What is atoledot?

The opening words of verse 4 must be specially noted, since they indicate the second of the eleven sections into which the book is divided. As printed in our modern Bibles the chapters number 50, but ten times do we find this expression "These are the generations …" (with once a slight variation), showing that, as given by inspiration of God, the chapters number eleven.

We will point out these inspired divisions at once, so that from the outset we may have them clearly before us. They are as follows: — Genesis 1:1 — Genesis 2:3, which we have already considered, we may designate as — The Beginning. Genesis 2:4 — Genesis 4:26, Generations of heavens and earth. Genesis 5:1 — Genesis 6:8, Generations of Adam. Genesis 6:9 — Genesis 9:29, Generations of Noah. Genesis 10:1 — Genesis 11:9, Generations of sons of Noah. Genesis 11:10 — Genesis 11:26; Generations of Shem. Genesis 11:27 — Genesis 25:11, Generations of Terah. Genesis 25:12 — Genesis 25:18, Generations of Ishmael. Genesis 25:19 — Genesis 35:29, Generations of Isaac. Genesis 36:1 — Genesis 37:1, Generations of Esau. Genesis 37:2 — Genesis 50:26, Generations of Jacob.

The word translated "generations" occurs but sparingly in the Old Testament; apart from Genesis mainly in Numbers 1, and in certain chapters in 1 Chronicles, and it seems to have the force of "births," or "origins." If this be so, "the generations of the heavens and the earth" would signify their origins; whereas the generations of Adam, Noah, etc., would signify those who by birth found their origin in these respective patriarchs.

A certain structure of Genesis can be seen in the fact that eleven times the Hebrew word "toledoth" (generations, histories) is mentioned as conclusion - or introduction - of a report. Similar stereotype statements are known from cuneiform tables from Mesopotamia. The word "toledoth" occurs in the following passages:

Second — "Generations, Toledhoth." In Gen. 2:4, we have for the first time this characteristic word, which introduces ten more or less clearly marked divisions of the entire book of Genesis. Indeed, these have been taken to indicate certain original documents which go to make up the book, and they are said to show that Moses simply edited these documents, incorporating them into the one book. We have already spoken sufficiently upon this point. We do not believe, indeed, that they necessarily at all indicate separate documents, but rather, as has already been suggested, separate topics.*

These "generations" speak of certain moral characteristics of the portion they introduce. The word "generation," from the root "Yaladh," meaning "to bring forth," suggests the natural order and relationship and community of character in what is being described. Thus, the first use of the word in the verse we are considering has been taken to look both backward and forward, unlike its use in any subsequent passage, where it has always been placed at the head of the passage introduced. Here it has been thought to refer to the work of the six days as well as to that which follows, the establishing of man in moral relationship to God. We are not disposed to deny this application; we merely suggest that it is not absolutely necessary; but that we may have in the six days' work that which stands out by itself, and then in the succeeding section we begin that which continues throughout the entire book, the narration of events in their moral order and significance. This we think is rather more in accord with the truth and subsequent use of the expression.

Every book of the Bible has a key and also hints on the division of the book. The correct way in unlocking the book is to use the key and the Division as given by the Holy Spirit in the book itself. The book of Genesis has been divided in perhaps more different ways than any other book. In looking through Genesis for a characteristic word we have no difficulty in finding it in the word "generations" (Hebrew: toledoth). It is used eleven times in this book. The first time the word generations occurs is in chapter 2:4. The creation account stands therefore by itself. This gives us twelve sections.

THE CREATION ACCOUNT (1-2:3) THE GENERATIONS OF THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH (2:4-4) THE GENERATIONS OF ADAM (5-6:8) THE GENERATIONS OF NOAH (6:9-9:29) THE GENERATIONS OF THE SONS OF NOAH (10-11:9) THE GENERATIONS OF SHEM (11:10-26) THE GENERATIONS OF TERAH (11:27-25:11) THE GENERATIONS OF ISHMAEL (25:12-18) THE GENERATIONS OF ISAAC (25:19-35) THE GENERATIONS OF ESAU (36:1-8) THE GENERATIONS OF ESAU'S SONS (36:9-43) THE GENERATIONS OF JACOB (37:2-50:26)

We fully agree with the scholarly remarks of Prof. Green about the importance of this division. "These titles are designed to emphasize and render more prominent and palpable an important feature of the book, the genealogical character of its history. This results from its main design, which is to trace the line of descent of the chosen race from the beginning to the point where it was ready to expand to a great nation, whose future organization was already foreshadowed, its tribes being represented in the twelve sons of Jacob, and its tribal divisions in their children, The genealogies contained in the book are not merely incidental or subordinate, but essential, and the real basis of the whole. They are not to be regarded as addenda to the narrative, scraps of information introduced into it; they constitute the skeleton or framework of the history itself."

It has been happily pointed out by Adolf Saphir that there were three great testings of man before man as a whole was set aside and God began to exercise His new principle of calling out. First Adam was set up in innocence and failed. “The generations of the heavens and of the earth” (Gen. 2:4) include Adam unfallen. Next, man was tested as having no restraint up to the flood, and “the book of the generations of Adam” [fallen] (Gen. 5:1) brings us up to the flood and Noah. After the flood man is tested—government was put into the hands of Noah—and he failed. Noah’s son, Shem, is chosen, and “these are the generations of Shem” (Gen. 11:10) brings us up to Abram. Henceforth Bible history circles round Abram as being called out, and after Abram in Isaac and Jacob, heirs of the promise, till it enlarges into a nation, a called-out nation—“Out of Egypt have I called My Son” (Matt. 2:15). But when Abram is called, God indicated two lines of blessing—heavenly and earthly. God said He would multiply His seed, “as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the seashore” (Gen. 22:17).

