Acts 7:6

And God spake on this wise The words are substantially those which we find in Genesis 15:13-14.

four hundred years This number agrees with the number stated in Genesis; but in Exodus 12:40, and also by St Paul (Galatians 3:17), the time is said to have been four hundred and thirtyyears. The period is reckoned so as to include part of the lives of the patriarchs in Canaan, and the variation may be accounted for if one number dates back to the first call, and the second only to the departure from Haran; or the one may be reckoned from the time of the covenant of circumcision, and the other from the promise of the land. Or it may be that one is merely a round number and the other an attempt at greater exactness. We can come to no certain conclusion in the matter, but we can see that both numbers were current among the Jews, for Josephus (Ant. ii. 15. 2) makes the time 430 years, and elsewhere (Ant. ii. 9. 1, and Bell. Jud. v. 9. 4) 400 years.