Geddes and Vater. The ruling idea of the book, as has already been briefly indicated (p. ii), is to show how Israel, the people of God, attained its historical position among the nations of the world; in particular, how its peculiar relation to God was rooted in the moral greatness and piety of its three common ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and how through God's promise to them it had secured an exclusive right to the soil of Canaan.[1] This purpose, however, appears less in the details of the history (which are obviously governed by a variety of interests) than in the scope and arrangement of the work as a whole, especially in the 'framework' which knits it together, and reveals the plan to which the entire narrative is accommodated. The method consistently followed is the progressive isolation of the main line of Israel's descent by brief genealogical summaries of the collateral branches of the human family which diverge from it at successive points.
A clue to the main divisions of the book is thus furnished by the
editor's practice of inserting the collateral genealogies (Tôlĕdôth) at the
close of the principal sections (1110-30; 2512-18; 36).[2] This yields a natural
and convenient division into four approximately equal parts, namely:
I. The Primæval History of mankind: i.-xi.[3]
II. The History of Abraham: xii. 1-xxv. 18.
III. The History of Jacob: xxv. 19-xxxvi. 43.
IV. The Story of Joseph and his brethren: xxxvii.-l.
- ↑ See Tuch, XVI ff.
- ↑ The genealogies of 417-24. 25f. and 2220-24 do not count: these are not Tôlĕdôth, and do not belong to the document used as a framework. Ch. 10 (the Table of peoples) would naturally stand at the close of a section; but it had to be displaced from its proper position before 1110 to find room for the story of the Dispersion (111-9). It may be said, however, that the Tôlĕdôth of Adam (ch. 5) should mark a main division; and that is probably correct, though for practical purposes it is better to ignore the subdivision and treat the primæval history as one section.]
- ↑ Strictly speaking, the first part ends perhaps at 1127 or 30; but the
actual division of chapters has its recommendation, and it is not worthwhile to depart from it.
book is really the design of one particular writer. It is obvious that such a conception quite adequately explains all the literary unity which the Book of Genesis exhibits.]
