Manuscript Evidence of "Seventy" in Genesis 46:27
Manuscript Evidence of "Seventy" in Genesis 46:27
Manuscript evidence of 70 in Genesis 46:27
From the Hebrew – Gen 46:27 All those of Jacob’s household who came to Egypt: seventy persons.
From the Greek – Gen 46:27 All the persons of Iakob’s house who came into Egypt were seventy–five.
Now just a side note here there is some Greek and Hebrew manuscript evidence to consider that doesn’t alter the meaning of the passage, but just concerns which family member are counted because the Hebrew has 70 and the Greek has 75.
Yea I went down the rabbit hole on this one, and even found some ancient Jewish rabbis accounted for the different numbers because they might have included God himself in there count because like it said in 46:4, God would be with them. Interesting stuff and here is some my notes for you fellow Bible Nerds.
Some Notes
And just like there was the Hebrew manuscripts of Gen 10 that read 70 and Greek manuscripts that read 72.
Here in Gen 46, the Hebrew reads 70 and the Greek read 75. The same is true in Exodus 1:5 however the fragmentary Hebrew MS 4QEx says seventy-five persons.[1]
Deut 10:22 both Hebrew and Greek have 70.
The book of Acts likely reading the Greek manuscripts also has 75. In Acts 7:14 Joseph invited his father Jacob and all his relatives, seventy-five people in all,
Josephus (Ant. 2.176; 6.89) accepts the figure of seventy[2]
Seventy–five is calculated by inserting the son and grandson of Manasseh, two sons and a grandson of Ephraim[3]
From antiquity to the present there has been a stream of proposals, most including Joseph and his two sons, but divided over the fourth person (e.g., Jacob, Dinah, Serah [v. 17], Jochebed [Num 26:59]). Probably the most imaginative and pious was the midrash (Gen. Rab. 94.9), suggesting that God himself was intended in the count of seventy[4]
[1] F. F. Bruce, The Book of the Acts, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1988).
Ant. Antiquities (Josephus)
[2] F. F. Bruce, The Book of the Acts, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1988).
[3] Joseph S. Exell, The Biblical Illustrator (Acts): Or Anecdotes, Similes, Emblems, Illustrations; Expository, Scientific, Geographical, Historical, and Homiletic, Gathered from a Wide Range of Home and Foreign Literature, on the Verses of the Bible (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997), 580.
Gen. Rab. Genesis Rabbah, ed. J. Neusner
[4] K. A. Mathews, Genesis 11:27–50:26, vol. 1B, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2005), 836.
