The Pulpit Commentary — Acts — Volume 1 — Section 222

(Huppim apparently being now reckoned), Ver. 15.-.And for ao, A.V.; he di-ed, 'him- whioh, added to sixty-six, makes seventy- eelf for died, he, A.V. five; o.nd nccordingly in var. 27 the LXX. Ver. 16.-And th,y were for and v,e,-e, reo.d ,i,vxal l/330µ.111eovn,rlv-r• (" seventy-five A. V. : unto Shechem for into Sychem, A. V ., i.e. souls"), instead of "three score and ten." tbe Hebrew for the Greek form of the name But except in the addition of these five (Gen. xxxiv. 2): tomb for sepulchre, A.V.; nmnes of Joseph's grand and grcat-grand- a price in si'lver for a 8wm of fnO'TleJ/, A. V. ; oh1ldren, the LXX. support the Hebrew Hamm for Emor, A.V. (Hebrew for Greek text, even in the strange 8izty-8iz of ver. 26. form); in Shechem for the father of Sychem, Stephen, o.s a Hellenist, no.tnrally follows A.V. and T.R. As regards the statement the LXX. But the question arises-How are in the text, two distinct transactions seem we to understand the lists? Gen. xlvi. 8 at first si11;ht to be mixed np. One, that sap, "'.rhese o.re the names of the children Abraham bought the field of Machpele.h of of Israel, which came into Egypt;" and one Ephron the Hittite for a burial-place, where naturally expects to :find the names only of he and Sarah, and Isaac and Rebekah, and those who are described in vers. 5-7 as the Jo.cob and Leah, were buried (Gen. xxiv. migratory party from Co.naan to Egypt. 16, 17, 19 ; xxv. 9, 10; :uxv. 27-29; xli.x. Thie expectation is somewhat disturbed by 29-31); the other, that Jacob "bought e. Er and Onan being included in the enume- parcel of a field, ... at the hand of the chil- ration. This may, however, be accounted for dren of Hamor, Shechem's father, for e.n hun- by Pharez and Zerah being reckoned as dred pieces of money," where the bones of their seed, But is it likely that Hezron Joseph were buried by Joshua (Gen. xxxiii. and Hamul the sons of Pharez, and the 19; I. 25; Josh. xxiv. 32), and where, ac- other great-grandsons of Jacob, were born cording to a tradition still surviving in the before the descent into Egypt? The answer days of St. Jerome, the other patriarchs to this is that, as Jacob was a hundred were o.lso buried(' Epistol.' 86, "She came to and thirty years old when he came down to Sichem, now called Neapolis (or Nablons), Egypt (Gen. :xlvii. 28), there is no impro- and from thence visited the tombs of the bability in his having great-grandchildren twelve patriarchs"). See a.I.so Jerome, 'De (allowing forty years for e. generation); on Optimo Genere Interpretandi.' "All Jewish the contrary, every likelihood that he should. writers, however, are wholly silent" about But on the other hand, as Joseph could not this tradition, perhaps from jealousy of the have been above fifty when Jacob came Samaritans (Lightfoot, vol. viii. p. {23). down to Egypt(30 + 14 + X.), Gen. :xii. 46, And Josephus affirms that all but Josepli 29, 30, it does not seem likely or possible were buried at Hebron (' Ant. Jud.,' ii. that Joseph should have had grown-up viii. 2); and that their beautiful marble grandsons and a great-grandson, as the LXX. monuments were to be seen at Hebron in make him have. Indeed, to e.11 appearance his day. In the cave ofMachpelah, however, Manasseh aud Ephraim were unmarried there is no tomb of any of the twelve patri- young men at the time that Jacob blessed archs except Joseph; and his so-called tomb them (Gen. :xlviii. 11, 16; I. 23). There- is of a different character and situation from fore we may conclude certainly that the the genuine ones (Stanley's 'Lectures on additional numbers of the LXX. are incor- Jewish Church,' 1st series, pp. 498-500. rect, if understood literally, of those who See also ' Sermons in the East ' : ' The came down with Jacob from Canaan to Mosque of Hebron'). But on looking closer Egypt. But there is nothing improbable in at the text it appears pretty certain that only Benjamin having ten children. Judah, to Shechem was in Stephen's mind. For first whom gre.ndchildren e.re attributed, was he speaks of Shechem st once, And were Jo.cob's fourth son, and might be forty or oarried over unto Shechem. And adds and fifty years cider than Joseph and Benjamin, were laid in the tomb that Abraham bought Asher, tow horn also grandsons are attributed, for a prioe in llilver of the sons of Hamor in was the eighth son, and might bo twenty Shechem. Except the one word •• Abl"llham," years older the.n Joseph and Benjamin. the whole sentence points to Shechem. Still, considering that Er and Ono.n are What he says of Shechem is exactly in reckoned amou~ those who came down to accordance with Gen. x::uii.i. 18, 19. And Egypt, it would not be surprising to find what he says of their fathers being carried tho.t some of those mentioned in the list over and buried at Shechem is exaL'tly true were born after Jacob'sarrival, but included of Joseph's bones, os related in Josh. uiv. on some principle which we do not under- 32. So that the one difficulty is the word sto.nd. In other words, a literal interpreta- "Abraham." It seems much more probable tion of the statement of the Hebrew Bible that this word should have been interpolo.ted (nvolvee no impossibilities, but a litero.l by some early transcriber, who saw no nomi- mterpreto.tion of the statement of the LXX. native cuse to wv-{iuaro, and who had in his do011. llWl.ll a oonfWK!d reoollection oI Abraho.w',  218 THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. [on. vu. 1-60.