Colophon

A term of Latin origin, meaining 'finishing touch', a colophon is an inscription at the conclusion of a literary composition (such as a book) providing subsidiary information such as the author, scribe, publisher/printer, place and date of composition or publication. Colophons were particular important in ancient literary sources written on clay tablets, since they serve as a primitive indexing to other tablets.

Biblical colophons play an inportant part in the history of interpretation particularly in the book of Genesis, regarding espicially the significance of the recurring "these are the generations of" formula that pepper the book. The difficulty surrounds the fact that often these colophon do not seem to conclude the respective accounts but rather to 'introduce' them.