Back to the Garden

  The Generations...   “Jacob settled in the land where his father had lived as an alien, the land of Canaan. This is the story of the family of Jacob.”   One of the peculiar things about the book of Genesis is its structure. The book is structured around the word, “toledoth” which is often translated “generations” in English translations. Sometimes this makes sense given the way we use “generations” in normal English usage, as there are several genealogies listed throughout the book, including the genealogy of Esau in the chapter immediately preceding our reading today. But elsewhere in Genesis, the toledoth marks a narrative of origins. Our reading today is this latter type, and is the opening scene of the toledoth of Jacob. This is the longest toledoth in the book of Genesis, stretching from chapter 37 to the end of the book.   Given the toledoth structure of the book of Genesis, we may be tempted to read Genesis as history, for what else could a book of origin stories be