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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadBob Utley You Can Understand the Bible - Acts 7:11 - 7:16
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Act_7:11-16
11Now a famine came over all Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction with it, and our fathers could find no food. 12But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our fathers there the first time. 13On the second visit Joseph made himself known to his brothers, and Joseph's family was disclosed to Pharaoh. 14Then Joseph sent word and invited Jacob his father and all his relatives to come to him, seventy-five persons in all. 15And Jacob went down to Egypt andthere he and our fathers died. 16From there they were removed to Shechem and laid in the tomb which Abraham had purchased for a sum of money from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.
Act_7:11 This account is found in Gen_41:54-55; Gen_42:5.
Act_7:12 This account is found in Gen_42:4.
Act_7:13 This account is found in Gen_45:1-4.
Act_7:14 "seventy-five" This follows the Septuagint and the Dead Sea Scrolls manuscripts, while the Masoretic Text has "seventy" (cf. Gen_46:27; Exo_1:5; Deu_10:22). At first this seems like a manuscript problem between the LXX, which Stephen quotes, and the Hebrew text of Exo_1:5. On further reflection it may be two ways of counting all the descendants of Jacob. The problem arises between Gen_46:26-27 :
1. the MT of Act_7:27 has two sons born to Joseph in Egypt, while the LXX has nine, which means that Ephraim and Manassah later had more children between them
2. in the Hebrew text Jacob and his wife are counted, but Ephraim and Manasseh's extra children are not counted
In the Greek text (LXX) Jacob and his wife are not counted, but the extra children of Ephraim and Manasseh are counted. Both are accurate, but they add up the descendants in different ways at different times in Jacob's life. The Hebrew texts known as the Dead Sea Scrolls also have "seventy-five persons" in Gen_46:27 and Exo_1:5. Philo of Alexandia was familiar with both numbers.
We are all the benefactors of modern scholarship when it comes to difficult texts or number problems like this one. There is a new type of biblical resource available today which targets these difficult texts. I recommend:
1. Hard Sayings of the Bible, IVP
2. More Hard Sayings of the Bible, IVP
3. Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties by Gleason Archer.
For a discussion of Act_7:14-15 see #1 pp. 521-522.
Act_7:15 This account is found in Gen_46:5; Gen_49:33; Exo_1:6.
Act_7:16 "to Shechem" From the Genesis accounts of (1) the burial of Joseph recorded in Jos_24:32 and (2) the burial of Jacob recorded in Gen_50:13, there seems to be a discrepancy in Stephen's sermon. The problem is (1) the city; it should be Hebron, not Shechem, or (2) the patriarch; it should be Jacob, not Abraham. However, Abraham and Jacob both bought land (cf. Gen_23:16; Gen_33:19). At Hebron Sarah and Abraham were buried (cf. Gen_23:19; Gen_25:9), as were Isaac and Rebekah (cf. Gen_49:29-31) and Jacob (cf. Gen_50:13). Although it is uncertain about a burial plot at Shechem, it is possible that Abraham had earlier purchased a field on his stop there in Gen_12:6-7. Later Jacob redeemed that same piece of land (cf. Gen_33:19; Jos_24:32). This is obviously speculation, but Stephen appears to be very knowledgeable of the OT history and this would be the only way to reconcile the various accounts.