Did seventy or seventy-five of Jacob’s family go down to Egypt?

Stephen quoted the Bible his hearers used. He was very probably a Greek-speaking Jew (Acts 6:1–5), and the Greek Old Testament, the Septuagint, gives seventy-five in both Genesis 46:27 and Exodus 1:5, reaching that figure by counting differently, not by mistake. The Hebrew list counts sixty-six who came with Jacob, then adds Jacob, Joseph and Joseph’s two sons born in Egypt to make seventy. The Greek list also names five of Joseph’s grandsons and great-grandsons (Machir and Gilead from Manasseh, Shuthelah, Tahan and Eran from Ephraim, all found in Numbers 26:29–36), and it counts nine souls for Joseph’s line instead of two: sixty-six and nine make seventy-five.

Both are true counts of ‘the house of Jacob’, drawn up in different ways. Neither is a simple headcount of travellers, for the Hebrew list already includes Joseph’s sons, who were born in Egypt. The Greek reading is also old: a Hebrew copy of Exodus found at Qumran, written around the time of Christ, reads ‘seventy-five’ at Exodus 1:5 as well. Stephen, and Luke who recorded his speech, cited a recognised text accurately.

The wives included

Stephen speaks of all the ‘kindred’ whom Joseph called to Egypt. Genesis 46:26 expressly leaves the wives of Jacob’s sons out of its count. John Gill reached seventy-five by leaving out those Joseph did not need to call (Jacob, named separately, and Joseph’s own family, already in Egypt) and two grandsons of Judah not yet born, and adding the eleven wives of Joseph’s brothers.

A copyist’s change in Acts

Calvin suggested that Luke may have written seventy, and that a later copyist who knew the Greek Genesis changed the figure in Acts to match it. This remains a conjecture, and the Qumran reading shows that seventy-five was already current in Stephen’s day.