Acts 7:14
14 Then sent Joseph, and called his father Jacob to him, and all his kindred, threescore and fifteen souls.
Why does this text say “seventy-five people” when Exodus 1:5 says there were “seventy persons”?
PROBLEM: According to Exodus 1:5 there were only 70 descendants who went down into Egypt with Jacob. But, when Stephen relates this same incident in Acts 7:14, he gives the number as
75. This appears to be a flat contradiction. SOLUTIONS: There are several possible ways to explain the difference between these accounts. First, some scholars suggest that Acts 7:14 is incorrect in stating
75. They note that both the Greek translation of the OT (Septuagint) and a Hebrew manuscript found in the Dead Sea area use the number 75 just as Stephen said.
Others suggest that while Luke accurately records Stephen’s sermon, that Stephen nevertheless made a mistake. Thus Acts is an inerrant record of the speech in which Stephen made this error. The parallel account in Genesis 46:27 also gives the number as
70. The main objection to this view is the fact that Luke’s inclusion of this speech carries with it the implication that what he said is correct. Further, the text states that Stephen was “full of the Holy Spirit” when he gave the addresses (7:55).
Another explanation points out that the discrepancies can be explained by the fact that Stephen was probably quoting from the Septuagint (the Greek version of the OT) which states, “And all the souls from Jacob were seventy-five” (Exodus 1:5), rather than the Hebrew, which states “And all the persons who came from the loins of Jacob were seventy in number, but Joseph was already in Egypt” (Exodus 1:5, NASB). The difference arises from the difference in the way the totals are calculated.