A Correct Man (Gen 6:9)
The Flood
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9 This is the genealogy of Noah. אֵ֚לֶּה תּוֹלְדֹ֣ת נֹ֔חַ
What follows is not the genealogy of Noah, of course. But since I translated the word תּוֹלְדֹ֣ת tol’dot that way in 2:4 and 5:1, I am sticking with it. Briefly, תולדות comes from ילד y‑l‑d ‘give birth’ and occurs 10 times in Genesis in the אֵ֚לֶּה תּוֹלְדֹ֣ת formula. This formula is often said to structure Genesis, but if I worked for the Licenses and Inspections Bureau I don’t believe I would sign off on the “structure” provided by this phrase.
There are 10 entries in The Genealogy of Adam, which does not use this phrase but does use the word tol’dot. Nonetheless, I don’t see anything intrinsically “tennish” about the word. I presume that it originally did mean “genealogy” but expanded its meaning to “story” and later (certainly nowadays) “history.” Even in the Genesis Ten, it is not clear that they all mean the same thing. That’s why some are translated as “the line of” and some “the story of.”
A great deal of ink (and now of electrons) has been spilled on this phrase. As Sarah Schwartz notes, however (including 5:1 in her discussion):
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