Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Acts 7:14
Then sent Joseph, and called his father Jacob to [him,] and all his kindred, threescore and fifteen souls.
14. threescore and fifteen souls ] This number is taken from the LXX. In the Hebrew (Gen 46:8-27) the number is but seventy including Jacob himself. The five additional names given in the LXX. are Machir the son and Galaad the grandson of Manasseh, and the two sons of Ephraim, Taam and Soutalaam, with Soutalaam’s son, Edom. So in Exo 1:5 the Hebrew has 70, and the LXX. 75. There were many traditions current on this subject, and the Rabbis notice too that 69 persons (they exclude Jacob) are reckoned for 70 in the account given Genesis 46. In the Midrash Shemuel, c. 32, there are various suggestions thrown out First it is said the one wanting was Jochebed, who became wife of Amram and mother of Moses, for it is mentioned (Num 26:59) that she was a daughter of Levi born in Egypt, and the tradition is that she was born “between the walls,” i.e. just as the people were entering Egypt, and so she is to be counted in the number. Another tradition is attached to Gen 46:23, “The sons of Dan, Hushim.” As the last word is a plural form, and sons are spoken of in the verse, therefore it is thought that there were two Hushim, an elder and a younger. Also (T. B. Baba Bathra 123 a ad fin.) there is mentioned the tradition that there was a twin with Dinah. We may thus see that there were traditions current which probably were well known to the translators of the LXX., and gave rise to their number. They however are not consistent, for in Deuteronomy (Act 10:22) they give 70 as the number which went down into Egypt. Stephen, as was to be expected from the other quotations in this book, and also because he was a Grecian Jew, follows the LXX.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
All his kindred – His father and family, Gen 45:17-28; 46:1-26.
Threescore and fifteen souls – Seventy-five persons. There has been much perplexity felt in the explanation of this passage. In Gen 46:26, Exo 1:5, and Deu 10:22, it is expressly said that the number which went down to Egypt consisted of 70 persons. The question is, in what way these accounts can be reconciled? It is evident that Stephen has followed the account which is given by the Septuagint. In Gen 46:27, that version reads, But the sons of Joseph who were with him in Egypt were nine souls; all the souls of the house of Jacob which came with Jacob into Egypt were seventy-five souls. This number is made out by adding these nine souls to the 66 mentioned in Gen 46:26. The difference between the Septuagint and Moses is, that the former mentions five descendants of Joseph who are not recorded by the latter. The names of the sons of Ephraim and Manasseh are recorded in 1Ch 7:14-21. Their names were Ashriel, Machir, Zelophehad, Peresh, sons of Manasseh; and Shuthelah, son of Ephraim. Why the Septuagint inserted these, 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 what might be entirely apparent to a Jew in the time of Stephen, may be wholly inexplicable to us.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 14. Threescore and fifteen souls.] There are several difficulties here, which it is hoped the reader will find satisfactorily removed in the note on Ge 46:20. It is well known that in Ge 46:27, and in De 10:22, their number is said to be threescore and ten; but Stephen quotes from the Septuagint, which adds five persons to the account which are not in the Hebrew text, Machir, Gilead, Sutelaam, Taham, and Edem; but see the note referred to above.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
All his kindred; his affinity, and not consanguinity only, which may be the reason why, though in Gen 46:26 it is said, that all
the souls that came with Jacob into Egypt were threescore and six, ( it being then added, they were all such as came out of his loins), yet it is said they were seventy persons, Gen 46:27, Jacob, Joseph, and Josephs two sons (who were also of the promised seed) being added unto the number. In this account of St. Stephen, his sons wives might be added, which make up seventy-five. There are other accounts of this difference; but it is not of any consequence as to faith and holy living, which are only necessary unto salvation: the wonderful increase to so many hundred thousands of men, besides children, spoken of, Exo 12:37, notwithstanding the barbarous cruelty of the Egyptians, is to be admired.
