

Answer 1

Answers from site contributors:

• Moses was born in 1593 B.C.E.
• Actually Moses was born in 1393 B.C.E
• Just before the Exodus at the time of the start of the plagues Moses was 80:- Exo 7:7 And Moses was eighty years old, and Aaron was eighty-three years old, when they spoke to Pharaoh. The Exodus was dated by Bishop Ussher as 1446 BC, which would make it 1566 BC when Moses was born.
• According to Jewish tradition, Moses was born in 1392 BCE.

Answer 2

Jewish tradition states that Moses was born in 1392 BCE. This is a continuous national tradition which does not need to resort to calculations. More about Moses:

Moses was an Israelite, a great-great grandson of Jacob. He was born 245 years after the death of Abraham. The time when Moses was born was when the Pharaoh had ordered his people to kill all Israelite male infants because he (Pharaoh) was afraid that the Israelites would become too strong for him (Exodus ch.1-2).

Moses' mother didn't want him to die. So she made a basket for him and put him in it to float in the Nile reeds. He was found by Pharaoh's daughter, who took pity on him (Exodus ch.2) and raised him as her own son. (See: How did Moses know he was an Israelite?)

Moses was forced to flee after killing a cruel Egyptian taskmaster, and went to Midian, where he wedded the daughter of Jethro.

He eventually achieved the highest level of prophecy (Deuteronomy ch.34) and was called upon by God (Exodus ch.3). He brought the Israelites out of Egyptian slavery (Exodus ch.12). He received the Torah from God (Exodus 24:12) and later recorded it in writing (Deuteronomy 31:24). He went up on Mount Sinai for 40 days and nights (Deuteronomy ch.9-10) and brought down the Two Stone Tablets with theTen Commandments (Exodus 31:18). He brought the Israelites into the covenant with God (Exodus ch.19 and ch.24), and he oversaw the building of the Tabernacle (Exodus ch.35-40). He was the humblest of men and the greatest of prophets (Numbers ch.12).

See also:

What problems did Moses face and overcome?

Answer 3

One estimate:

It is generally accepted by Christians that the Israelite journey into Egypt would have taken place about 1870 BCE. According to Genesis, Moses' grandfather, Kohath, was alive when the Israelites travelled to Egypt and lived 133 years, while Moses' father, Amran, lived 137 years. We do not know how old Kohath was when he went to Egypt, but if he and his son Amran were capable of fathering a child at any time between puberty and the year of their deaths, then Moses was born between about 1855-1600 BCE. A closer estimate is not possible from a literal reading of Moses' biblical ancestry.

Another estimate:

According to the Book of Exodus, Moses died approximately 1400 BCE at the age of 120 years; he would therefore have been born in 1520 BCE.

These estimates differ because the two accounts had different authors.