§ 1. ITS TITLE AND CONTENTS. 1. Its title. Like the other four divisions of the Pentateuch, the First Book of Moses derives its title in the Hebrew Scriptures from its initial word, l3eresh- ith; in the LXX., which is followed by the A. V., it is designated by a term which defines its contents, I'EvEa11: (Genesis). rEvEa,, referring to the source or primal cause of either thing or person, the work to which it has been assigned e.s a descriptive appellation has been styled the l3ook of Origins or Beginnings (Ewald); but since the LXX. employ rEvm1: as the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew Tol'doth, which signifies not the causes, but the effects, not the ante- cedents, but the consequents of either thing or person (vid. ii. 4: Exp.), the writing might be more exactly characterised as the l3ook of Evolutions or Developments. 2. Its contents. As a l3ook of Origins or Beginnings, it describes the creation or absolute origination of the universe, the formation or cosmical arrangement of this terrestrial sphere, the origin of man and the commencement of the human race, while it narrates the primeval histories of mankind in the three initial ages of the world-the Antediluvian, the Postdiluvian, and the Patriarchal. Subsidiary to this, it depicts the pristine innocence of man in his first or Edenic state ; recites the story of his fall through the temptation of an unseen adversa1·y, with the revelation of Divine mercy which was made to him in the promise of the woman's seed, and the consequent establishment on earth of a Church of believing sinners, looking forward to the consummation of that glorious promise ; traces the onward course of the divided human family, in the deepening impiety of the wicked, and the decaying godliness of the righteous, "II till, ripe for destruction, the entire race, with the exception of one pious house- hold, is wiped out or washed off from the face of the ground by the waters of a flood; then, resuming the thread of human history, after first sketching the principal features of that appalling catastrophe, pursues the fortunes of this family in its threEI sons, till it sees their descendants dividing off into nations, and spreading far and wide across the surface of the globe ; when, returning once more to the original centre of distribution, it takes up the story of one ot' OEN1l8JS. fi INTRODUCTION TO
th~e collateral branches into which the race has already separated, and carries it forward through successive stages till it connects itself with the later history of Israel. Or, regarding the work in the other mentioned aspect, as a Book of Evolutions or Developmcnta, by which the smndpoint of the writer is changed and brought round from the historioal to the prophetic, from the aposterUJri to the 1l pri,ori, after sketching in a preliminary section the original creation of the universe and the arrangement of the present terrestrial cosmos, in ten successive sections it relates the Tol'doth or generations, i. e. the subsequent evolutions or onward developments of the cosmos which lead down to the point of departure for the history of Israel narrated in the ensuing books. The main divisions of the Book, according to the principle just stated, are indicated by the formula : "These are the generations of . . • ." The following tabular view of these successive sections will afford an idea of the wide range of topics comprehended in the First Book of Moses :- Section 1. The beginning . .. ... . .. ... . .. eh. i. 1-cb. ii. 3. ,, 2. The generations of the heavens and the earth eh. ii. 4-eb. iv. 26.. ,, 3. ,, ,, ,, Adam eh. v. 1-ch. vi. 8. ,, 4. ,, ,, ,, Noah . .. . .. eh. vi. 9-ch. ix. 29. ,, 5. ,, ,, ,, the sons of Noah eh. x. 1-eh. xi. 9. ,, 6. ,, ,, ., Shem eh. xi. 10-26. ,, 7. ,, ,, ,, Terah eh. xi. 27-ch. xxv. 11. ,, 8. ,, ,, ,, Ishmael eh. xxv. 12-18. ,, 9. ,, ,, ,. Isaac eh. xxv. 19-eh. xxxv. 29. ,, 10. ,, ,, ., Esau eh. xxxvi. 1-eh. xxxvil.1. ,, 11. ,, ., ,, Jacob eh. xxxvil. 2--ch.. I. 26.
§ 2. I:rs SouBOES AND .A.UTHOBBHIP. 1. Its souroos of informatwn. That writings of an earlier period may have been employed in the compilation of the present narrative, however alarm- ing the idea was when first propounded, and notwithstanding the fact that it is still frequently advanced in a hostile spirit, is now seen to be a comparatively innocuons hypothesis, at least when considered in itsel£ That the author of the Book of Origins should have availed himself of pre-existing materials in the composition of his great historical work seems no more an UDieasona.ble sugges- tion than that the four evangelists should have drawn upon already circulating memoirs of our Lord's life and work in the construction of their respective Gospels. Nor does any sober critic or intelligent student of the Bible now believe that such a supposition. is fatal to the claims either of the Pentateuch and the Gospels to be received as canonical Scriptures, or.of their writers to be regarded as inspired teachers. .Accordingly, the documentary hypothesis, as it is now familiarly styled, counts among its supporters not a. few of those wh:o maintain the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch, and therefore of Genesis, as well as the vast majority, if not all, of those by whom that authorship ill assailed. The genn of the theory appears to have suggested itself so early as the 11eventernth c,,ntury to IfolJhes, who wrote in his 'Leviathan' "that the Pentateuch THE BOOK OF GENESIS. iii