Souls; the nobler and better part, by which they are numbered, and according unto which they are esteemed by God.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
14. threescore and fifteensoulsaccording to the Septuagint version of Ge46:27, which Stephen follows, including the five children andgrandchildren of Joseph’s two sons.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Then sent Joseph,…. Gifts and presents to his father, and wagons, to fetch down him and his family into Egypt, Ge 45:21.
and called his father Jacob to him, and all his kindred, threescore and fifteen souls; which seems to disagree with the account of Moses, who says, that “all the souls of the house of Jacob, which came into Egypt, were threescore and ten”, Ge 46:27. But there is no contradiction; Moses and Stephen are speaking of different things; Moses speaks of the seed of Jacob, which came out of his loins, who came into Egypt, and so excludes his sons’ wives; Stephen speaks of Jacob and all his kindred, among whom his sons’ wives must be reckoned, whom Joseph called to him: according to Moses’s account, the persons that came with Jacob into Egypt, who came out of his loins, and so exclusive of his sons’ wives, were threescore and six; to which if we add Jacob himself, and Joseph who was before in Egypt, and who might be truly said to come into it, and his two sons that were born there, who came thither in his loins, as others in the account may be said to do, who were not yet born, when Jacob went down, the total number is threescore and ten, Ge 46:26 out of which take the six following persons, Jacob, who was called by Joseph into Egypt, besides the threescore and fifteen souls, and Joseph and his two sons then in Egypt, who could not be said to be called by him, and Hezron and Hamul, the sons of Pharez not yet born, and this will reduce Moses’s number to sixty four; to which sixty four, if you add the eleven wives of Jacob’s sons, who were certainly part of the kindred called and invited into Egypt, Ge 45:10 it will make up completely threescore and fifteen persons: or the persons called by Joseph maybe reckoned thus; his eleven brethren and sister Dinah, fifty two brother’s children, to which add his brethren’s eleven wives, and the amount is threescore and fifteen: so that the Jew w has no reason to charge Stephen with an error, as he does; nor was there any need to alter and corrupt the Septuagint version of Ge 45:27 to make it agree with Stephen’s account; or to add five names in it, in Ac 7:20 as Machir, Galaad, Sutalaam, Taam, and Edom, to make up the number seventy five: and it may be observed, that the number is not altered in the version of De 10:22 which agrees with the Hebrew for seventy persons.
w R. Isaac Chizzuk Emuna, par. 2. c. 63. p. 450.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Three-score and fifteen souls ( ). Stephen follows the LXX which counts some grandchildren of Joseph and so makes it 75 whereas Ge 46:26 has 66 and then the next verse makes it 70 including Jacob and Joseph with his two sons. The use of means “consisting in.”
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Threescore and fifteen. Lit., “in [] threescore and fifteen;” the idiom expressing the sum in which all the individuals were included.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “Then sent Joseph,” (aposteilas de loseph) “Then Joseph sent (commissioned),” his brethren, Gen 45:9.
2) “And called his father Jacob to him,” (metekalesato lakob ton patera autou) “And he called to his side his father,” Gen 45:10; Gen 45:13; Gen 45:17-18. And in the call he promised his needs for the journey, Gen 45:19-28; Then he assured him of a safe journey, in a vision at Beersheba, after a sacrifice that night, Gen 46:1-7.
3) “And all his kindred,” (kai pasan ten sungeneian) “And all his family,” all his father’s direct family and their offspring,” both coming out of Canaan and those of Joseph’s family already in Egypt, to come together as one race-family, Gen 46:5-7.
4) “Threescore and fifteen souls,” (en psuchais hebdomekonta pente) “in number seventy five souls,” or seventy five people, including Jacob, Joseph, his wife and two sons, Gen 46:27, the latter five named here were in addition to the threescore and ten listed Gen 46:1-27.
