What is a toledot?

Answer  
  

The Hebrew word *toledot* (also seen as *toldot*) is most often translated “generations.” *Toledot* is the story or genetic line that came from—*generated* from—a person or event.  
  

Genesis lists nine specific *toledot*:  

– Creation – Genesis 2:4  

– Adam – Genesis 5:1  

– Noah and his sons – Genesis 6:9; 10:1, 32  

– Shem – Genesis 11:10  

– Terah – 11:27  

– Ishmael – Genesis 25:12\-13; 1 Chronicles 1:29  

– Isaac – Genesis 25:19  

– Esau – Genesis 36:1, 9  

– Jacob – Genesis 37:2  
  

*Toledot* can have slightly different meanings depending on the context. In Genesis 2:4, it’s used somewhat metaphorically as “heaven and earth” don’t literally procreate. Instead, the word refers to the events that came about with the advent of heaven and earth—namely, all of human history.  
  

In the other instances in Genesis, *toledot* identifies both the progeny of these men and the stories that ensued in their time—we might say the “era” in which they lived. The *toledot* or generations don’t necessarily end when the next begin; they’re more layered, each encompassing those that come after.  
  

In other places, the word is used more narrowly to mean a family line both from the direction of the patriarch down (Exodus 6:16; Numbers 1; 3:1; Ruth 4:18\) and from a contemporary figure back (1 Chronicles 7:2, 4, 9; 8:28; 9:9, 34; 26:31\).  
  

Moses wrote the book of Genesis while the Israelites were wandering in the desert. The stories gave the Israelites a place in history—an identity—which was important for a people coming out of four hundred years of slavery in a foreign country. Knowing the *toledot* they came from gave the Israelites context for what God was asking of them when they entered the [Promised Land](Israel-land.html) and linked later Israelites to the great men and the mighty deeds of long before. Most of all, the *toledot* showed them how God had worked in the past and how He was sure to work in the present.  
  

