In Genesis we encounter a concept that, when carefully studied, turns out to be a key concept. It is the Hebrew toledoth (H8435). The expression occurs 13 times and runs like a common thread through the first book of the Bible. The word is derived from yalad (to give birth, to beget, H3205). In common translations, toledoth is rendered in different ways, some examples are:
2:4 – This is the history of the heavens and the earth.
5:1 – This is the genealogy of Adam.
10:1 – These are the descendants of Noah’s sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
25:13 – These are the names of the sons of Ishmael, according to their descent.
caption
When we study and list all occurrences of toledoth in Genesis, we see that in most cases it is a kind of caption (compare our concept: colophon). Genesis is made up of several parts by different writers and the one who wrote the part concludes it with: these are the toledoth of…
recorded
The one who records the history of his lineage is not only the main character himself, but also an eyewitness who reports his histories and that makes the book of Genesis a historical book with first-hand information. Authentic and reliable!
It is not easy to find a suitable Dutch of English word for toledoth that represents it one on one. The Concordant Version shows it with genealogical records and that is also the case in an earlier version of the Maskilim translation. A toledoth is a registration or recording of historical stories and the toledoth states who the source of that information is: the writer.
time period
The era that we understand by the Old Testament covers about 4,000 years. It is good to realize that the period we find described in Genesis, that from Adam to Joseph, is almost 2300 years. So that is more than half of the entire Old Testament, a very long period.
Moses
At best, it is assumed that Moses was the writer of Genesis and that the information we find there was passed down through oral tradition all along and eventually made its way to Moses, who recorded it. How precise and reliable can that still be after such a long period? In Scripture criticism, a branch of “Biblical scholarship,” it is generally assumed that Genesis was written even later.
first book of Moses
But wasn’t Genesis written by Moses? Isn’t it one of the five books of Moses? That’s right, because Scripture itself attributes the first five books of the Bible to Moses. But that doesn’t mean it couldn’t (also) have been written by others. Moses is the compiler of Genesis 1 to Genesis 37:2, where Joseph’s story begins. He has brought together the writings of various writers, Adam, Noah, Shem, Isaac, etc. The part from Genesis 37:2 to the end of the book (50:26) is not signed with a toledoth and it is most likely that Moses wrote this last part himself.
Moses as editor
Moses brought together these writings of the patriarchs, translated where necessary and edited the text and made additions himself to clarify things. He mainly did the latter with place names, which have since been called differently. A small selection of the many examples of those small additions:
Genesis 14
2 (…) and the king of Bela, which is Zoar.
Genesis 14
3 All these gathered together in the valley of Siddim, which is the Sea of Salt.
Genesis 23
2 And Sarah died in Kiriath-arba, which is Hebron, in the land of Canaan; and Abraham came to pity Sarah, and to bewail her.
In the meantime, cities and areas had been given different names. Moses knew these names and added them to clarify matters.
creation of heavens and earth
This approach sheds a lot of light on the entire book of Genesis, but especially on the first part. This part is special because it is a toledoth in which no name of a person is mentioned: the history of the creation (toledoth) of heavens and earth.
Genesis 1:1 to 2:4 is a document of the creation of heavens and earth. As, for example, the Dutch Statenvertaling Translation also shows: These are the births of heaven and earth when they were created. This book, this toledoth, is the oldest document in this world!
word of God
But who wrote it? It is the only toledoth in which we do not find a name. It is God’s revelation of His works of creation to Adam. Ten times it says and God said, God gave Adam His word. Would He also have done that “in writing” and left Adam this document of the creation of the heavens and earth? That makes the first book of Genesis very special and in the most literal sense: word of God!
two creation stories
A point of discussion surrounding the creation story is often that we find two “creation stories” in Genesis 1 and 2. All kinds of conclusions are drawn from this and the reliability of the text is also called into question. But with knowledge of the toledoth we know that they are indeed two accounts, written by different writers.
The first toledoth is the account of the creation or birth of the heavens and earth (2:4). The Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, gives here: biblios genènèsèoos (>book of the making) and from this the Greek name of the book, Genesis, is also derived. This first part is not signed with a name, but who could have written it but God himself? The second toledoth, to which Genesis 2 belongs, was written by Adam: these are the toledoth of Adam (5:1).
More about the other toledoth in a next blog.