2. JACOB AND HIS FAMILY ENTER EGYPT 6-27 a. No one left behind. Verses 5-7 are an introduction of the following verses and tell us that Jacob and his whole household, along with all the stuff and animals they had moved to Egypt. No one was left behind in Canaan. b. The genealogy. We are told in verse 8, that the following verses are the names of the descendants of Israel, who came into Egypt, Jacob, and his sons. And so we start with Reuben, the firstborn, and we go through the list of people. There are a few things that I want to make note of as we look at this genealogy. First, this is not like going on a genealogy website and trying to figure out every person in a family. As we mentioned when we looked at the other genealogies in Genesis, and in fact throughout the Bible, there is a reason why these names are recorded. There is a purpose other than just naming family members. These lists are used to prove something. When we have multiple recordings of the same families and there are different names and groupings it is because those people fit into the purpose. The names of Jacob’s family that moved into Egypt, are recorded in 1 Chronicles. Moses’ record has a different purpose than the Chronicler does and therefore, we have different people recorded. Some are probably the same people, just other names that they were known by. c. Judah’s grandkids? Now, most of the lists are fairly straightforward until we get to Judah and Benjamin. The question with Judah is: When were Hezron and Hamul born. Chronologically, it would not work for Judah to be a grandfather by the time he enters Egypt. These children must have been born after they were already in Egypt. They “came into Egypt” as Manasseh and Ephraim did, they were probably born there. d. Benjamin’s sons? Now the more difficult list of names is Benjamin’s family. Mathematically, if Benjamin was 30 when he entered Egypt could he have had 10 sons? Yes, it is a definite possibility. When we read this we assume that when it says that these are the sons of Benjamin that these are the children of his wife and him. But as I have done more research on this, I have my doubts that Benjamin had 10 actual sons. There are four lists of the descendants of Benjamin in the Bible, the list here in Genesis, Numbers 26, 1 Chronicles 7, and another in chapter 8. If you were to look at those you will notice that there are some big differences. In Genesis, all these men are listed as sons. In some of the other records, some of these sons are really grandsons. Only Bela, the firstborn is mentioned in all four lists. In Numbers, we find that Benjamin had five sons, but Naaman and Ard, who are his grandsons, are also heads of families. In 1 Chronicles 7, Benjamin has 3 sons, Bela, Becher, and Jediael. In chapter 8, Benjamin had Bela, Ashbel, Aharah, Nohah, and Rapha, which makes five. Some of the sons listed in Genesis are again, found here as grandsons. So what explains the discrepancies? Are the errors? No, we must remember that these are written with different purposes and at different times in history. Benjamin might have had only five sons, but five of his grandsons were elevated to the status of a son like Jacob does with Manasseh and Ephraim. They were technically grandsons, but legally, for inheritance and tribal leadership, they would be considered as equals to Benjamin’s sons. The list in Numbers was recorded after the 400 years in Egypt and it records the sons according to the clans that came out of Egypt and not the full list of Benjamin’s sons. It is safe to reason that some families did not survive. In 1 Chronicles 7, we have three sons or families of Benjamin at the time and the amount of men who were mighty warriors. It appears that the list of Benjamin’s descendants in chapter 8 is to record the lineage of King Saul. So how many sons did Benjamin have? e. Stephen says 75. People have also pointed out that when Stephen is speaking before he is stoned in the book of Acts chapter 7 he says that 75 people entered Egypt not 70 as we have in the ESV. Another error? No, because the Septuagint or the Greek translation of the Old Testament says 75, and so he is quoting that. Why does the Septuagint say 75? Because some of the grandchildren are included in the total. We could go on with more interesting tidbits of information from this list but we must press on.