See also Exo 1:5, or the sixty six of Gen 46:26, plus Jacob, Joseph and his two sons make the threescore and ten of Gen 46:27 – – the “all his kindred” of seventy five includes unnamed wives of Jacob’s sons.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
14. Whereas he saith that Jacob came into Egypt with seventy-five souls, it agreeth not with the words of Moses; for Moses maketh mention of seventy only. Jerome thinketh that Luke setteth not down, word for word, those things which Stephen had spoken, or that he took this number out of the Greek translation of Moses, (Gen 46:27,) either because he himself, being a proselyte, had not the knowledge of the Hebrew tongue, or because he would grant the Gentiles this, who used to read it thus. (400) Furthermore, it is uncertain whether the Greek interpreters set down this number of set purpose, or whether it crop [crept] in afterward through negligence, [mistake;] which (I mean the latter) might well be, forasmuch as the Grecians used to set down their numbers in letters. Augustine, in his 26 book of City of God, [De Civitate Dei,] thinketh that Joseph’s nephews and kinsmen (401) are comprehended in this number; and so he thinketh that the words went down doth signify all that time which Jacob lived. But that conjecture can by no means be received. For, in the mean space, the other patriarchs also had many children born to them. This seemeth to me a thing like to be true, that the Seventy Interpreters did translate that truly which was in Moses. And we cannot say that they were deceived; forasmuch as [in] Deu 10:0, where this number is repeated, they agree with Moses, at least as that place was read without all doubt in the time of Jerome; for those copies which are printed at this day have it otherwise. Therefore, I think that this difference came through the error of the writers which wrote out the books. (402) And it was a matter of no such weight, for which Luke ought to have troubled the Gentiles which were accustomed with the Greek reading. And it may be that he himself did put down the true number; and that some man did correct the same amiss out of that place of Moses. For we know that those which had the New Testament in hand were ignorant of the Hebrew tongue, yet skillful in (403) the Greek,
Therefore, to the end [that] the words of Stephen might agree with the place of Moses, it is to be thought that that false number which was found in the Greek translation of Genesis was by them put in also in this place; concerning which, if any man contend more stubbornly, let us suffer him to be wise without measure. Let us remember that it is not without cause that Paul doth forbid us to be too curious about genealogies. This, so small a number, is purposely expressed, to the end the power of God may the more plainly appear, in so great an enlarging of that kindred, which was of no long continuance. For such a small handful of men could not, by any human manner of engendering, grow to such an infinite multitude as is recorded in Exo 12:37, within two hundred and fifty years. We ought rather to weigh the miracle which the Spirit commendeth unto us in this place, than to stand long about one letter, whereby the number is altered. There arise other questions (and those which are more hard to be answered) out of the rest of the text, [context.]
(400) “ Apud quas recepta erat illa lectio,” among whom that reading was received.
(401) “ Nepotes ac pronepotes,” grandsons and great-grandsons.
(402) “ Librariorum,” copyists.
(403) “ Familiariter,” familiar with.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(14) Threescore and fifteen souls.Seventy is given as the number, including Jacob, Joseph, and his sons, in Gen. 46:27; Exo. 1:5; Deu. 10:22. Here, however, Stephen had the authority of the LXX. of Gen. 46:27, which gives the number at seventy-five, and makes it up by inserting the son and grandson of Manasseh, two sons and a grandson of Ephraim. With them it was probably an editorial correction based upon Num. 26:26-37. Stephen, as a Hellenistic Jew, naturally accepted, without caring to investigate, the number which he found in the Greek version.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
14. Threescore and fifteen souls That is, seventy-five. But Exo 1:5, says there were but seventy souls. Herein Stephen follows the Septuagint, which reckons seventy-five by adding the five sons of Ephraim and Manasseh.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
14. Apostles Jerusalem heard The greatness of the event and the inferiority of the instrument alike surprised them. Cooperation, oversight, and control by them were evidently the demand of wisdom.
