There's a theory that says maybe the Israelites spent 400 years in slavery between Joseph and Moses. In this web page, we'll examine that theory, whether it is possible and/or probably.

The scriptures seem to suggest that it's possible, but not as probably, that the entire 400 years of slavery mentioned in Gen 15 was spent during the days of Egyptian slavery. While Josephus says they spent 430 eyars in Egypt, with only 215 years of htat in slavery.

Galatians 3:16-17 seems to place 430 years from God's promise to Abraham to the deliverance from Egypt.  We know the scriptures cannot contradict.  Immediately after the promise was given to Abraham, he went down to Egypt, and I believe this time Abraham spent in Egypt was counted in the 430 years cited in Ex 12:40-42, thus there's no conflict.  The real question is when did the period described in Ex 12:40-42 begin?  Putting all other scriptures together, including Gal 3:16-17, it would suggest from the time of Abraham in Gen 12.   The bible gives us "another witness" on how much time elapsed by giving us the geneology from Abraham to Moses, which doesn't provide as exact a measurement, but does agree with the 430 year measurement and shows that there could not have been 400 years of slavery by Israel to Egypt alone before the Exodus. Though some say the passages in the Old Testament that refer to this period appear to suggest Israel would spend the entire period in slavery to one and the same nation.  

We're told in the Bible...

• Abraham recieved the "Promise" in Gen 12 at the age of 75 and then left for Egypt.  He later left Egypt for the Negev, but didn' t return to the promised land, and neither did any of his descendants, until after Moses died.  
• Abraham was promised again in Gen 15 and God said they'd come out of Egypt in THE FOURTH GENERATION.  To accept the theory about Israel being in slavery for 400 contiguous years to Egypt alone, we'd have to allow 100 years for each generation.  (See Gen 15:13-16, which is what Steven was quoting in Acts 7.)   Abraham begat Isaac at age 100,  or 25 years after the promise of Gen 12, about 14 years after the promise in Gen 15.
• Isaac begat Jacob at age 60.  Isaac died at age 180.
• Jacob begat Levi, his 3rd son.  Jacob died at age 147.  He went to Egypt at age 130 during the famine. 12 years passed from his 11th to 12th son.  I have some notes that say Jacob was 82 when Levi was born, or 162 years after the promise (ATP).  I think that was deduced from several Biblical datings of events.
• Levi begat Kohath, died at age 137.
• Kohath begat Amran, died at age 133.
• Amran begat Moses, died at age 137.
• Moses was 80 at the Exodus.  He had children during the Exodus and was old enough to have had grandchildren, so he was the 2nd or 3rd of the FOURTH generation mentioned in Gen  15:16. 

Slavery probably didn't start till after Joseph died, who was a contemporary of Levi, so the EARLIEST slavery could have begun was during Kohath's lifetime. 

To accept the idea that Israel spent 430 years in slavery to Egypt before Moses led them out, we'd have to deduce several things. First, it's possible that this is the case and maybe the slavery period began in Gen 50:18. Joseph promised them they would be treated well, while Gen 15:13 saves they would be "enslaved and mistreated for 400 years". That would mean that the mistreatment would have started probably about 30 years later. Since Jacob died 17 years later, Joseph would have had to have died very shortly after his father, but the Bible tells us he died at age 110. Thus, it would seem that the "enslaved and mistreated" mentioned in Gen went hand-in-hand.

Even if Kohath gave birth to Amran the day before he died and Amran gave birth to Moses the day before he died, that only puts 350 years from the Exodus to the birth of Kohath, and puts the start of the "400 years of slavery" during Joseph's lifetime.    But if we take Josephus' dating, there is potentially 215 years difference from Moses at age 80 to Kohath's lifetime, with each previous partriarch being in his 60's when the appropriate ancestor was born, which was appropriate for the time given Isaac's and Jacob's age at the birth of their sons.  To get from Levi's birth 162 years After The Promise (ATP) to 430 years ATP, we need an average age of 63 at the birth of each descendant of Levi from Kohath to Moses.  To get 430 years from the 130th year of Jacob (about the 48th year of Levi) to the 80th year of Moses, as proposed by Eric, we need for Levi to give birth to Kohath the year he died, and then Kohath and Amran to have given birth at an average age of 130.  Which is possible, but not likely, and you also have to move the slavery period up to Joseph's lifetime. 

For these men to have given birth at such an old age would put Abraham's "miracle" as something very common and not so "miraculous" at all.  It also means we'd have to say Paul was either wrong in Gal 3:16-17 when he dates the giving of the Law at Mt. Sinai as being 430 years after the promise in Gen 12 or he was talking about something that the else by the pronouns he was using - making the whole passage somewhat ambiguous.    Also, we're told Joseph lived to be 110 and saw the THIRD generation of Ephraim's children, Ephraim being one of His children.  So the FOURTH generation discussed in Gen 15 must be talking from the start of slavery to the Exodus.  He must have died close to the same time Levi did, since he was 12 years younger than the 11th son, and therefore no less than 20 years younger than Levi.  That puts the BEGINNING of the slavery period at sometime around Amran's birth, maybe a few daces before, maybe a few decades after.  

All of this is quite long and involved and inexact, and why I tried dating the chronology from the 430 year period given, rather than tracing geneology after Abraham.   So I see no way to reconcile all the scriptures together without accepting the interpretation Josephus gives in his writings and the interpretation Paul gives in Gal 3:16-17, which puts 430 years from the promise of Gen 12:3 to the Exodus when Moses was 80.  

PS, if 430 years passed from the 130th year of Jacob to the 80th year of Moses, that would put human history today at somewhere between at least 6,150 years from today to the time of Adam and no later than 6,444 years.   

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