Genesis 2:4

These are the generations … created These words, as they stand here, seem to form a summary of the precedingaccount of the Creation. Elsewhere, however, the phrase "These are the generations, &c." is the formula employed in P as a heading, title, or superscription, to introduce the passage that follows. Cf. Genesis 5:1, "The generations of Adam," Genesis 6:9 (Noah), Genesis 10:1 (The Sons of Noah), Genesis 11:10 (Shem), 27 (Terah), Genesis 25:12 (Ishmael). The conjecture has been made that the formula "These are the generations, &c." originally stood at the beginning of ch. 1, and was transferred to its present place, either, in order that the book might begin with the word b'rêshîth("In the beginning"), or to obtain a sentence which would serve both as an epitome of the opening section and as a link with the one that follows.

generations Heb. tô-l"-dôth= "successions by descent," usually meaning "the chronicles," or "genealogies," of persons and families, is here metaphorically applied to "the heaven and the earth" in the sense of the "history" of their origin and their offspring. LXX, therefore, gives an explanatory rendering, αὕτη ἡ βίβλος γενέσεως οὐρανοῦ καὶ γῆς.

It is quite a different word from that found, e.g. in Genesis 15:16, "in the fourth generation" (Heb. dôr, LXX γενέα).

created This word closes the first section of the book, and there should be a full stop after it. The next section, giving another narrative, at of the creation of man and of Paradise, opens with the words "In the day that."

The first section has been derived from the materials of the Priestly Code (P), the second is from the Prophetic Writing (J). The styles which characterize the two sources offer a marked contrast.