Toldot — What History Really Means

A Word With Many Layers

The Torah portion this Shabbat is called "Toldot." The word Toldot, like a lot of words in Hebrew, has more than one meaning, and that is because Hebrew is actually a very limited language compared to Korean, English, and other languages. The basic meanings are "generations" or "descendants", "history", "genealogy." The word comes from the root "yalad", which means to give birth.

This, by the way, is a different way of looking at history from the classical western view, as Webster defines history:

Webster's definition is good, but it is different. The difference is that it is cold, academic, and impersonal. It is dealing with the nation, the larger public, and the facts.

The Hebrew concept of history is a chain of events where one event leads to the next event with causality. One event gives birth to the next event. Nothing in this world is independent. All things and events are connected in a linear line that has a beginning (Genesis) and has an end (the book of Revelation).

Toldot/history is not a series of events that are accidental or a matter of chance, or just luck. History is a chain in which one link from the past influences the link that follows. It is linear, not circular. It does not repeat itself automatically. It is something that is planned and progresses in a single direction. This is the only way that true prophecy can work. There is a master plan that is progressing, link by link, in a single direction that is set, and one drags the former event and creates the next and future events. This is really the history of the Bible, but also the basis for moral responsibilities. The morality of the past generation is going to influence the future generation. There is no guilt incurred from generation to the next, but there are consequences that either make it easier and better for the next generations or make it harder. And inheritance of these consequences ought to be taken into account for our children and grandchildren.

Toldot — Birthings and the Next Generation

The biblical and Jewish paradigm of Toldot means in Hebrew: "The deeds of the fathers are a sign — a prophetic path — for the children with regard to sin." Future generations form a chain of history by their deeds; it's like a linked chain leading to the end. It is interesting to see here in the Bible, how our personal past shapes and directs our future, and the future of our children. This is one of the amazing things that the Lord has given us — an intense effect on future generations. The word "toldot" in its most literal sense means "birthings." How we live our lives affects the lives of our future generations, not only their physical life, but also the paths they take as well as their relationship with the Almighty God — patterns that our actions plant in the souls of our children.

This is something that since the 18th century AD, humanity has neglected. The industrial revolution promoted economic progress, but took away from the nuclear family the very matrix that made the human being a creature created in the image and form of the Creator.

Isaac had a heritage to transmit to Jacob, a spiritual inheritance. The blessings that Isaac gave his son were those that he had received from his father Abraham. It is heritage, family and national memory and traditions that create "toldot" — history — a continuity and connection to generational bonding and unity.

The New Testament Starts With Toldot

The word Toldot is a word that the New Testament starts with. This is the reason why Matthew starts the Gospel with the following words:

Matthew is actually quoting from Genesis:

Now that's a very interesting start of the first verse of the first book of what we call the "New Testament." The phrase "This is the book of genealogy" appears only one other time in the whole Bible — Genesis 5:1 — and it says "This is the genealogy of Adam." Adam didn't have a genealogy, folks. He was created from the clay of the Earth that God molded and formed into a human being and breathed into it the life from the Spirit of God.

So, when Matthew starts the Gospel with these words "the book of the genealogy", he automatically closes the doors against any arguments about the virgin birth of Yeshua. The reason for this beginning in Matthew is just in case someone would say that it is impossible for a virgin to have a son. This text in Genesis 5:1 proves that it is possible. God created Adam and Eve without a natural father or mother! If God can do this, a virgin can have a Son!

Of course the man that Matthew is referring to is not any man — it is Abraham and David. These two are the archetypes of God's pleasure in mankind, and Yeshua is the culmination of the promises and expectations of both Abraham and King David.

Reading the Torah in Public — Then and Now

The word Toldot appears in the Torah reading of every synagogue around the world this week. It is interesting in Luke that Yeshua was reading from the scroll of Isaiah, chapter 61, the first verses. If we had the schedule of reading in the synagogues of the Pharisees in the First Century we might be able to discover about what time of the year Yeshua was born, because reading from the prophets (the Haftarah) was normally given to honor someone maybe on his birthday. The interesting thing in this reading from Isaiah 61 is that the writer writes this text in first person singular. This is why it was legitimate for Yeshua to state that this text is a reference to Himself. This angered the people of Nazareth. Nazareth might have been a sectarian village in the time of Yeshua, and they acted in a radical sectarian way when they wanted to kill Yeshua for claiming that the prophet Isaiah was talking about was Him in person.

Unfortunately, today in churches there is very little reading in God's word. The main part of the service is given to the salesman — the pastor — and not to the product. The word of God from Genesis to Revelation is the product that we ought to supply to our brothers and sisters, and this is what happens in every Jewish synagogue. The main part of the service is the reading from the Torah and from the prophets and that is normally what the teaching — the sermon — is about, an exegesis of the texts that were read in public in the Hebrew language.

We are fortunate that we live after the discovery and publication of the Dead Sea Scrolls from Qumran, next to the Dead Sea north of Sodom. In the treasures of the Dead Sea Scrolls there was a full copy written on leather of the book of Isaiah, the same type scroll as the one that Yeshua would have been reading from in the synagogue in Nazareth.

The bottom line is, that we need to accept the fact that there is a God who has planned history, from beginning to end, from generation to generation, and all things are working for the good, even things that might not be the easiest or the most pleasant. Let us keep studying His word, week by week, and keep discovering the only One who has the full control of all that is happening in His world, who has loved us — all of humanity — and sent His Son to redeem us and prepare us for eternity in a place that He prepared for us. This is something to cause us to rejoice, and trust, and do all that is possible so that in our end we will have joy and the pleasure to spend eternity with Him.