Texts in Conversation
Genesis 42 opens with famine pushing Jacob to send his sons to Egypt for grain, the journey that puts them before the brother they sold. In Acts 7, Stephen retells that narrative in a single sentence about Jacob sending them a first time.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Genesis 42:1
Hebrew Bible
1 When Jacob heard there was grain in Egypt, he said to his sons, “Why are you looking at each other?” 2 He then said, “Look, I hear that there is grain in Egypt. Go down there and buy grain for us so that we may live and not die.” 3 So ten of Joseph’s brothers went down to buy grain from Egypt. 4 But Jacob did not send Joseph’s brother Benjamin with his brothers, for he said, “What if some accident happens to him?”
Acts 7:12
New Testament
11 Then a famine occurred throughout Egypt and Canaan, causing great suffering, and our ancestors could not find food. 12 So when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our ancestors there the first time. 13 On their second visit Joseph made himself known to his brothers again, and Joseph’s family became known to Pharaoh. 14 So Joseph sent a message and invited his father Jacob and all his relatives to come, seventy-five people in all.
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Notes and References
... This worked out to the advantage of Joseph's family, for when famine arose in Canaan the sons of Jacob went to buy food in Egypt, where Joseph's foresight and authority had prepared large stores of grain. On the second occasion when they went to Egypt to buy food, Joseph (whom they had not recognized on their former visit) revealed his identity to them, and they were forced to acknowledge him as their deliverer. (There may be a suggestion here that a greater than Joseph, who also was not recognized by his people when he came to them the first time, will be acknowledged by them as their divinely appointed deliverer when they see him the second time.) The result of the brothers' recognition of Joseph and their reconciliation to him was that Jacob and all his family went down to Egypt—seventy-five persons in all, says Stephen, following the Greek text. ...
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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