Then sent Joseph
Gifts and presents to his father, and wagons, to fetch down him and his family into Egypt, ( Genesis 45:21 Genesis 45:23 ) .
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", ( Genesis 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, ( Genesis 46:26 Genesis 46:27 ) 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, ( Genesis 45:10 Genesis 45:19 ) ( 45:5 ) 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 F23 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 ( Genesis 45:27 ) to make it agree with Stephen's account; or to add five names in it, in ( Acts 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 ( Deuteronomy 10:22 ) which agrees with the Hebrew for seventy persons.