The Expositor's Bible: The Acts of the Apostles, Vol. 1Stokes, George Thomas
Religion
The Expositor's Bible: The Acts of the Apostles, Vol. 1
Stokes, George Thomas
Bible. Acts -- Commentaries; Bible. Acts -- Criticism, interpretation, etc.
II. We have now spoken of the general aspect of the discourse, and the
broad counsels we may gather from it. There are some other points,
however, points of detail as distinguished from wider views, upon
which we would fix our attention. They too will be found full of
guidance and full of instruction. Let us take them in the order in
which they appear in St. Stephen's address. The mistakes and
variations which undoubtedly occur in it are well worthy of careful
attention, and have much teaching necessary for these times. There are
three points in which Stephen varies from the language of the Old
Testament. In the fourteenth verse of the seventh chapter Stephen
speaks thus: "Then sent Joseph, and called his father Jacob to him,
and all his kindred, threescore and fifteen souls;" while, if we turn
to the Pentateuch, we shall find that the number of the original
Hebrew immigrants is placed three times over at seventy, or threescore
and ten, that is in Gen. xlvi. 27, Exod. i. 5, and Deut. x. 22. This,
however, is only a comparatively minor point. The Septuagint or Greek
version of the Pentateuch reads seventy-five in the first of these
passages, making the sons of Joseph born in Egypt to have been nine
persons, and thus completing the number seventy-five, at which it
fixes the roll of the males who came with Jacob. The next two verses,
the fifteenth and sixteenth, contain a much more serious mistake. They
run thus:--"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." Now here there occur several grave errors. Jacob was not
carried over and buried at Sychem at all, but at the cave of
Machpelah, as is plainly stated in Gen. l. 13. Again, a plot of ground
at Sychem was certainly bought, not by Abraham, however, but by Jacob.
Abraham bought the field and cave of Machpelah from Ephron the
Hittite. Jacob bought his plot at Sychem from the sons of Emmor. There
are in these verses, then, two serious historical mistakes; first as
to the true burial-place of Jacob, and then as to the purchaser of the
plot of ground at Sychem. Yet, again, there is a third mistake in the
forty-third verse, where, when quoting a denunciation of Jewish
idolatry from Amos v. 25, 26, he quotes the prophet as threatening, "I
will carry you away beyond Babylon," whereas the prophet did say,
"Therefore I will cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus." St.
Stephen substituted Babylon for Damascus, two cities between which
several hundred miles intervened. I have stated the difficulty thus
as strongly as possible, because I think that, instead of constituting
a difficulty, they are a real source of living help and comfort, as
well as a great practical confirmation of the story. Let us take this
last point first. I say that these mistakes, admitted mistakes which I
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