{"id":23873,"date":"2025-10-06T17:00:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-06T21:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pathway2truth.com\/wp\/?p=23873"},"modified":"2025-10-06T17:11:50","modified_gmt":"2025-10-06T21:11:50","slug":"acts-712-14-jacobs-journey-to-egypt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pathway2truth.com\/wp\/acts-712-14-jacobs-journey-to-egypt\/","title":{"rendered":"Acts 7:12-14 -Jacob&#8217;s Journey to Egypt"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Problem: <\/strong>Three times in the Old Testament, it is stated that seventy people from the house of Jacob went down into Egypt. According to Genesis 46:27, \u201cAll the persons of the house of Jacob who went to Egypt were <b>seventy<\/b>.\u201d In the first few verses of the book of Exodus, Jacob\u2019s sons are named, and then again we are told, \u201cAll those who were descendants of Jacob were <b>seventy <\/b>persons\u201d (Exodus 1:1,5). The third Old Testament reference to this number is found in Deuteronomy 10:22, where Moses spoke to the Israelites about the \u201cgreat and awesome things\u201d that God had done for them (10:21). He then reminded the children of Israel of how their \u201cfathers went down to Egypt with <b>seventy<\/b> persons,\u201d which Jehovah made \u201cas the stars of heaven in multitude\u201d (Deuteronomy 10:22). The difficulty that Christians are challenged to resolve is how these verses can be understood in light of Stephen\u2019s statement recorded in Acts 7:12-14. Being \u201cfull of the Holy Spirit\u201d (7:55) with a \u201cface as the face of an angel\u201d (6:15), Stephen reminded the Jews of their history, saying, \u201cWhen Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent out our fathers first. And the second time Joseph was made known to his brothers, and Joseph\u2019s family became known to the Pharaoh. <b>Then Joseph sent and called his father Jacob and all his relatives to him, seventy-five people<\/b>\u201d (Acts 7:12-14, emp. added). Skeptics, as well as concerned Christians who seek to back their faith with reasonable answers, desire to know why Acts 7:14 mentions \u201cseventy-five people,\u201d while Genesis 46:27, Exodus 1:5, and Deuteronomy 10:22 mention only \u201cseventy persons.\u201d Exactly how many of Jacob\u2019s household went to Egypt?<br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/>\nSolution: Similar to how a person truthfully can give different degrees for the boiling point of water (100\u00b0 Celsius or 212\u00b0 Fahrenheit), different figures are given in the Bible for the number of Jacob\u2019s family members who traveled into Egypt. Stephen (in Acts 7:14) did not contradict the Old Testament passages where the number seventy is used; he merely computed the number differently. Precisely how Stephen calculated this number is a matter of speculation. Consider the following:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>In Genesis 46:27, neither Jacob\u2019s wife (cf. 35:19) nor his concubines is included in the seventy figure.<\/li>\n<li>Despite the mention of Jacob\u2019s \u201cdaughters and his son\u2019s daughters\u201d (46:7), it seems that the only daughter included in the \u201cseventy\u201d was Dinah (vs. 15), and the only granddaughter was Serah (vs. 17).<\/li>\n<li>The wives of Jacob\u2019s sons are not included in the seventy (46:26).<\/li>\n<li>Finally, whereas only <b>two<\/b> descendants of Joseph are mentioned in Genesis 46 in the Masoretic text of the Old Testament, in the Septuagint, Joseph\u2019s descendants are calculated as being <b>nine<\/b>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Taking into consideration how many individuals were omitted from \u201cthe seventy persons\u201d mentioned in the Old Testament, at least two possible solutions to this alleged contradiction may be offered. First, it is possible that Stephen included Jacob\u2019s daughters-in-law in his calculation of seventy-five. Jacob\u2019s children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren amounted to sixty-six (Genesis 46:8-26). If Jacob, Joseph, and Joseph\u2019s two sons are added, then the total number is seventy (46:27). If, however, to the sixty-six Stephen added the wives of Jacob\u2019s sons\u2019, he could have legitimately reckoned Jacob\u2019s household as numbering seventy-five, instead of seventy. [NOTE: Jacob is listed by Stephen individually.] Yet, someone might ask how sixty-six plus \u201ctwelve\u201d equals seventy-five. Simple\u2014not all of the wives were included. Joseph\u2019s wife obviously would not have been calculated into this figure, if Joseph himself were not. And, at least two of the eleven remaining wives may have been deceased by the time the family journeyed to Egypt. We know for sure that Judah\u2019s wife had already died by this time (Genesis 38:12), and it is reasonable to conclude that another of the wives had passed away as well. (In all likelihood, Simeon\u2019s wife had already died\u2014cf. Genesis 46:10.) Thus, when Stephen stated that \u201cJoseph sent and called his father Jacob and <b>all his relatives to him, seventy-five people<\/b>\u201d (Acts 7:14), realistically he could have included the <b>living<\/b> wives of Joseph\u2019s brothers to get a different (though not a contradictory) number.