THE ATHEIST'S COMPLAINT:
Who bought what field? Do Acts 7:16 and Genesis 23:17-18 contradict?

RESPONSE:
Abraham bought a field from Ephron, in the land of the sons of Heth (Genesis 23:17-18). The parcel of land under consideration in Acts 7:16 was purchased by Jacob, Abraham's grandson (Genesis 33:19), not Abraham.

Why does Stephen attribute this purchase to Abraham rather than Jacob? I am confident that Stephen knew who purchased what. Is it unlikely he made such a mistake, seeing he was a man who spoke with "...wisdom and the Spirit..." (Acts 6:10). However, the fact remains that the text reads Abraham, not Jacob.

As I have stated before, I fully acknowledge that on occasion there may be transcriber's errors in the text. The scribes who copied the text were not guided by inspiration to complete the task they performed. We have considered a possible case of this with Matthew 27:9-10 / Zechariah 11:12-13, and I believe may be witness to the same here. This being said, the frequency of such occurrences is very seldom.

Though there is a discrepancy between Acts 7 and Genesis 23 & 33, it is adequately explained.

There is no contradiction.

This article is a response to Skeptic's Annotated Bible, but original article is no longer listed

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