St. Stephen makes mistakes while
under the influence of the Holy Spirit

By Tomas de los Santos

Once one is open to the notion that the Bible is a man-made work and not the inspired word of God, and begins to look at the Bible critically for historical accuracy and internal consistency, or the lack of it, then one may begin to see the many flaws that are in the Bible and just how clumsy those who put the Bible together really were. For example, let's take a look at the book of Acts, and see how it squares with the Old Testament to which it often refers.
The book of Acts is, in part, a history of the early Christians during those tumultuous times in first-century Palestine right after Christ had been killed. Christianity was in its infancy, and the struggle for its survival was in full swing. One prominent character that figured in this drama was Stephen, a saint who the Catholic encyclopedia refers to as the first deacon of the church, and the first Christian martyr. As a deacon, Stephen is believed to have been ordained by the Apostles themselves to take care of the poorer members of the primitive church. Moreover, the church had, by selecting Stephen for a deacon, publicly acknowledged him as a man of good reputation, full of the Holy Ghost, and endowed with wisdom (Acts, 6:3-8 KJV) (C.E., "St. Stephen, the First Christian Martyr").
Our study picks up on Stephen's testimony before a court of law. Stephen had been arrested by the Jews and brought before the Sanhedrin on charges of having spoken words of blasphemy against Moses and against God. The charges arose out of a dispute Stephen had had with members of the synagogues during which Stephen stated that Jesus would destroy the temple and change the traditions of Moses (Acts 6: 12, 14 KJV). Now a defendant accused of a capital offense, Stephen stood before the Sanhedrin while the high priest asked him if the charges were true. As a part of his response, Stephen, inspired by Holy Spirit, provided a brief synopsis of Jewish history, including the following and seemingly innocuous detail, "then came he [Abraham] out of the land of the Chaldeans, and dwelt in Charan, and from thence, when his father was dead, he removed him into this land, wherein ye now dwell" (Acts 7:4 KJV). The NASB renders it, "then he . . .settled in Haran. From there, after his father died, God moved him to this country." (Incidentally, Stephen was found guilty of the charges brought against him, and he was sentenced to death by stoning).
So, from an inspired Stephen, we learn that Abraham left Charan after his father died. This is quite strange when one considers what Moses has to say about the same event. In Genesis, Moses, the prophet of prophets, says that Tehran, Abraham's father, was 70 years old when Abraham was born, and that Abraham left [H]aran at the age of 75. The problem is that Moses also says that Abraham's father, Tehran, lived to be 205 and died in [H]aran. If Tehran was 70 when Abraham was born, and Abraham was 75 when he left [H]aran, then Tehran must have been 130 when Abraham left [H]aran (205 - 75 = 130), very much alive, and with at least 75 years to go (Gen.11:26,32; 12:4 KJV).
Tehran wasn't dead when Abraham left [H]aran like Stephen said he was. Either Stephen or Moses got it wrong, the Holy Spirit notwithstanding. Maybe they're both wrong. But this isn't the only place where Stephen is at odds with Holy writ and Holy Moses. Take for example what Stephen says about the place of Jacob's burial.
In the book of Acts, Stephen informs us that Jacob, aka Israel, was buried in Shechem, in a sepulcher that Abraham had bought for a sum of money from the sons of Emmor (Acts 7:16). Moses, however, tells us something entirely different. In Genesis, Moses informs us that Abraham bought a field that had a cave in it from a person named Ephron -- a Hittite. This field and cave were located in a place called Machpelah, which was before Mamre, and it was there that Abraham buried his wife, Sarah. Moreoever, and for our purposes, Moses informs us that it was in that same cave, the one that Abraham bought from the Hittite to bury his wife, that Jacob/Israel was buried by his sons. According to Moses then, Jacob was buried in a cave in Machphelah and not in a tomb in Shechem (Gen. 23: 17, 19; 50:13 KJV).
Curiously, Stephen got his facts partly right or was only partly confused. It was Jacob and not Abraham who bought a field in Shechem. According to Moses, Jacob bought a piece of property in Shalem, a city of Shechem which was in Canaan. Jacob bought the parcel from a person named Hamar. Jacob, however, didn't buy the peace of property for any burials. Rather, he bought the lot for purposes of settlement and worship -- there Jacob pitched his tents and erected an altar (Gen. 34:17-20 KJV).
So, what happened? What is a discrepancy like this doing in the Bible? And what about the Holy Spirit's supposed inspiration in all of this? Well, to be sure, no one knows. It appears that Stephen, or the writer(s) of Acts, had vague recollections about Jacob buying a field in Shechem, and about his being buried in a field. They must have confused the stories and wrote how they best remembered, or, maybe, they were working with Greek translations of low quality. Apparently the writers of the book of Acts did not have access to the Hebrew Scriptures themselves. If they did, they might have looked it up. At any rate, scriptural accuracy and being true to the Word probably didn't concern them.
In those days, reading and writing was a rare skill that separated the privileged from the common people. The readership of the Holy Scripture would have been the educated few such as the elitist clergy of the Church. It was the clergy who did the reading for the masses and then administered the scriptural message. They weren't worried about the errors. Hebrew was, by the time Acts was written, becoming an increasingly dead language. The early church fathers, who foisted Christian dogma onto the ignorant and superstitious public, were undoubtedly confident in that no one would look up the old Hebrew and compare any notes. Errors? Who would notice?