He gave him no inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on. He promised that he would give it to him for a possession, and to his offspring after him, when he still had no child.
World English Bible
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He gave him no inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on. He promised that he would give it to him for a possession, and to his offspring after him, when he still had no child.
World English Bible
Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
Genesis 13:14-17 and Genesis 17:8 record God promising the land of Canaan to Abraham and his seed as an "everlasting possession" (achuzzat olam). Acts 7:5 and Hebrews 11:9, 13 directly state that Abraham received no inheritance in the land — "not so much as to set his foot on" — and that he and the patriarchs died in faith "not having received the promises."
Critical scholarship: Leans toward a genuine contradiction.
The proposed answers and sources for each reading are on the question page.
Each section sets the viewpoints side by side; you weigh the evidence. Here, "critical scholarship" means academic study, not a value judgment. How this is built →
Within each section, grouped by shared field or question type — not a cross-section comparison.
This citation refers to this GEBible page — the verse and the analysis gathered here. To cite the underlying scholarship, cite those sources directly.
"Acts 7:5 — Scripture Analysis" GEBible, https://gebible.app/analysis/verse/acts/7/5?version=WEB (retrieved 26 August 2026).