Sent Peter The apostolic body acted organically, so that they must have been still in secret organized and authoritative position. And as Samaria, the capital of the northern kingdom, was the most important post, after Jerusalem, in all Palestine, so they sent thither the senior apostle.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘And Joseph sent, and called to him Jacob his father, and all his kindred, threescore and fifteen souls.’
The result was that those selected of the people of Jacob responded to the call of their Deliverer, and all was well. And the number of them was threescore (three times twice ten – completeness intensified) and fifteen (three times five, complete covenant connection). These were God’s elect. In the words of Act 13:48, ‘as many as were ordained to eternal life believed’.
The number is as given in Gen 46:27 LXX and not as in the Massoretic Hebrew text, which gives ‘seventy’. But both numbers were what they would call explanatory and we would call ‘artificial’. They were deliberately obtained in the narrative because of the significance of the numbers which indicated the ‘divine perfection’ of those involved, by simply selecting sufficient names to make up that number (LXX adds extra sons of Joseph who may have died in infancy). Both are therefore saying the same thing, and neither was intended to be an accurate count. Indeed the seventy five matches better with Abraham’s entrance into Canaan (Gen 12:4). In fact, of course, the people who went into Egypt, including wives, children and servants would have far exceeded that number. It was never a number intended to be taken literally. It was heavy with symbolism.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Act 7:14. Threescore and fifteen souls. See the notes on Gen 20:18.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Act 7:14-15 . . . ] in 75 souls (persons, Act 2:41 , Act 27:37 ), he called his father and (in general) the whole family, i.e. he called them in a personal number of 75, which was the sum containing them. The expression is a Hebraism ( ), after the LXX. Deu 10:22 . In the number Stephen, however, follows the LXX. Gen 46:27 , Exo 1:5 , [200] where likewise 75 souls are specified, whereas the original text (which Josephus follows, Antt. ii. 7. 4, vi. 5. 6) reckons only 70. [201]
. . ] he and our patriarchs (generally). A very common epanorthosis. See on Joh 2:12 .
[200] At Deut. l.c. also Codex A has the reading 75, which is, however, evidently a mere alteration by a later hand in accordance with the two other passages. Already Philo (see Loesner, p. 185) mentions the two discrepant statements of number (75 according to Gen. l.c. and Ex. l.c. , and 70 according to Deut. l.c. ) and allegorizes upon them.
[201] According to the Hebrew, the number 70 is thus made up: all the descendants of Jacob who came down with him to Egypt are fixed at 66, Gen 46:26 , and then, ver. 27, Joseph and his two sons and Jacob himself (that is, four persons more) are included. In the reckoning of the LXX., influenced by a discrepant tradition, there are added to those 66 persons (ver. 26) in ver. 27 (contrary to the original text), , so that 75 persons are made out. It is thus evidently contrary to this express mode of reckoning of the LXX., when it is commonly assumed (also by Wetstein, Michaelis, Rosenmller, Kuinoel, Olshausen) that the LXX. had added to the 70 persons of the original text 5 grandchildren and great-grand-children of Joseph (who are named in the LXX Gen 46:20 ). But in the greatest contradiction to the above notice of the LXX. stands the view of Seb. Schmid, with whom Wolf agrees, that the LXX. had added to the 66 persons (ver. 26) the wives of the sons of Jacob, and from the sum of 78 thereby made up had again deducted 3 persons, namely, the wife of Judah who had died in Canaan, the wife of Joseph and Joseph himself, so that the number 75 is left. Entirely unhistorical is the hypothesis of Krebs and Loesner. “Stephanum apud Luc. (et LXX.) de iis loqui, qui in Aegyptum invitati fuerint, Mosen de his, qui eo venerint , quorum non nisi 70 fuerunt.” Beza conjectured, instead of in our passage: (!); and Massonius, instead of the numeral signs OE (75), the numeral signs C (66). For yet other views, see Wolf.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
