Page:A critical and exegetical commentary on Genesis (1910).djvu/67

 Geddes and Vater. The ruling idea of the book, as has already been briefly indicated (p. ii), is to show how Israel, the people of God, attained its historical position among the nations of the world; in particular, how its peculiar relation to God was rooted in the moral greatness and piety of its three common ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and how through God's promise to them it had secured an exclusive right to the soil of Canaan. This purpose, however, appears less in the details of the history (which are obviously governed by a variety of interests) than in the scope and arrangement of the work as a whole, especially in the 'framework' which knits it together, and reveals the plan to which the entire narrative is accommodated. The method consistently followed is the progressive isolation of the main line of Israel's descent by brief genealogical summaries of the collateral branches of the human family which diverge from it at successive points.

A clue to the main divisions of the book is thus furnished by the editor's practice of inserting the collateral genealogies (Tôlĕdôth) at the close of the principal sections (11$10-30$; 25$12-18$; 36). This yields a natural and convenient division into four approximately equal parts, namely:

I. The Primæval History of mankind: i.-xi. II. The History of Abraham: xii. 1-xxv. 18. III. The History of Jacob: xxv. 19-xxxvi. 43. IV. The Story of Joseph and his brethren: xxxvii.-l.