Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Acts 7:13

"And at the second time Joseph was made known to his brethren; and Joseph`s race became manifest unto Pharaoh." — Acts 7:13 (ASV)

Stephen’s address next turns to the sons of Jacob, or “the twelve patriarchs” as they were known more popularly. Here Stephen’s point is that God was with Joseph and his brothers in Egypt (the name itself is repeated six times in vv.9–16), even though the only portion of the Holy Land that they possessed was the family tomb in Palestine, to which their bones were brought back later for final burial. This section has two further difficulties of the type noted in vv.2–6: (1) v.14 gives the number seventy-five as the total number who originally went down to Egypt, whereas Ge 46:27 sets the figure at seventy, and (2) v.16 confuses Abraham’s tomb at Hebron, in the cave of Machpelah, which he bought from Ephron the Hittite (cf. Genesis 23:3–20) and wherein Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were buried (cf. Genesis 49:29–33; 50:13), with the burial plot purchased by Jacob at Shechem from the sons of Hamor (Genesis 33:19), wherein Joseph and his descendants were buried (cf. Joshua 24:32). Again, these are but further examples of the conflations and inexactitudes of Jewish popular religion, which, it seems, Luke simply recorded from his sources in his attempt to be faithful to what Stephen actually said in his portrayal. And again, they can in large measure be paralleled elsewhere.