3008.-A Discrepancy by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Jan 18, 1910

3008.—A Discrepancy

By Editor

Please explain the discrepancy in numbers between Acts 7:14 and Gen. 46:27.

This is one of the difficulties that is not easy to explain. The best explanation is that Stephen quoted from the Septuagint, which reads as follows: “And all the souls that came with Jacob into Egypt who came out of his loins, besides the wives of the sons of Jacob, even all the souls were sixty-six; and the sons of Joseph who were born to him in the land of Egypt were nine souls. All the souls of the house of Jacob who came with Joseph into Egypt was seventy-five souls.” Had we lived in those days, it might have been very easy for us to see this. The Hebrew Scriptures gave only a part, where the Septuagint seems to have included all. Of course the Septuagint was translated from the Hebrew Bible, but it was evidently translated from a different copy than that from which our Hebrew came. The Septuagint includes all of Jacob’s and Joseph’s descendants.