Ancestor Epics: Structuring Genesis

It's the new year, so let's talk about the structure of Genesis.  There are a few ways Genesis is divided.  None of these ways negate the others--they are just different ways of looking at the book and each helps us with a different facet or way of reading.

This blog post is meant to be supplemental material for episode 056 where I discuss each of these structures.  Feel free to have these charts on hand as you listen to the episode.

Primeval History and the Patriarchs

The “primeval history” is the time before the calling of Abram and the founding of the family line that would result in the nation of Israel.  Abraham is, of course, the founding patriarch, though it is important to note that multiple nations come from the seed of Abraham.  Likewise, with Isaac, multiple nations arise.  It is when we get to Jacob that we finally have the single line that establishes the nation.

Chart: Primeval and Patriarchal Histories

Geographical Structure

Genesis can also be structured according to three geographical locations.  The first section is centered in the land of Babylon.  The main bulk of the narrative is concerned with the land of Canaan.  But by the end of the book, it is Egypt that takes center stage.

Chart: Geographical Structure

We might note that this structuring of the book looks like a chiasm with the promised land surrounded on either side by two nations that eventually turn out to be enemies of God's people (though they are not presented as such in Genesis).  A chiasm is a literary structure that highlights a point in the middle.  We note in this structure, for instance, that though the book begins and ends outside of Canaan, the promised land nonetheless retains the emphasis.  The book of Genesis ends with the hope that the people will be brought back into their inheritance.

Toledoths

A very common division is found in the “toledoths” of Genesis.  Toledoth is a Hebrew word meaning “generations.”  We find these in our English Bibles using phrases like, “these are the generations of…”  Many scholars have suggested that they serve as a kind of “chapter title,” but it has puzzled many to note how uneven the sections are.  Why do some (such as the toledoth of Noah) seem to introduce a narrative that is structured around the “main character,” while others seem mainly to be genealogical lists, and others introduce sections that have almost nothing to do with the person initially mentioned?

Arthur Fruchentbaum and others have suggested that we should look at the toledoths as saying “this is what comes of the generations of…”  Thus, the toledoth of the heavens and the earth introduce a section about “what happens on account of creation.”

This is a bit of a clunky explanation that doesn't seem to fit every section perfectly, and it leaves unexplained the general flow of the text.  It is still fair to ask why Abraham's narrative is under the toledoth of Terah, why the story of Isaac seems so sparse compared to the other patriarchs, and why the story of Joseph dominates the toledoth of Jacob.  There seems to be something we are still missing when we are trying to sort out the structure of the book as a whole, though the toledoths seem to be an integral part of this structure.

The toledoths are divided in 10 or 11 sections, depending on if the two toledoths of Esau are divided or combined into one.  (There are a couple of uses of the word that don't create a new division.)

Chart: Toledoths of Genesis

One explanation put forward for the two toledoths of Esau is that the first is the toledoth of the person and the second is the toledoth of the people group.  (There is no explanation for why others do not get this treatment, but note that the second toledoth of Esau immediately follows the first, so it is fair to ask whether this is "one" or "two," but the question largely hinges on the purposes of the toledoths in structuring the text.)

Ancestor Epics

Duane A Garrett, in the book Rethinking Genesis, has put forth the idea that Genesis as a whole (as well as sections of Genesis) is organized according to an ancient Near Eastern genre that he calls the ancestor epic.  The ancestor epic is found in the epic of Atrahasis, one of the few other ancient texts that parallel the content of Genesis (in this case, Genesis 1-11 with the creation of man and the flood).  The structure of the ancestor epic can also be found in places like the Trojan war as well as other passages in the Bible (such as Exodus 1-2 and Matthew 1-3).

This blog post is not meant to be a full treatment of this topic.  You can read Rethinking Genesis for more information (as well as find essential charts such as how Genesis and Atrahasis parallel one another) and you can listen to episode 056 where I go into more depth on this.  

Chart: Ancestor Epic (literary structure

The key concern of the ancestral epic is the survival of the race or the group.  Atrahasis pits the gods against humanity--they do not wish humanity to multiply or spread.  Genesis, on the other hand, shows us God's goal:  to fill the earth (or the land of Canaan).

Garrett suggests that the main theme of Genesis is that of alienation.  Rather than meeting God's goals of creation, mankind suffers a series of problems that threaten this goal and that alienate them from God and from others.  The solution to these obstacles is provided by God rather than being solved by the humans themselves.

The structure of the ancestral epic in Genesis utilizes the toledoths.  A toledoth, or rather a genealogical list, separates each major section.  Note that some of these lists are not the same as the toledoths in the list above; this is because the genealogical list is separated from its head (the “toledoth” or phrase “these are the generations of…”).  Garrett's suggestion is that Moses used sources to compile Genesis--some of these sources are genealogical lists and others are narrative in structure; the complete book of Genesis utilizes these source texts and puts them in the structure we see here.

Chart: Ancestor Epic of Genesis

Individual Ancestor Epics within Genesis

Genesis as a whole is structured according to this ancestor epic design, but then so are sections within the book of Genesis itself.  The first eleven chapters are structured this way and are also divided by genealogical lists or the phrase “these are the generations of…”

Chart: Ancestor Epic of Genesis 1-11

There are a number of other such structures in Genesis, but I will leave you with one more chart, because this is crucial to the book and the Bible as a whole.  (Note there are no linking genealogies here.)

Chart: Jacob's Ancestor Epic

If you want more information, check out Garrett's book and don't forget to listen to episode 056 where I talk about these various ways of structuring Genesis!  I’d love to hear if you use these charts in your own study, either personally or for teaching others (I only ask that you give credit where credit is due).

Happy studies!