14. ] In the Hebrew text, Gen 46:27 ; Exo 1:5 ; Deu 10:22 , seventy souls are reckoned, viz. sixty-six born of Jacob, Jacob himself, Joseph, and his two sons born in Egypt. So also Josephus, Antt. ii. 7. 4; vi. 5, 6. But the LXX, whom Stephen follows, insert in Gen 46:20 an account of the children and grandchildren of Manasseh and Ephraim, five in number: and in Act 7:27 read ., . (om , and below, A, but obviously without any effect on the general statement) , : reckoning, as it appears, curiously enough, among the sons of Joseph, Joseph himself, and his wife Asenath; for these are required to make up the nine, according to their Act 7:20 . And similarly in Exo 1:5 , and in Deu 10:22 A. (Wordsw., who is careful to note that A omits in Gen 46:27 , omits the fact that it reads here, by stating “seventy” as the LXX testimony.) With regard to the various attempts to solve the difficulty (66 + 12 wives, minus (Joseph and his wife, and Judah’s wife who died in Canaan) = 75, Seb. Schmid and Wolf: that Stephen spoke of those who were invited , Moses of those who went , Krebs and Loesner: that should be read for , Beza: &c.), see above on Act 7:6-7 . The remarks of Jerome are curious: he is arguing, on Gen. l. c., that the number really was seventy , and adds, ‘Quod si e contrario nobis id opponitur, quomodo in Actibus Apostolorum in concione Stephani dicatur ad populum, septuaginta quinque animas ingressas esse gyptum, facilis excusatio est. Non enim debuit sanctus Lucas, qui ipsius (istius?) histori scriptor est, in gentes Actuum Apostolorum volumen emittens, contrarium aliquid scribere adversus eam scripturam, qu jam fuerut gentibus divulgata.’ Philo, de Migr. Abr. 36, vol. i. pp. 467 f., mentions both numbers (reading 75 in Gen. and 70 in Deut., see above), and gives allegorical reasons for both: and really Wordsworth’s solution, that Stephen includes those born of Jacob’s line in Egypt to shew that they “were equally children of the promise with those born in Canaan,” is hardly better. When we come to understand , as represented by including, for a purpose, those already in Egypt , it seems to me that a stigma is cast on St. Stephen far more serious than that of mere numeral inaccuracy.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Act 7:14 . : four times in Acts, and nowhere else in N.T., cf. Act 10:32 , Act 20:17 , Act 24:25 , only once in LXX, H. and R., cf. Hos 11:2 , A; so , only once in N.T., cf. Act 10:23 ; not in LXX or Apocrypha. Both compounds are peculiar to St. Luke in N.T., and are frequent in medical writers, to “send for” or to “call in” (although Polyb. in middle voice, Act 22:5 ; Act 22:2 , in same sense) a physician, Hobart, Medical Language , etc., p. 219. In Attic Greek we should have . : = Hebrew , cf. Deu 10:22 , in (consisting in) so many souls, cf. Luk 16:31 . Here in Deut., LXX, as also in Hebrew, we have the number given as seventy (although in A, seventy-five, which seems to have been introduced to make the passage similar to the two others quoted below) who went down into Egypt. But in Gen 46:27 , and in Exo 1:5 , LXX, the number is given as seventy-five (the Hebrew in both passages however giving seventy as the number, although in Gen 46:26 giving sixty-six, making up the seventy by adding Jacob, Joseph, and his two sons). For the curious Rabbinical traditions current on the subject, see Lumby, Acts , p. 163. In Gen 46:27 the LXX make up the number to seventy-five by adding nine sons as born to Joseph while in Egypt, so that from this interpolation it seems that they did not obtain their number by simply adding the sons and grandsons, five in all, of Ephraim and Manasseh from Gen 46:20 (LXX) to the seventy mentioned in the Hebrew text, as Wetstein and others have maintained. But there is nothing strange in the fact that Stephen, as a Hellenist, should follow the tradition which he found in the LXX. Josephus in Ant. , ii., 7, 4; vi., 5, 6, follows the Hebrew seventy, and Philo gives the two numbers, and allegorises about them. See Meyer-Wendt, p. 174, note, Hackett, Lumby, in loco , and Wetstein. Nothing in the argument is touched by these variations in the numbers.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
sent. Greek. apostello. App-174.
