Acts 7:16 - Exposition

And they were for and were, A.V.; unto Shechem for into Sychem, A.V., i.e. the Hebrew for the Greek form of the name ( Genesis 34:2 ); tomb for sepulcher, A.V.; a price in silver for a sum of money, A.V.; Hamor for Erect, A.V. (Hebrew for Greek form); in Shechem for the father of Sychem, A.V. and T.R. As regards the statement in the text, two distinct transactions seem at first sight to be mixed up. One, that Abraham bought the field of Machpelah of Ephron the Hittite for a burial-place, where he and Sarah, and Isaac and Rebekah, and Jacob and Leah, were buried ( Genesis 24:16 , Genesis 24:17 , Genesis 24:19 ; Genesis 25:9 , Genesis 25:10 ; Genesis 35:27-29 ; Genesis 49:29-31 ); the other, that Jacob "bought a parcel of a field …, at the hand of the children of Hamor, Shechem's father, for an hundred pieces of money," where the bones of Joseph were buried by Joshua ( Genesis 33:19 ; Genesis 50:25 ; Joshua 24:32 ), and where, according to a tradition still surviving in the days of St. Jerome, the other patriarchs were also buried ('Epistol.'86," She came to Sichem, now called Neapolis (or Nablous), and from thence visited the tombs of the twelve patriarchs"). See also Jerome, ' De Optimo Genere Interpretandi .' All Jewish writers, however, are wholly silent" about this tradition, perhaps from jealousy of the Samaritans. And Josephus affirms that all but Joseph were buried at Hebron ('Ant. Jud.,'2. 8.2); and that their beautiful marble monuments were to be seen at Hebron in his day. In the cave of Machpelah, however, there is no tomb of any of the twelve patriarchs except Joseph; and his so-called tomb is of a different character and situation from the genuine ones. But on looking closer at the text it appears pretty certain that only Shechem was in Stephen's mind. For first he speaks of Shechem at once, And were carried over unto Shechem . And adds and were laid in the tomb that Abraham bought for a price in silver of the sons of Hamor in Shechem. Except the one word "Abraham," the whole sentence points to Shechem. What he says of Shechem is exactly in accordance with Genesis 33:18 , Genesis 33:19 . And what he says of their fathers being carried over and buried at Shechem is exactly true of Joseph's bones, as related in Joshua 24:32 . So that the one difficulty is the word "Abraham." It seems much more probable that this word should have been interpolated by some early transcriber, who saw no nominative case to ὠνήσατο , and who had in his mind a confused recollection of Abraham's purchase, than that Stephen, who shows such thorough knowledge of the Bible history, should have made a gross mistake in such a well-known and famous circumstance as the purchase of the field of Machpelah, or that Luke should have perpetuated it had he made it in the hurry of speech. It cannot be affirmed with certainty that Stephen confirms the story of the other patriarchs being buried at Shechem, though possibly he alludes to the tradition. The plural, "they were carried," etc., might be put generally, though only Joseph was meant (as Matthew 27:44 ; Matthew 26:8 compared with Luke 23:1-56 . 39; John 12:4 ), or "the bones of Joseph" might possibly be the subject, though not expressed. Lightfoot—followed by Bishop Wordsworth, who thinks that Abraham really did buy a field of Ephron in Sychem, when he was there ( Genesis 12:6 )-would thus be right in supposing that the point of Stephen's remark was that the patriarchs were buried in Shechem.