Question XVIII. Whether, with Joseph, more other Patriarchs [were] buried at Shechem?

Junius denies [that] other Patriarchs [were] buried with Joseph in the Sichemite field (on Acts 7); and his opinion can be confirmed from Josephus, who, when [he] had narrated the death of the Patriarchs (bk. 2 Antiquities, ch. 4), at length subjoins: τὰ τούτων μὲν τὰ σώματα κομίσαντες μετὰ χρόνον, αὐτῶν οἱ ἀπόγονοι, καὶ οἱ παῖδες ἔθαψαν ἐν Χεβρῶνι [ta toutōn men ta sōmata komisantes meta chronon, autōn hoi apogonoi, kai hoi paides ethapsan en Chebrōni, “but the bodies of these [Patriarchs], their descendants and children, having carried [them] after a time, buried in Hebron”]. But first, among us Christians, of much greater authority is St. Stephen, who (Acts 7:15) says: “Jacob went down into Egypt, and died, he and our fathers. And [they] were translated into Sichem [Shechem], and [were] placed in the sepulchre which [Abraham] bought for a price of silver from the sons of Hemor [the] son of Sichem.” Second: D. Jerome, in the Epitaph of Paula: “Thence (from Sichem), turning aside, Paula saw the sepulchres of the twelve Patriarchs.” What [is] clearer? And concerning this, against his [own] Junius, Beza says (on Acts 7): “D. Jerome [is] an eye-witness, to whom faith [is] rather to be given than to Josephus.” Third: Yet Josephus can be [so] explained that [he] disagrees in nothing from St. Stephen, and [from] the divine Jerome. For [he] subjoins in the same place [that], after the burial of those Patriarchs in Hebron, Joseph’s bones [were] buried. [It] could therefore come to pass [that], at first, the bones of the other Patriarchs were entombed at Hebron, but afterward [were] translated to Sichem. The words of that [Josephus], which are annexed to the cited [passage], are: τὰ δὲ Ἰωσήπου ὀστᾶ ὕστερον, ὅτε μετανέστησαν ἐκ τῆς Αἰγύπτου οἱ Ἑβραῖοι, εἰς τὴν Χαναναίαν ἐκόμισαν· οὕτως γὰρ αὐτὸς ὁ Ἰώσηπος ἐξώρκισε [ta de Iōsēpou osta hysteron, hote metanestēsan ek tēs Aigyptou hoi Hebraioi, eis tēn Chananaian ekomisan; houtōs gar autos ho Iōsēpos exōrkise, “but Joseph’s bones later, when the Hebrews migrated out of Egypt, they carried into Canaan; for so Joseph himself had adjured [them]”]. Fourth: On the contrary, Junius wants [it that] Jacob’s body — which is distinctly written (Gen. 50) [to have been] buried at Hebron — [was] first deported to Sichem, and thence afterward to Hebron: because in the Syriac and Arabic [it] is μετετέθη εἰς Σιχέμ, καὶ ἐτέθη ἐν μνημείῳ [metetethē eis Sichem, kai etethē en mnēmeiō, “he was transferred to Shechem, and placed in a tomb”]. But unless this single [reading] be referred to the bones of those [patriarchs, the codex] is rather to be called faulty [mendosus] than [that] an absurd thing — against the express text of Genesis — be admitted. Fifth: Finally, Beza thus confutes his [own] Junius: “First: if ‘from the sons of Hemor’ [παρὰ τῶν υἱῶν Ἐμμὸρ, à filiis Emor] you construe not with the verb ἠγόρασατο [ēgorasato, ‘he bought’] — ‘bought’ — but with the verb ἐτέθη [etethē, ‘was placed’] — ‘was placed’ — the transposition [traiectio] would be exceedingly harsh. Then, whence can [it] be clear [that] the threshing-floor of Athad [Atad] — situated at the very crossing of the Jordan (for there [they] first halted, who were conducting Jacob’s funeral) — is Sichem? And even if [it] is Sichem, why would Stephen have preferred to name the sons of Chamur [Hemor], rather than either to report the name of Sichem, or to employ the relative ἐκεῖθεν [ekeithen, ‘thence’], ‘from that place’? But if, even this [phrase] ‘from the sons of Emmor’ we wish so to construe, nothing hinders [that], just as [we say] of Joseph, so also [we] may say [that] the bones of his remaining brothers too were together deported to Sichem — which afterward [were] translated by the sons of Emmor, that is, from the Sichemite territory, to [the field of] Ephron [at Hebron], with only Joseph’s bones left at Sichem. And in this way, [there would] indeed [have] been at Sichem cenotaphs [empty tombs], concerning which Jerome treats: but in the cave of Hebron [were] the true sepulchres of the Patriarchs, concerning which the historian Josephus writes in the cited place.”