Biblical Hebrew Forum

[James Read <J.Read-2 AT sms.ed.ac.uk>]

Hi Karl,

let's do a deeper analysis of Genesis chapter 10 in light of your  
theory. Now let's forget for a moment the massive coincidence that  
your hypothetical colophon of the previous document contains the names  
of the three people whose lineage is described in this section and  
look at other features of the text.

Let's look at Genesis 10:1b

Now sons began to be born to them after the deluge

Now if Genesis 10:1a is the colophon of the preceeding document just  
what context is the 'them' of Genesis 10:1b referring to?

Then within the document we clearly see delineated three separate  
sections with both a header and a footer

Section 1
Header (1st generation) The sons of Ja´pheth were Go´mer and Ma´gog  
and Ma´da·i and Ja´van and Tu´bal and Me´shech and Ti´ras.
Footer (closing formula) From these the population of the isles of the  
nations was spread about in their lands, each according to its tongue,  
according to their families, by their nations.

Section 2
Header (1st generation) And the sons of Ham were Cush and Miz´ra·im  
and Put and Ca´naan.
Footer (closing formula) These were the sons of Ham according to their  
families, according to their tongues, in their lands, by their nations.

Section 3
Header (1st generation) And to Shem, the forefather of all the sons of  
E´ber, the brother of Ja´pheth the oldest, there was also progeny  
born. 22 The sons of Shem were E´lam and As´shur and Ar·pach´shad and  
Lud and A´ram.
Footer (closing formula) These were the sons of Shem according to  
their families, according to their tongues, in their lands, according  
to their nations.

Now here comes the interesting part. Immediately after the closing  
formula of the third section comes the master closing formula of the  
three sections in their entirety:

These were the families of the sons of Noah according to their family  
descents, by their nations, and from these the nations were spread  
about in the earth after the deluge.

So if this is the master footer, the logical question is what is the  
master header. And the answer is quite plainly:

Now sons began to be born to them after the deluge.

Which is utterly dependent on its connection with the title of the  
document for its context. The structure of the document is therefore:

Title (Genesis 10:1a)
Master header (1b)
Section 1 header 2
Section 1 content 3,4
Section 1 footer 5
Section 2 header 6
Section 2 content 11-19
Section 2 footer 20
Section 3 header 21,22
Section 3 content 23-30
Section 3 footer 31
Master footer 32

Of course, this analysis brings into question whether the Babel  
account was a part of this hypothetical document. The style is  
definitely different.

James Christian




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