called . . . to him. Greek. metakaleomai. Here, Act 10:32; Act 20:17; Act 24:25. meta in composition expresses the idea of change.
threescore, &c. This included Jacob’s kindred. See note on Gen 46:26.
souls. Greek. psuche. App-110.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
14. ] In the Hebrew text, Gen 46:27; Exo 1:5; Deu 10:22, seventy souls are reckoned, viz. sixty-six born of Jacob, Jacob himself, Joseph, and his two sons born in Egypt. So also Josephus, Antt. ii. 7. 4; vi. 5, 6. But the LXX, whom Stephen follows, insert in Gen 46:20 an account of the children and grandchildren of Manasseh and Ephraim, five in number: and in Act 7:27 read ., . (om , and below, A, but obviously without any effect on the general statement) , :-reckoning, as it appears, curiously enough, among the sons of Joseph, Joseph himself, and his wife Asenath; for these are required to make up the nine, according to their Act 7:20. And similarly in Exo 1:5, and in Deu 10:22 A. (Wordsw., who is careful to note that A omits in Gen 46:27, omits the fact that it reads here, by stating seventy as the LXX testimony.) With regard to the various attempts to solve the difficulty (66 + 12 wives, minus (Joseph and his wife, and Judahs wife who died in Canaan) = 75, Seb. Schmid and Wolf:-that Stephen spoke of those who were invited,-Moses of those who went, Krebs and Loesner:-that should be read for , Beza:-&c.), see above on Act 7:6-7. The remarks of Jerome are curious:-he is arguing, on Gen. l. c., that the number really was seventy,-and adds, Quod si e contrario nobis id opponitur, quomodo in Actibus Apostolorum in concione Stephani dicatur ad populum, septuaginta quinque animas ingressas esse gyptum, facilis excusatio est. Non enim debuit sanctus Lucas, qui ipsius (istius?) histori scriptor est, in gentes Actuum Apostolorum volumen emittens, contrarium aliquid scribere adversus eam scripturam, qu jam fuerut gentibus divulgata. Philo, de Migr. Abr. 36, vol. i. pp. 467 f., mentions both numbers (reading 75 in Gen. and 70 in Deut., see above), and gives allegorical reasons for both: and really Wordsworths solution, that Stephen includes those born of Jacobs line in Egypt to shew that they were equally children of the promise with those born in Canaan, is hardly better. When we come to understand , as represented by including, for a purpose, those already in Egypt, it seems to me that a stigma is cast on St. Stephen far more serious than that of mere numeral inaccuracy.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Act 7:14-17. 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 sepulcher that Abraham bought for a sum of money of the sons of Emmor the father of Sychem. But when the time of the promise drew nigh, which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt,
Note those words, the time of the promise, and remember that every promise has its due time of fulfillment, and that there is a time of promise, to all the Lords chosen people, when he will surely bring them out of bondage into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
Act 7:18-20. Till another king arose, which knew not Joseph. The same dealt subtly with our kindred, and evil entreated our father, so that they cast out their young children, to the end they might not live. In which time Moses was born, and was exceeding fair, and nourished up in his fathers house three months:
In the darkest night of Israels bondage in Egypt, her star of hope arose: Moses was born, and was exceeding fair; or, as the margin has it, was fair to God, with a beauty something more than human.
Act 7:21-22, And when he was cast out, Pharaohs daughter took him up, and nourished him for her own son. And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds.
