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Seventy-five men are reported to have entered Egypt along with
Jacob, counting him with his children. In this number only two women
are mentioned, one a daughter, the other a grand-daughter. But when
the thing is carefully considered, it does not appear that Jacob's
offspring was so numerous on the day or year when he entered Egypt.
There are also included among them the great-grandchildren of
Joseph, who could not possibly be born already. For Jacob was then
130 years old, and his son Joseph thirty-nine and as it is plain
that he took a wife when he was thirty or more, how could he in nine
years have great-grandchildren by the children whom he had by that
wife? Now since, Ephraim and Manasseh, the sons of Joseph, could
not even have children, for Jacob found them boys under nine years old
when he entered Egypt, in what way are not only their sons but their
grandsons reckoned among those seventy-five who then entered Egypt
with Jacob? For there is reckoned there Machir the son of
Manasseh, grandson of Joseph, and Machir's son, that is, Gilead
grandson of Manasseh, great-grandson of Joseph; there, too, is he
whom Ephraim, Joseph's other son, begot, that is, Shuthelah
grandson of Joseph, and Shuthelah's son Ezer, grandson of
Ephraim, and great-grand-son of Joseph, who could not possibly be
in existence when Jacob came into Egypt, and there found his
grandsons, the sons of Joseph, their grandsires, still boys under
nine years of age.' But doubtless, when the Scripture mentions
Jacob's entrance into Egypt with seventy-five souls, it does not
mean one day, or one year, but that whole time as long as Joseph
lived, who was the cause of his entrance. For the same Scripture
speaks thus of Joseph: "And Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he and his
brethren, and all his father's house: and Joseph lived 110
years, and saw Ephraim's children of the third generation." That
is, his great-grandson, the third from Ephraim; for the third
generation means son, grandson, great-grandson. Then it is
added," The children also of Machir, the son of Manasseh, were
born upon Joseph's knees." And this is that grandson of Manasseh,
and great-grandson of Joseph. But the plural number is employed
according to scriptural usage; for the one daughter of Jacob is spoken
of as daughters, just as in the usage of the Latin tongue liberi is
used in the plural for children even when there is only one. Now,
when Joseph's own happiness is proclaimed, because he could see his
great-grandchildren, it is by no means to be thought they already
existed in the thirty-ninth year of their great-grand-sire Joseph,
when his father Jacob came to him in Egypt. But those who diligently
look into these things will the less easily be mistaken, because it is
written, "These are the names of the sons of Israel who entered into
Egypt along with Jacob their father." For this means that the
seventy-five are reckoned along with him, not that they were all with
him when he entered Egypt; for, as I have said, the whole period
during which Joseph, who occasioned his entrance, lived, is held to
be the time of that entrance.
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