Genesis 46 · a question people ask
Was it sixty-six, seventy, or seventy-five?
Genesis gives two totals. "All the souls who came with Jacob into Egypt, who were his direct offspring, in addition to Jacob’s sons’ wives, all the souls were sixty-six" (46:26), and, adding "the sons of Joseph, who were born to him in Egypt", "All the souls of the house of Jacob, who came into Egypt, were seventy" (46:27). Exodus 1:5 and Deuteronomy 10:22 also say seventy. Stephen says, "Joseph sent and summoned Jacob his father and all his relatives, seventy-five souls" (Acts 7:14). Genesis gives the totals without saying exactly who is counted in each, and readers explain the numbers in different ways.
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
Sixty-six plus four
One way of reading 46:26-27: the sixty-six are Jacob's direct offspring who travelled with him, and the seventy add Joseph's two sons, whom 46:27 names, and two more, often taken to be Joseph himself and Jacob. Genesis doesn't name those last two.
Genesis 46:26-27
Seventy-five: the Greek Old Testament
Those who hold this view note that the Greek translation of the Old Testament (the Septuagint), widely read in Stephen's day, gives seventy-five in Genesis 46:27 and Exodus 1:5, counting more of Joseph's descendants, and that Stephen follows it.
Acts 7:14
Seventy-five: a different count
Others note that Stephen counts a different group, "Jacob his father and all his relatives" whom Joseph summoned (Acts 7:14), not Genesis' "direct offspring" (46:26), and so reaches a different number.
Acts 7:14 · Genesis 46:26
The verses
“All the souls who came with Jacob into Egypt, who were his direct offspring, in addition to Jacob’s sons’ wives, all the souls were sixty-six. The sons of Joseph, who were born to him in Egypt, were two souls. All the souls of the house of Jacob, who came into Egypt, were seventy.”
“All the souls who came out of Jacob’s body were seventy souls, and Joseph was in Egypt already.”
“Your fathers went down into Egypt with seventy persons; and now the LORD your God has made you as the stars of the sky for multitude.”
“Joseph sent and summoned Jacob his father and all his relatives, seventy-five souls.”