He was well qualified for the work to which God had called him, but how much more fully qualified is that great Prophet, like unto Hoses, whom God has raised up, in these latter days, for the salvation of men, even Jesus Christ his Son! He knows more than all the learning and wisdom of the Egyptians, he knows more than the cleverness of the devil, so he can deliver us from all his crafty wiles.
Act 7:23-25. And when he was full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren the children of Israel. And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him, and avenged him that was oppressed, and smote the Egyptian: for he supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them: but they understood not.
Alas! it is just the same with Israel now. The Lord Jesus came to his own, and, according to one of his parables, the Father said of him, They will reverence my Son; but they did nothing of the kind; they said, This is the Heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance shall be ours. And, alas! how many, nowadays, are imitating their evil example! They say, We will not have this man to reign over us; they refuse to yield themselves to the sovereignty of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Act 7:26-30. And the next day he shewed himself unto them as they strove, and would have set them at one again, saying, Sirs, ye are brethren; why do ye wrong one to another? But he that did his neighbor wrong thrust ham away, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge over us? Wilt thou kill me, as thou diddest the Egyptian yesterday! Then fled Moses at this saying, and was a stranger in the land of Madian, where he begat two sons. And when forty years were expired, there appeared to him in the wilderness of mount Sina an angel of the Lord in a game of fire in a bush.
So that he was eighty years of age when he really began his great lifework. Perhaps, as a rule, the larger part of our time is occupied in getting ready to work. Yet, if we are able to perform a word as good as that which Moses did, it will well repay us for a long season of preparation.
Act 7:31-34. When Moses saw it, he wondered at the sight: and as he drew near to behold it, the voice of the Lord came unto him, saying, I am the God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Then Moses trembled, and durst not behold. Then said the Lord to him, Put off thy shoes from thy feet: for the place where thou standest is holy ground. I have seen, I have seen the affliction of my people which is in Egypt, and I have heard their groaning, and am come down, to deliver them.
All this must have been very pleasant to the ear of Moses; it was solemn, yet it was exceedingly sweet; but notice what comes next:
Act 7:34. And now come, I will send thee into Egypt.
Oh, dear! what a falling-off there seems to be in these words! God first says, I have heard their groaning, and am come down to deliver them; and then he adds, I will send thee into Egypt. Yes, truly, from the grandeur of the divine working down to the insignificance of our instrumentality, is a tremendous stoop; yet the God who says, I will save sinners by my grace; none but myself can save them; also says to me, Go thou, and preach the gospel to them. The same Lord who says, I will change the heart of stone into a heart of flesh, and work a miracle of mercy in renewing those who are dead in trespasses and sins, also says to you, Speak to the persons sitting with you in the pew, and seek to point them to the Saviour. It is a wonderful stoop, but it is the condescension of almighty grace, and it brings great honour to the poor, trembling, unworthy person to whom the message is addressed. Moses thought himself very unfit for the task of delivering Israel, and he would, if he had dared to do so, have refrained from that task; but God said to him, Now come, I will send thee into Egypt. Ah, brethren! how different a man did Moses then become! When he went out by himself, without any commission, he was impatient to get to his work, and he slew an Egyptian, and so had to flee away out of the country; but when he was sent in Gods name, when the Lord said to him, Now come, I will send thee, then the work was accomplished. O my brethren, in your service for the Saviour, always seek for power from on high! Ask to be sent of God, and pray your Master to go with you; then will you succeed in the task which he entrusts to you.
Act 7:35. This Moses whom they refused, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge? the same did God send to he a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the angel which appeared to him in the bush.
Is not that a shadow of that grander truth, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner,
Act 7:36-37. He brought them out, after that he had showed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, and in the Red sea, and in the wilderness forty years. This is that Moses, which said unto the children of Israel, A prophet shall the Lord pour God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear.
