In all the previous examples, the narrative and its closural summary are the work of the same author. When the bulk of the narrative comes from one source and a
summary is from a different source, the added summary may provide a different view of the events or may be moderated by its context. Sometimes the added summary
supplements an existing summary. The examples of the Sodom and Gomorrah story and of the P-source creation story demonstrate the didactic role of the redactor, who included alternative focuses of different writers.
In the story of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen 19:1-29), which is primarily from the J-source, Lot’s actions in the events preceding the actual destruction are virtuous; he protects the angels who were staying with him in Sodom from the angry townspeople (19:4-11). In fact, the J-source may consider Lot one of the “righteous
ones/innocent ones” (ṣ.d.q.) described by Abraham in the prior story, in which Abraham
negotiates with God to save the city if a sufficient number of innocent inhabitants could be found (18:23-33). During the destruction, as Lot and the angel flee, Lot acknowledges
God’s (or the angel’s) graciousness to him in saving his life (19:19-21). Lot asks, and the angel allows him, to rest in the town of Zo‘ar, which is saved from the destruction that rains down on Sodom and Gomorrah. A descriptive summary completes this section from the J- source: on the day after the destruction, Abraham looks down over the transformed landscape (19:27-28):
Next morning, Abraham hurried to the place where he had stood before the Lord, and, looking down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and all the land of the Plain, he saw the smoke of the land rising like the smoke of a kiln. To this ending, the narrator adds a summary from the P-source (Gen 19:29): Thus it was that, when God destroyed the cities of the Plain and
annihilated the cities where Lot dwelt, God was “mindful” (z.k.r.) of Abraham and removed Lot from the midst of the upheaval.
This final summary, the P-source addition, emphasizes God’s relationship with Abraham. It does not note the J-source evidence of Lot’s righteous behavior nor even mention Lot by name. In P, God “remembers/is mindful” (z.k.r.) of Abraham, and that is why he “removed Lot from the midst of the upheaval.” The key word “righteous/innocent”
(ṣ.d.q.), the word Abraham had used when he argued with God on behalf of the residents
of Sodom (Gen 18:17-32), is not present.
The effect of the editor’s conflation of these verses is somewhat unsettling at the end. To the assumption that God saved Lot because of Lot’s righteous behavior with his visitors, one now looks to Abraham, of whom God was mindful or remembers. Perhaps God saves Lot because he remembers Abraham’s argument on behalf of the righteous of
Sodom, or perhaps God saves Lot because of God’s relationship with Abraham and he extends his mindfulness of Abraham to his nephew.
The P-source creation story also has two summaries. They do not contradict each other, but each focuses on different aspects of the narrative (Gen 1:1-2:4a). In context, the two summaries are a relatively detailed summary statement that is theological in nature and a more generalized summary that examines the preceding events as a
historical narrative. Each, on its own, forms a frame with the first verse of the narrative, “When God began to create heaven and earth.” The first summary is part of the original P-source (2:3),
And God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, because on it God ceased from all the work of creation that he had done.
The second summary, which immediately follows the first, uses formulaic language (“such is the story,” [’elle toledot]), a form that is a characteristic organizer of the narrative in P and occurs ten additional times in Genesis.13 However, this is the only instance in which it summarizes rather than introduces a narrative or genealogy (2:4a): 14
13 S. R. Driver,
The Book of Genesis with an Introduction and Notes, ii.
14 There is disagreement among scholars regarding verse 2:4
a and its relationship to the first creation and
second creation stories. The ’elle toledot formula, in all other instances where it occurs in Genesis, precedes the material to which it is related. This would suggest it be part of the Adam and Eve narrative
that follows. Its possible role as an introduction to the second creation story seems to be supported by the Masoretic text, which includes the letter peh after 2:3, indicating a space marker before the beginning of
another section. In Richard Elliot Friedman’s The Bible with Sources Revealed,35, this verse is printed as
a separate one-verse paragraph followed by a colon; thus, it appears to introduce the second creation story, 2:4b-3:24. Yet, the verse does summarize the preceding narrative, and Nahum Sarna, The JPS Torah Commentary, Genesis, 15,includes it as the concluding part of the first creation story, as do J. Estlin
Such is the story (’elle toledot) of heaven and earth when they were created.
The first summarysums up God’s action of days one through six with the phrase
“all his work.” Linguistically, it repeats the verb “to create” in the same form as in 1:1, bara’. For this summary, the theological relationship between God’s cessation of action after day six and the related holiness of the seventh day is most important.
The secondsummary is abstract, as is the nature of the ’elle toledot formulae. No concrete details are given, nor is God even mentioned. It repeats the words “heaven and earth” from 1:1, and the verb “to create” is repeated as well, although in a different form (niphal infinitive).15 But, God’s role in the process of creation is not stated, nor is his
name mentioned.