<\/p>\n<p>A second possible solution to this alleged contradiction is that Stephen quoted from the Septuagint. Although Deuteronomy 10:22 reads the same in both the Masoretic text and the Septuagint (\u201cseventy\u201d), Genesis 46:27 and Exodus 1:5 differ in the two texts. Whereas the Masoretic text says \u201cseventy\u201d in both passages, the Septuagint says \u201cseventy-five.\u201d As R.C.H. Lenski concluded, however: \u201cThis is a mere matter of counting\u201d (1961, p. 270).<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The descendants of Jacob that went to Egypt were sixty-six in number (Gen. 46:26), but counting Joseph and his two sons and Jacob himself (Gen. 46:27), the number is seventy. In the LXX [Septuagint\u2014EL] all the sons of Joseph who he got in Egypt were counted, \u201cnine souls,\u201d which, with the sixty-six, made seventy-five (Lenski, p. 270).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Thus, instead of adding the nine living wives of Joseph\u2019s brothers (as proposed in the aforementioned solution), this scenario suggests that the number seventy-five is the result following the reading from the Septuagint\u2014which includes the grandchildren of Joseph (cf. 1 Chronicles 7:14-21). [NOTE: The Septuagint and the Masoretic text may differ, but they do not contradict each other\u2014the former simply mentions some of Joseph\u2019s descendants who are not recorded by the latter.] In Albert Barnes\u2019 comments concerning these differences, he appropriately noted:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Why the Septuagint inserted these [Joseph\u2019s descendants\u2014EL], it may not be easy to see. But such was evidently the fact; and the fact accords accurately with the historic record, though Moses did not insert their names. The solution of difficulties in regard to chronology is always difficult; and <b>what might be entirely apparent to a Jew in the time of Stephen, may be wholly inexplicable to us<\/b> (1949, p. 123, emp. added).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>One of the more \u201cinexplicable\u201d things regarding the 70 (or 75) \u201cof the house of Jacob who went to Egypt,\u201d revolves around the mention of some of Jacob\u2019s descendants who apparently were not born until sometime <b>after<\/b> the journey to Egypt was completed. If one accepts the Septuagint\u2019s tally of 75, including the grandchildren of Joseph, he also must conclude that Manasseh and Ephraim (Joseph\u2019s sons) fathered these children sometime <b>after<\/b> Jacob\u2019s migration to Egypt, and possibly before Jacob\u2019s death seventeen years later (since Ephraim and Manasseh still were very young when the house of Jacob moved to Egypt). If one excludes the Septuagint from this discussion, there still are at least two possible indications in Genesis 46 that not all \u201cseventy\u201d were born before Jacob\u2019s family arrived in Egypt. First, Hezron and Hamul (the sons of Perez) are included in the \u201cseventy\u201d (46:12), yet the evidence strongly leans toward these great-grandsons of Jacob not being born until <b>after<\/b> the migration. Considering that Judah, the grandfather of Hezron and Hamul, was only about forty-three when the migration to Egypt took place, and that the events recorded in Genesis 38 (involving his family) occurred over a number of years, it seems logical to conclude, as did Steven Mathewson in his \u201cExegetical Study of Genesis 38,\u201d that \u201cJudah\u2019s sons Perez and Zerah were quite young, perhaps just a few months old, when they traveled to Egypt. Therefore it would have been impossible for Perez to have fathered Hezron and Hamul, his two sons mentioned in Genesis 46:12, before the journey into Egypt\u201d (1989, 146:383). He went on to note:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>A close look, however, at Genesis 46:12 reveals a variation in the mention of Hezron and Hamul. The end of the verse reads: \u201cAnd the sons of Perez were Hezron and Hamul.\u201d Yet throughout Genesis 46, the listing of descendants was done without the use of a verbal form. For example, verse 12a reads, \u201cAnd the sons of Judah: Er and Onan and Shelah and Perez and Zerah\u201d (146:383).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Hebrew scholar Umberto Cassuto commented on this \u201cspecial phraseology,\u201d saying, \u201cThis external variation creates the impression that the Bible wished to give us here some special information that was different from what it desired to impart relative to the other descendants of Israel\u201d (1929, 1:34). Cassuto also explained what he thought was the intention behind this special use of the verb \u201cwere.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>It intended to inform us thereby that the sons of Perez were not among those who went down to Egypt, but are mentioned here for some other reason. This is corroborated by the fact that Joseph\u2019s sons were also not of those who immigrated into Egypt, and they, too, are mentioned by a different formula (1:35).