Acts 7:16

and were carried over into Sychem, &c. This Sychem is the Old Test. Shechem. The oldest authorities give for the latter part of the verse "of the sons of Emmor in Shechem."

The statement in this verse appears incapable of being reconciled with the record of the Old Testament There we find (Genesis 49:30) that Abraham bought the field and cave of Machpelah, which is before Mamre (i.e. Hebron), from Ephron the Hittite. This is there spoken of as the general burial-place of the family; there were buried Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, and Jacob's wife Leah. And of Jacob we read (Genesis 33:19), "he bought a parcel of a field where he had spread his tent, at the Hand of the children of Hamor, Shechem's father." We are not told that this was for a burial-place, and it is rather to be judged that it was not so, because it is added "he erected there an altar." Moreover it is in Machpelah that Jacob desires to be buried (Genesis 47:30; Genesis 49:30) and is buried (Genesis 50:13). We have seen (note on Genesis 50:5) that "the place of Shechem" was one of the resting-places of Abraham when he came first into Canaan, and that probably he bought a possession there, for he built an altar. The bones of Joseph were laid in Shechem (Joshua 24:32). There were two burial-places connected with the patriarchal families. In the report of Stephen's speech we find that Abraham is said to have bought what Jacob really purchased, but there may also have been land purchased by Abraham "in the place of Shechem." We have only to suppose that in his speech Stephen, speaking of the burial of the whole family, mentioned, in accordance with the tradition of Josephus, the burial of the fathers in Hebron, which Abraham bought, and noticed the laying of Joseph's bones at Shechem which Jacob bought, and that into the report of what he said a confusion has been introduced by the insertion of Abraham's name for Jacob's in the abbreviated narrative. We have pointed out in several places that the speeches recorded can be no more than abstracts of what was said, and the degree of inaccuracy here apparent might readily be imported in the formation of such an abstract, and yet the original speech have correctly reported all the traditions.

Stephen dwells on "Shechem" in the same way as before he had dwelt on "Egypt," to mark that in the ancient days other places were held in reverence by the chosen people, and they served God there, though at the time when he was speaking Shechem was the home of their enemies the Samaritans.