Toledot

Toledot is a Hebrew noun meaning "generations" or "descendants." It derives from the root yalad, “to bear,” and often appears in biblical headings to signal a section devoted to genealogical material or the narrative of a family line.

In the Hebrew Bible, Toledot functions as a conventional title introducing genealogies or stories about a progenitor and his offspring. The phrase "These are the generations of…" occurs repeatedly, most famously at Genesis 2:4 and 5:1, and for figures such as Noah, Isaac, Esau, and Jacob, introducing respective narrative blocks. The device helps organize the book's structure and delineates transitions between genealogical lists and episodic material.

Scholarly interpretations note Toledot as part of Genesis’s compositional framework. Some approaches view these sections as markers within the broader redactional history of the text, potentially aligning or contrasting different source strands. The Toledot framework has been used to identify recurring patterns and cycles—such as creation, catastrophe, and the continuation of family lineages—within Genesis.

Outside the biblical corpus, Toledot Yeshu, meaning "The Generations of Jesus," is a medieval Jewish polemical text recounting the life of Jesus in various legendary forms. It is not considered canonical and is typically treated as a source of anti-Christian polemic and medieval Jewish literary tradition rather than as historical biography.

In modern usage, Toledot remains a key term in biblical studies for referring to Genesis’s genealogical material and for discussions of the text’s structure and composition. See also Genesis, Tanakh, Toledot Yeshu, and the Documentary Hypothesis.