1:1 Now. It is significant that Moses began Exodus with the common Hebrew conjunction waw (here translated “now,” but commonly translated “and”), thus indicating that Exodus was simply a continuation of Genesis, both books being actual historical records of real events.

1:1 these are the names. The similarity of this summary passage to the eleven toledoth (“generations”) passages of Genesis (Genesis 2:4; 5:1; etc.) suggests that Moses, who compiled and edited these earlier documents into the present book of Genesis, used this modified formula as a transition between the concluding chapters of Genesis (which must originally have been written by Joseph or Judah or someone else among Jacob’s immediate descendants) and his own personal account. He thus linked his own “generations” to those that had gone before by using a similar formula, and yet altered it sufficiently to indicate that this would begin a distinctively new period in history and a new book in the divinely-authenticated record of history.