Chizuk Emunah (Pt 2) Under the Microscope: Chapter 63

Acts 7:14-16, "Then sent Joseph, and called his father Jacob to him, and all his kindred, threescore and fifteen souls. So Jacob went down into Egypt and died, he and our fathers, and were carried over into Sychem, and laid in the sepulchre that Abraham bought for a sum of money of the sons of Emmor, the father of Sychem."

The many errors put together in so a small compass are sufficiently obvious.

In the first place, we know that Jacob's family that came down to Egypt, inclusive of Joseph and his sons, amounted to seventy persons, and not to seventy-five. See Genesis 46:27, and Deuteronomy 10:22.

Secondly, Jacob was not buried in Sychem (Schachem), but in the cave of Machpelah, in Hebron.

Thirdly, The "fathers" of the several tribes were not buried in Egypt, Joseph only being buried there, but his remains Moses carried away with him at the time of the departure of the Israelites from Egypt.

Fourthly, Abraham did not buy the cave of Machpelah of the children of Emmor (Hamor), the son of Schachem, but of Ephron, the Hittite.

Fifthly, the plot of field, situated near Schachem, was purchased by Jacob, and not by Abraham. The author of the Acts had but a confused idea of the several purchases made by the patriarchs Abraham and Jacob, and his statements respecting them must have been from hearsay.

Sixthly, Schachem (Schechem, Sychem), was the son, and not the father of Emmor (Hamor).

More criticism of Stephen's speech. Again, errors in Stephen's speech are not errors in the Bible. Biblical accuracy only requires that Stephen's speech be accurately recorded.

And let's look at that passage as translated by the ESV Bible:

And Joseph sent and summoned Jacob his father and all his kindred, seventy-five persons in all. And Jacob went down into Egypt, and he died, he and our fathers, and they were carried back to Shechem and laid in the tomb that Abraham had bought for a sum of silver from the sons of Hamor in Shechem. (Acts 7:14-16)

And the passage that Troki is referring:

Thus his sons did for him as he had commanded them, for his sons carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave of the field at Machpelah, to the east of Mamre, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite to possess as a burying place. After he had buried his father, Joseph returned to Egypt with his brothers and all who had gone up with him to bury his father. (Genesis 50:12-14)

And Jacob came safely to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, on his way from Paddan-aram, and he camped before the city. And from the sons of Hamor, Shechem's father, he bought for a hundred pieces of money the piece of land on which he had pitched his tent. There he erected an altar and called it El-Elohe-Israel. (Genesis 33:18-20) 

And Abraham rose up from before his dead and said to the Hittites, “I am a sojourner and foreigner among you; give me property among you for a burying place, that I may bury my dead out of my sight.” The Hittites answered Abraham, “Hear us, my lord; you are a prince of God among us. Bury your dead in the choicest of our tombs. None of us will withhold from you his tomb to hinder you from burying your dead.” Abraham rose and bowed to the Hittites, the people of the land. And he said to them, “If you are willing that I should bury my dead out of my sight, hear me and entreat for me Ephron the son of Zohar, that he may give me the cave of Machpelah, which he owns; it is at the end of his field. For the full price let him give it to me in your presence as property for a burying place.” (Genesis 23:3-9 ESV) 

Remember that Stephen is giving this speech in front of learned Jewish scholars who are eager to silence him, and pointing out errors would have greatly undercut Stephen's credibility. The fact that they did not indicates that they believed Stephen's speech to be accurate regarding the facts of history.

The first charge assumes that Genesis does not state that 75 people came down from Egypt. This is true if you read the Masoretic text. In the Septuagint, Genesis 46:27 and Exodus 1:5 say that 75 people came down from Egypt while Deuteronomy 10:22 states that 70 people came down from Egypt. In textual criticism, the rule is that the reading of the text most likely to be the original reading, is the reading that explains the rise of the other readings. It is more likely that later scribe harmonized the readings among the three sources than it is that some scribe mis-copied the text twice, making the exact same mistake on Genesis and Exodus but not in Deuteronomy.

Conspiracy theorists will charge the New Testament writers with altering the Septuagint to fit Stephen's speech. But that just is the kind of reasoning one would expect from a popular level conspiracy theorist. I would love to ask one of these conspiracy theorists why the New Testament writers didn't just alter Stephen's speech to match the Pentateuch. They had much better control over the next of the New Testament than they did the Septuagint, which existed at least as far back as 130 BCE, according to the translation of Ben Sirach.

A careful reading of his speech already resolves the second charge. Stephen is talking about both Joseph and Jacob. Stephen then says "he and our fathers" which, grammatically, could refer either to Jacob or to Joseph. If Stephen is talking about Joseph, this isn't even an error. It's actually stated in the book of Joshua.

As for the bones of Joseph, which the people of Israel brought up from Egypt, they buried them at Shechem, in the piece of land that Jacob bought from the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for a hundred pieces of money. It became an inheritance of the descendants of Joseph. (Joshua 24:32)

The third charge ignores a popular belief among Jews at that time - that not only was Jacob exhumed and carried out of Egypt, but that the patriarchs were as well.

Barnes, in his commentary, writes "At the time when this defense was delivered, "Sychem" was in the hands of the Samaritans, between whom and the Jews there was a violent hostility. Of course, the Jews would not be willing to concede that the Samaritans had the bones of their ancestors, and hence, perhaps the opinion had been maintained that they were buried in Hebron."

The passage does not say that Shechem was the father of Hamor, but that Hamor was the father of Shechem, as Genesis 34:4 confirms.

I think there is confusion because Shechem is the name of a location and of a person. Worse, Stephen's use of pronouns makes it hard to determine who did what. It is not likely that Abraham bought the tomb at Shechem, and the cave of Machpelah is near Hebron, nowhere near Shechem.

Still, I think the answer lies in translation, the word ὅς in Greek is a demonstrative, meaning that it can be translated "as" rendering the passage "laid in the sepulchre (like the one belonging to Abraham) bought for a sum of money . . . " which would resolve difficulties 4 and 5. Jacob did buy the tomb from the sons of Hamor, who was the father of Shechem.