Page:A critical and exegetical commentary on Genesis (1910).djvu/37

 interesting variation in one curs. (129)— (cf. 2$4$ 5$1$) —might tempt one to fancy that the scribe had in view the series of Tôlĕdôth (see p. xxxiv), and regarded the book as the book of origins in the wide sense expressed above. But there is no doubt that the current Greek title is derived from the opening theme of the book, the creation of the world. —So also in Syriac (sephrå dabrīthå), Theod. Mopsu. , and occasionally among the Rabb. .—The common Jewish designation is, after the first word of the book (Origen, in Euseb. HE, vi. 25; Jerome, Prol. gal., and Quæst. in Gen.); less usual is , 'the first fifth.'—Only a curious interest attaches to the unofficial appellation (based on 2 Sa. 1$18$) or  (the patriarchs) see Carpzov, Introd. p. 55; Delitzsch, 10.

A.

§ 2. History or Legend?

The first question that arises with regard to these 'origins' is whether they are in the main of the nature of history or of legend,—whether (to use the expressive German terms) they are Geschichte, things that happened, or Sage, things said. There are certain broad differences between these two kinds of narrative which may assist us to determine to which class the traditions of Genesis belong.

History in the technical sense is an authentic record of actual events based on documents contemporary, or nearly contemporary, with the facts narrated. It concerns itself with affairs of state and of public interest,—with the actions of kings and statesmen, civil and foreign wars, national disasters and successes, and such like. If it deals with contemporary incidents, it consciously aims at transmitting to posterity as accurate a reflexion as possible of the real course of events, in their causal sequence, and their relations to time and place. If written at a distance from the events, it seeks to recover from contemporary authorities an exact knowledge of these circumstances, and of the character and motives of the leading personages of the action.—That the Israelites, from a very early period, knew how to write