And Joseph sent for then sent Joseph, A.V.; called to him Jacob his father for called his father Jacob to him, A.V. Three score and fifteen souls. In Genesis 46:26, Genesis 46:27, the statement is very precise that "all the souls of the house of Jacob, which came into Egypt, were three score and ten," including Joseph and his two sons.
Moreover, the accuracy of the number is tested in two ways. First, the names of the sons and daughters of each patriarch are given, and they are found, on counting them, to amount to exactly seventy.
And then the totals of the descendants of each of Jacob's four wives is given separately, and again the total is exactly seventy. It is true that the computation in Genesis 46:26 does not agree with the above, for it makes the number of Jacob's descendants, exclusive of Joseph and his two sons, sixty-six instead of sixty-seven, which is the number according to the two above computations, and consequently the total number (when Joseph and his two sons are added) sixty-nine instead of seventy.
But this is such a manifest contradiction that it seems almost a necessity to suppose a clerical error, שׁשֵׁ for עבַשֶׁ, caused perhaps by the preceding מישִׁשִׁ. It is also a singular anomaly that, in the enumeration of Leah's descendants, as well as in the general enumeration, Er and Onan are distinctly reckoned as well as mentioned.
Jacob himself is nowhere reckoned in the Bible, though he is in the commentaries. But when we turn to the LXX., we find that in Genesis 46:20 there are added to Manasseh and Ephraim Machir the son and Gilead the grandson of Manasseh; and Suthelah and Taam the sons, and Edom (meaning Eran, LXX.
Eden, Numbers 26:36) the grandson, of Ephraim, making the descendants of Rachel eighteen (it should be nineteen if Huppim, Genesis 46:21, is added) instead of fourteen; the number sixty-six of verse 26 is preserved; the number of Joseph's descendants is given as nine (Huppim apparently being now reckoned), which, added to sixty-six, makes seventy-five; and accordingly in verse 27 the LXX.
read ψυχαὶ ἑβδομηκονταπέντε ("seventy-five souls"), instead of "three score and ten." But except in the addition of these five names of Joseph's grand and great-grand-children, the LXX. support the Hebrew text, even in the strange sixty-six of verse 26.
Stephen, as a Hellenist, naturally follows the LXX. But the question arises—How are we to understand the lists? Genesis 46:8 says, "These are the names of the children of Israel, which came into Egypt;" and one naturally expects to find the names only of those who are described in Genesis 46:5-7 as the migratory party from Canaan to Egypt.
This expectation is somewhat disturbed by Er and Onan being included in the enumeration. This may, however, be accounted for by Pharez and Zerah being reckoned as their seed. But is it likely that Hezron and Hamul the sons of Pharez, and the other great-grandsons of Jacob, were born before the descent into Egypt?
The answer to this is that, as Jacob was a hundred and thirty years old when he came down to Egypt (Genesis 47:28), there is no improbability in his having great-grandchildren (allowing forty years for a generation); on the contrary, every likelihood that he should.
But on the other hand, as Joseph could not have been above fifty when Jacob came down to Egypt, Genesis 41:46, Genesis 41:29, Genesis 41:30, it does not seem likely or possible that Joseph should have had grown-up grandsons and a great-grandson, as the LXX.
make him have. Indeed, to all appearance Manasseh and Ephraim were unmarried young men at the time that Jacob blessed them (Genesis 48:11, Genesis 48:16; Genesis 50:23). Therefore we may conclude certainly that the additional numbers of the LXX.
are incorrect, if understood literally, of these who came down with Jacob from Canaan to Egypt. But there is nothing improbable in Benjamin having ton children. Judah, to whom grandchildren are attributed, was Jacob's fourth son, and might be forty or fifty years older than Joseph and Benjamin.
Asher, to whom also grandsons are attributed, was the eighth son, and might be twenty years older than Joseph and Benjamin. Still, considering that Er and Onan are reckoned among those who came down to Egypt, it would not be surprising to find that some of those mentioned in the list were born after Jacob's arrival, but included on some principle which we do not understand.
In other words, a literal interpretation of the statement of the Hebrew Bible involves no impossibilities, but a literal interpretation of the statement of the LXX. does.