Глава 46

Gen.46:26–27. “Therefore, all the souls that came with Jacob into Egypt, which came from his loins, besides the wives of the sons of Jacob, were altogether sixty-six souls. And the sons of Joseph who were born to him in Egypt were nine souls. So, all the souls who came with Jacob to Egypt are seventy-five.” There is no doubt that sixty-six souls who came from the loins of Jacob (excluding Joseph and his sons) entered Egypt with Jacob. Because, firstly, this is confirmed by calculations made by successively adding each individual person to the total number; and secondly, the same can be found in Jewish books. However, this is what we read in the translation of the Seventy: “The sons of Joseph who were born to him in Egypt were nine souls.” Let the reader know that the Hebrew text says two instead of nine. Namely, before Jacob entered Egypt and the time of famine came, Ephraim and Manasseh were born to Asenath, the daughter of Potiphar, in Egypt. Well, what we read above: “The son of Manasseh, whom his Syrian concubine bore to him, is Machir, and Machir begat Galladas; and the sons of Ephraim, the brother of Manasseh, are Sutalaam and Taam, and the son of Sutalaam is Eden” (Gen. 46, 20 according to LXX) - added, since what we read about further, as if by foresight, is described as having already happened here. After all, when Jacob entered Egypt, Ephraim and Manasseh were not yet of such an age that they could produce offspring. From this it is clear that the souls from the loins of Jacob that entered Egypt were seventy in total, of which sixty-six entered after and found three souls in Egypt, that is, Joseph with his two sons; and Jacob himself was the seventieth. Even the Seventy interpreters translated in Deuteronomy (10:22) that “Jacob entered Egypt with seventy souls,” so that it would not seem to anyone that I was speaking out against the authority of Scripture. And if anyone objects to my opinion, then he makes Scripture contradict itself. Because the Seventy interpreters themselves, who here, through πρόληψις (Greek: “foresight, foreknowledge.” - Translator's note), said that seventy-five souls entered Egypt, including Joseph here along with his descendants, in Deuteronomy they report that only seventy entered. And if they object to me from the other flank: why in the Acts of the Apostles (chap. 7) Stephen says in his speech to the people that seventy-five souls entered Egypt, then this is easy to explain. The point here is that St. Luke, the author of this narrative, who intended to distribute the Book of the Acts of the Apostles among the pagans, should not have written anything contrary to the Scripture that was already well known among the pagans. And, in any case, the authority of the Seventy interpreters at that time, at least, had more weight than the authority of Luke, a still unknown, modest writer who did not enjoy much confidence among entire nations. And in general, it should be noted that wherever the apostles or apostolic men address the [pagan] nations, they for the most part use those testimonies that had previously become widely known to the pagans. Although, according to the legend that came down from many, the Evangelist Luke was a proselyte and did not know the Hebrew Scriptures. Gen.46:28. “And he sent Judah ahead of him to Joseph to meet him at the city of the heroes in the land of Ramessa.” In the Hebrew text there is neither the city of heroes nor the land of Ramesse, but only Gesen. Some Jews claim that Gesen is now called Thebaid. And what follows: “He gave them possession of the best land in Ramessa” - they believe that this is the village of Arsenoite, as it was once called.