Next in Gen. 5 we have and here only, and most appropriately, "the book"* of Adam's generations. It says Elohim throughout, save in Lamech's prophecy where His government comes in, and therefore we hear of Jehovah. It is a summary of the antediluvian world. Who could have drawn it up but Himself?

Then in Gen. 6:9 we read, "These are the generations of Noah:" where the fitting ground is given for his exemption from the flood, with his three sons and their wives; and "the book" of chap 5 would be out of place.

THE WORDING OF the first verse of the New Testament directs our thoughts back to the first book of the Old, inasmuch as "generation" is the translation of the Greek word, genesis. Matthew in particular, and the whole New Testament in general, is "The book of the genesis of Jesus Christ." When we refer back to Genesis, we find that book divides into eleven sections, and all of them save the first begin with a statement about "generations." The third section commences, "This is the book of the generations of Adam" (Matt. 5:1); and the whole Old Testament unrolls for us the sad story of Adam and his race, ending with terrible appropriateness in the word, "curse." With what great relief we can turn from the generations of Adam to "the generation of Jesus Christ," for here we shall find the introduction of grace; and upon that note the New Testament ends.

Then, from Genesis 2:4, we have the subject from another point of view, — not a repetition of the account of creation, but what was even more necessary to be brought here before us, — the place of relationship in which God set the creation He had formed, not mutually alone, but above all, in reference to Himself. Hence it is here that Eden is first spoken of. We should not have known anything of paradise from the first chapter. The reason is evident. Eden was to be the scene of the moral trial of man.

I must be permitted here to say a word on a subject which, if it has called out enormous discussion, betrays in its course, I am sorry to say, no small amount of evident infidelity. It has been gathered from the varying names of God, etc., by speculative minds that there must have been different documents joined together in this book. Now there is not really the very least ground for such an assumption. On the contrary, supposing there was but one writer of the book of Genesis, as I am persuaded is the truth of the case, it would not have borne the stamp of a divine communication if he had used either the name of Jehovah-Elohim in 1-2:3, or the name of "Elohim" only in 2:4-25. The change of designation springs from distinct truths, not from different fabulists and a sorry compiler who could not even assimilate them. Accepting the whole as an inspired writing, I maintain that the same writer must have used this distinctive way of speaking of God in Genesis 1 and 2, and that the notion of there being two or three writers is merely a want of real intelligence in scripture. If it were the same writer, and he an inspired one, it was proper in the highest degree to use the simple term "Elohim" in chapters 1, 2:3, then the compound "Jehovah-Elohim" from verse 4 and onward through Genesis 2. A mere historian, like Josephus of old — a mere commentator, like Ewald now — might have used either the one or the other without sensible loss to his readers through both chapters. An inspired author could not have expressed himself differently from Moses without impairing the perfect beauty and accuracy of the truth.* If the book were in each of these different subjects written according to that most perfect keeping which pervades scripture, and which only God is capable of producing by His chosen instruments, I am convinced that, as Elohim simply in Genesis 2, so "Jehovah-Elohim" in Genesis 1, would have been wholly out of place with their respective positions in 1 and 2. As they stand, they are in exact harmony. The first chapter does not speak of special relationships, — does not treat of any peculiar dealings of God with the creature. It is the Creator originating what is around us; consequently it is God, Elohim, who alone could be spoken of as such in ch. 2:1-3, taking the Sabbath as the necessary complement of the week, and therefore going on with the preceding six days, not with what follows. But in Genesis 2, beginning with verse 4, where we have special position and moral responsibility coming to view for the first time, the compound term which expresses the Supreme putting Himself in relation with man, and morally dealing with him here below, is first used, and with the most striking appropriateness.

The first occurs in Gen. 2:4: "These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that Jehovah Elohim made earth and heavens." Now it is plain that this opening verse of a new section of the book, characterised by a very special employment of the divine names in the rest of Gen. 2 and in Gen. 3, also sums up the salient facts of Gen. 1. What went before gave creation completely. The new section does not speak of the creation of the heavens and earth. It is not a second, still less a different or discordant account, but the added revelation of man set in moral responsibility, tried by Jehovah Elohim; as he, and he only, is said here to become a living soul by His immediate communication of the breath of life. Hence here we have the park or garden planted by Jehovah Elohim; here the tree of life, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; here a simple test of obedience suited to innocence. Here too the relation of the man and the woman is given, and Adam's exercised authority over the lower creation, in contrast with his associate taken out of himself, his one meet companion, whose name he gave to mark the difference. Then in Gen. 3 under the same name of the Creator in moral relationship, the Temptation and the Fall, the present result in death and ruin, but with the revelation of the Deliverer in the woman's Seed: a wholly new presentation of the truth on the moral side, and grace too rising above sin, not the platform of creation as in what preceded (Gen. 1 - 2:3).