"And after that he gave unto them judges about the space of four hundred and fifty years, until Samuel the prophet" (Acts 13:20).

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comment: This is the reading of the western text, where the words και μετα ταυτα come first.  The Alexandrian text base transposes the words so that the text reads —ως ετεσιν τετρακοσιοις και πεντηκοντα. και μετα ταυτα...  The Alexandrian reading presupposes that Israel was in Egypt 400 years.  It has the support of P75, but this is not as good as it seems since that papyri is from the 7th century.  For the above translation: D¹ E Ψ 1739 and the Majority Text.  Against: P74 א A B C 33. 36. 81. 453. 1175 pc vg.  The question cannot be decided on textual grounds, except that there are only two possible readings.   The tendency of the Church to believe that the time spent in Egypt was 400 years explains the error in the Alexandrian text type.  The confusion began when the Jewish Scribes appointed to translate the LXX mistranslated the stay in Egypt by adding words to the text: η δε κατοικησις των υιων Ισραηλ ην κατωκησαν εν γη Αιγυπτω και εν γη Χανααν ετη τετρακοσια τριακοντα. They added the words "and in the land of Canaan" to the text.  This was only a slight exaggeration.  Actually, the 430 years date back to when Abraham left Ur of the Chaldees, when Terah was 70.  Only when Abraham was 75 did he go to Canaan, after a five year stay in Haran.  The LXX therefore reflects a short, but slightly altered chronology in Egypt.  According to Jewish Chronology and the Bible the time was actually 210 years.  However, the Church has continually misunderstood the fine details of the duration of the Exodus, not punctuating sentences right in Exodus 12:40 and Genesis 15:13 nor taking account of the fact that the four generations in Egypt according to the prophecy are Jacob, Levi, Jochebed, and Moses.   If Egyptian Christians had any motive to make a mistake, they would certainly make it in favor of Egyptian antiquity, which is exaggerated by the archaeologists as well.  The LXX added almost a millennium to the history of the world.  Whether this was done by the original Jewish translators, or by Christian scribes later cannot be told since the LXX is a very corrupt source.  Even a whole passage is omitted (cf. Jer. 33:17-22).  Floyd Nolen Jones documents other chronological problems with the LXX in his book, The Chronology of the Old Testament .

 

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comment: The source of the 450 years is a summation of the judgeships and oppressions in the book of Judges and Samuel up to the victory under Samuel.  Only Samson's 20 years are left out of the sum, because Samson's is explicitly said to have judged in the days of the Philistines.  This is a sum easily obtainable by a straightforward reading of the texts without assuming any overlaps.  The slightly favorable argument for the revised reading is therefore ill advised when the chronological facts are brought into the picture.  This is further explained in the Scroll of Biblical Chronology and Prophecy

(torahtimes.org/book/)".

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Daniel's Literal Translation and Commentary: (http://www.torahtimes.org/translation/act1320.html)