Now you see that Moses was thus a type of Christ. God grant that we may not reject Christ, as the Israelites rejected Moses; but may we be willing that he should be to us our Judge and our Deliverer!
Act 7:38-39. This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sinai, and with our fathers: who received the lively oracles to give unto us: to whom our fathers would not obey, but thrust him from them, and in their hearts turned back again into Egypt,
Though Moses had brought them out of Egypt, they were not obedient to him, and they wanted to go back to the land of bondage. And, ah! brethren, this is the great crime of the present day, the crime of mankind in general, that, after all Jesus has done, there is still within so many the evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God.
Act 7:40-41. Saying unto Aaron, Make us gods to go before us: for as for this Moses, which brought us out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of Him. And they made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifice unto the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands.
This again is another of the ways by which men attempt to make an idol god out of something which they can see, and to rejoice in what they themselves do instead of trusting in what the Lord Jesus has done.
Act 7:42-43. Then God turned, and gave them up to worship the host of heaven; is it is written in the book of the prophets, O ye house of Israel, have ye offered to me slain beasts and sacrifices by the space of forty years in the wilderness? Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god Remphan, figures which ye made to worship them: and I will carry you away beyond Babylon.
There was still idolatry in their hearts, and Moses was rejected by them. God grant that we may not be idolaters, and so reject the Prophet, like unto Moses, whom the Lord has sent unto us! Amen!
Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible
Act 7:14. , seventy-five) Stephen, or Luke, follows the Septuagint translation, as being then the best known; which in Gen 46:27, or even in Deu 10:22, has given the number Seventy-five; whereas in the Hebrew and Samaritan Pentateuch, and in Josephus, the number is Seventy. So also Philo, adding one son and one grandson of Manasses, and the two sons of Ephraim and his one grandson: Gen. the ch. already quoted, Act 7:20.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Stephens Defense: the Deliverer from Bondage
Act 7:14-29
Moses, we are here told, was mighty in words; that is, in eloquence as well as in deeds. This confirms the statement of the Jewish historian, Josephus, that in the earlier part of his career, now lost in the oblivion of history, Moses led a very successful Egyptian expedition against Ethiopia. He complains to the Lord, in Exo 4:10, of being slow of speech, but that probably refers to the habit of long disuse amid the silence and loneliness of the desert.
It is clear that, stung by the sense of wrong, Moses at first interfered with his own right arm to deliver his people. He smote the Egyptian, and essayed to judge between his brethren. God had to bring him into the dust by repeated failure and rejection that he might become an emptied and a broken vessel. God will not give glory to man. The treasure must be held in an earthen vessel, 2Co 4:7. It is when we come to the end of ourselves that we arrive at the beginning of God. The world has ever to learn what God can do by those who are wholly emptied of self-confidence but yielded to His hand.
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
kindred
Cf. (See Scofield “Gen 46:26”). There is no real contradiction. The “house of Jacob” numbered seventy but the “kindred” would include the wives of Jacob’s sons.
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
sent: Gen 45:9-11, Psa 105:23
threescore: Gen 46:12, Gen 46:26, Gen 46:27, Deu 10:22, 1Ch 2:5, 1Ch 2:6
Reciprocal: Gen 26:27 – seeing Gen 45:13 – bring Exo 1:6 – General Isa 52:4 – My people Act 27:37 – souls
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
4
Act 7:14. Threescore and fifteen souls. For an explanation of this phrase, see the comments on Gen 46:26-27, in volume 1 of the Old Testament Commentary.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Act 7:14. And called his father Jacob, and all his kindred, threescore and fifteen souls. Another memory of Divine favour which Stephen knew would be very grateful to the zealous Jews who sat as judges in that stern council. How the Eternal must have loved the people and prospered them! for from this small family sprang that mighty host which was as the stars of heaven for multitude (Deu 10:22).
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
See notes on verse 9
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
Verse 14
Threescore and fifteen; Moses says seventy. (Genesis 46:27.)