Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

Acts 7:5

δοῦναι αὐτῷ with BCDHP. Vulg. ‘dare illi.’

5. καὶ οὐκ ἔδωκεν αὐτῷ κ.τ.λ., and he gave him no inheritance in it. The first settlement of Abraham in Canaan is said (Genesis 12:6) to have been at the place of Sichem [Shechem] at the plain [rather, oak] of Moreh. He next dwelt on the east of Bethel, and in both these places he probably purchased land, for he built an altar at each; and on returning from Egypt (Acts 13:3) he came ‘to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Hai,’ which he hardly could have done unless the land had been his own, for he ‘was very rich in cattle.’

οὐδὲ βῆμα ποδός, not so much as to set his foot on. The expression is in LXX. Deuteronomy 2:5. The land which God gave to Abraham’s seed would be held on a very different tenure from that on which Abraham held that which he bought or hired.

καὶ ἐπηγγείλατο. The promise ‘unto thy seed will I give this land’ was first made (Genesis 12:7) when Abraham was at the place of Shechem, and in its greater fulness when he returned from Egypt (Acts 13:15-16).

οὐκ ὄντος αὐτῷ τέκνου, when he had no child. We cannot learn from Holy Writ now long a time after the promise Abraham lived before Isaac was born, but we can see that it was a long period, for when he went down to Egypt Sarah was a fair woman in the prime of her beauty (Genesis 12:14), and she was ‘waxed old’ (Acts 18:12) before her son was born.

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Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

Acts 7:5

Old Testament

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