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>A second indication that all \u201cseventy\u201d were likely not born before Jacob\u2019s family migrated to Egypt is that ten \u201csons\u201d (descendants) of Benjamin are listed (46:21). If Joseph was thirty-nine at the time of this migration (cf. 41:46), one can figure (roughly) the age of Benjamin by calculating the amount of time that passed between their births. It was <b>after<\/b> Joseph\u2019s birth that his father, Jacob, worked his final six years for Laban in Padan Aram (30:25; 31:38,41). We know that Benjamin was more than six years younger than Joseph, because he was not born until sometime after Jacob discontinued working for Laban. In fact, Benjamin was not born until after Jacob: (1) departed Padan Aram (31:18); (2) crossed over the river (Euphrates\u201431:21); (3) met with his brother, Esau, near Penuel (32:22,31; 33:2); (4) built a house in Succoth (33:17); (5) pitched his tent in Shechem (33:18); and (6) built an altar to God at Bethel (35:1-19). Obviously, a considerable amount of time passed between Jacob\u2019s separation from Laban in Padan Aram, and the birth of Benjamin near Bethlehem. Albert Barnes conservatively estimated that Benjamin was thirteen years younger than Joseph (1997). Biblical commentator John T. Willis said Benjamin was likely about fourteen years younger than Joseph (1984, p. 433). Also, considering Benjamin was referred to as \u201clad\u201d (\u201cboy\u201d\u2014NIV) eight times in Genesis chapters 43 and 44, which record events directly preceding Jacob\u2019s move to Egypt, one would not expect Benjamin to be any more than 25 or 26 years of age at the time of the migration. What is somewhat perplexing to the Bible reader is that even though Benjamin was by far the youngest son of Jacob, more of his descendants are named in Genesis 46 than any other son of Jacob. In fact, some of these descendants of Benjamin apparently were his <b>grandsons<\/b> (cf. Numbers 26:38-40; 1 Chronicles 8:1-5).<\/p>\n<p>But how is it that ten of Benjamin\u2019s descendants, along with Hezron and Hamul, legitimately could appear in a list with those who traveled to Egypt, when all indications are that at least some were yet to be born? Answer: Because some of the names are brought in by prolepsis (or anticipation). Although they might not have been born by the time Jacob left for Egypt, they were in his loins\u2014they \u201ccame from his body\u201d (Genesis 46:26). Renowned Old Testament commentators Keil and Delitzsch stated: \u201cFrom all this it necessarily follows, that in the list before us grandsons and great-grandsons of Jacob are named who were born afterwards in Egypt, and who, therefore, according to a view which we frequently meet with in the Old Testament, though strange to our modes of thought, came into Egypt <i>in lumbis patrum<\/i>\u201d (1996). Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown agreed, saying:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The natural impression conveyed by these words [\u201cthese are the names of the children of Israel which came into Egypt\u201d\u2014EL] is, that the genealogy which follows contains a list of all the members of Jacob\u2019s family, of whatever age, whether arrived at manhood or carried in their mother\u2019s arms, who, having been born in Canaan, actually removed along with him to Egypt\u2026. A closer examination, however, will show sufficient grounds for concluding that the genealogy was constructed on a very different principle\u2014not that of naming only those members of Jacob\u2019s family who were natives of Canaan, but of enumerating those who at the time of the immigration into Egypt, and during the patriarch\u2019s life-time, were the recognized heads of families, in Israel, though <b>some of them, born after the departure from Canaan, could be said to have \u201ccome into Egypt\u201d only in the persons of their fathers<\/b> (1997, emp. added).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>While all seventy mentioned in Genesis 46 may not have <b>literally <\/b>traveled down to Egypt, Moses, writing this account more than 215 years later (see Bass, et. al., 2001), easily could have used a figure a speech known as prolepsis to include those who would be born shortly thereafter, and who eventually (by the time of Moses) would have been \u201cthe recognized heads of families.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Problem: Three times in the Old Testament, it is stated that seventy people from the house of Jacob went down into Egypt. According to Genesis 46:27, \u201cAll the persons of the house of Jacob who went to Egypt were seventy.\u201d In the first few verses of the book of Exodus, Jacob\u2019s sons are named, andContinue reading &rarr;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23877,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[22,8,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bible-errors","category-bible-study","category-bible-teaching","has-thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pathway2truth.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pathway2truth.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pathway2truth.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pathway2truth.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pathway2truth.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23873"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pathway2truth.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23873\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pathway2truth.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pathway2truth.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pathway2truth.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pathway2truth.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}