What does Acts 7:14 mean?

A follower of Jesus and talented speaker, Stephen, is countering a claim from his accusers. Though they suggest he rejects Moses (Acts 6:11–14), it is they who continue the long line of Jews who persecute God's prophets. When Joseph was a boy, he had a dream to the effect that his father, mother, and brothers would one day bow down to him. At the time, Jacob was incredulous, but he kept the prophecy in the back of his mind (Genesis 37:9–11).

Years later, Joseph's dream came true. God had worked in his life so that he was second in command of Egypt and in charge of the only significant food stockpile in a seven-year famine. His position meant he could bring his father's family to Egypt where they would have everything they needed. Joseph's brothers, the patriarchs of the tribes of Israel, sold their brother, God's prophet, into slavery, just as later Israelites rejected Moses, killed many other prophets, and crucified Jesus (Acts 7:35, 39–40, 51–52).

Despite Stephen's gifted weaving of prophets, the Mosaic law, and the temple into a stunning defense, many people get to this verse and get hung up on the claim that "seventy-five persons" came to Egypt. The issue is that after everyone is counted, the original account claims seventy people came to Egypt (Genesis 46:27). Most of the quotations of the Hebrew Scriptures in the New Testament are taken from the Septuagint, the Greek translation. Where the ESV reads, "And the sons of Joseph, who were born to him in Egypt, were two," the Septuagint says, "And the sons of Joseph, who were born to him in the land of Egypt, were nine souls." The original counts Joseph and his sons Manasseh and Ephraim. The Septuagint includes Manasseh's son and grandson and Ephraim's two sons and one grandson for an additional five. In all, Joseph was responsible for the presence of his father's family of seventy-five in Egypt.