GENESIS 32:22-32 -- JACOB'S WRESTLING MATCH

 

                           Night Wrestling (10'' x 10'' collage)

                                              Literary Structure of Genesis 32:22-31

    A. Jacob passes over Jabbok at night (32:22-24a)

            B. Jacob wrestles with a man (32:24b-25)

                    C. Jacob asks for blessing (32:26)

                            D. Man: “What is your name?” (32:27a)

                                    E. Answer: “Jacob” (32:27b)

                                            F. “You will be called Israel” (32:28)

                            D'. Jacob: “What is your name?” (32:29a)

                                    E'. No answer is given (32:29b)

                    C'. Jacob is blessed (32:29c)

            B'. Jacob: “I have seen God face to face” (32:30)

    A'. Jacob passes over Penuel at daybreak (32:31)

Most commentators have a great deal of trouble dealing adequately with this episode in the life of the patriarch Jacob, as you can see from the following quotes:

    “Considered by some the most strange and perplexing narrative in the entire OT is an ancient, complicated, mysterious and enigmatic passage that preserves multiple meanings.” (Wakely)

    Motyer calls it a “profound and mysterious story.”

    “Every man holds that this text is one of the most obscure in the Old Testament.” (Luther)

    “Gen 22-32 is a strange and mysterious narrative.” (Foulkes)

Of the many questions this story elicits in the reader, I will just briefly consider a few of the most important ones below. As you will note, not all scholars are in agreement in their answers.

Is this an historical account?

Whereas the majority of conservative scholars are firm in their belief that this should be considered as an episode that really happened in the life of Jacob, others are more suspicious:

    Gunkel dismissed the whole story as “the after-effect of an ancient goblin tale or Israelite tradition.”

    Hawk explained that Barthes “showed that the episode appropriates the elements of a story common in folklore (the hero's quest) but combines the elements of the pattern in surprising ways.”

    Josephus provided one of the earliest attempts to erase the historical context from this narrative. He felt it was merely the account of a dream. There is one thing to say in favor of this interpretation. Jacob's earlier dream of the ladder to heaven with angels ascending and descending occurred in the same geographical vicinity as he was leaving the Promised Land. Thus, this account as Jacob re-entered that land might be seen as a companion piece.

    The Jewish philosopher Philo viewed it as an allegory of the soul's fight against a person's sins.

    St. Jerome treated the story as an account of a long prayer Jacob made to God.

    Wakely states that “this feature of disappearing before sunrise is one of several motifs the story has in common with myth and folklore.”

Who is the mysterious wrestler?

Here the main possibilities are narrowed down to only a handful:

Westermann is practically alone in proposing that this mysterious personage is a hostile river god or demon, for evidence pointing to the similarity in sound between the Hebrew word for “struggled” and the River Jabbok. But as Wenham notes, it is also a play on words with “Jacob” and so may have nothing at all to do with the name of the river.

Then there is the interpretation given in early Jewish literature that the angel of Esau, named Samael, was the night wrestler.

Or more generally, another possibility is that Jacob was wrestling with an angel, since that is the view given in Hosea 12:3-4. Concerning that prophetic passage, Davies gives the following opinion: “Hosea plays down Jacob's victory by saying that it was only a victory over an angel, not God himself, who remained supreme. The fact that the word used in v. 3 (and in Gen. 32:28) for God can also mean 'a god', i.e. a lesser heavenly being than the supreme God, provided an opening for such a reinterpretation of the tradition.”

Chisholm: “The narrator, assuming Jacob's initial perspective, identifies God as 'a man', but by the story's end Jacob was certain he had encountered God 'face to face'. However, a later tradition suggests Jacob wrestled with an angel (Hos. 12:4); the relationship between the two traditions is complex.” In another writing, Chisholm adds, “Perhaps Jacob's words in Gen 48:15-16, where he appears to refer to God as an 'angel,' influenced the tradition expressed in Hosea.”

Foulkes: “Jacob...wrestles with a 'man,' but his struggle in the darkness proves to be with one more than human. The Hebrew elohim most frequently means God, but the interpretation of Hos 12:4 is possible, 'He struggled with the angel.' Yet, in effect it could be said to Jacob, 'You have struggled with God and with men and have overcome.”

Why does he want to leave before daybreak?

One possibility may have occurred to readers who are familiar with the Dracula story, namely that the wrestler will be destroyed if exposed to sunlight. Aside from that farfetched notion, Kline is representative of many scholars who say, “The angel's desire to depart before daylight expressed God's concern lest Jacob perish through beholding His face unobscured by the darkness.”

What does he mean by saying that Jacob has wrestled with God and men?

The Message leaves out the reference to “men” entirely and paraphrases the verse as “you've wrestled with God and you've come through.”

Living Bible reads, “It is Israel – one who has power with God. Because you have been strong with God, you shall prevail with men.” That rendering puts off Jacob's struggles with men to some future time.

Wong suggests that the original consonantal text can be said to read, “Because you are right with God, with men you will prevail [see the Living Bible paraphrase above].” This would fit the subsequent passage where Jacob and Esau are tentatively reconciled, but hardly in the context of the wrestling match. Wong further proposed that the standard Hebrew text added particular vowels in order to make the text purposely derogatory of the patriarch Israel in order to speak against the Northern Kingdom of Israel. Wong's scenario is unlikely and has no real proof.

“Men”

Carr reflects the opinions of most scholars in feeling that the “men” refer to Esau and Laban. I personally believe that it more specifically points back to the time in the womb when Jacob grabbed Esau's heel.

God

It should be noted that the name Yahweh appears nowhere in the text, just the generic term elohim. Therefore, NRSV is justified in giving the alternative reading, “with divine and human beings.” However, Ellul expresses the opinion: “He is not just the omnipotent God doing as he wills in heaven and earth. He stoops to man's loftiness. As he wrestled with Jacob at the ford of Jabbok, so he wrestled as an equal with Jonah.”

An Angel

“It was the captain of the Lord's hosts (cf. vv. 1f and Jos. 5:13f.; Ho. 12:3)...The divine Adversary was also the electing-saving Lord who strengthened Jacob with grace to wrestle on against Himself lest he be overcome and condemned! So by persistence in believing supplication Jacob emerged from the ordeal with a blessing.” (Kline)

“The angel who wrestled with Jacob (Hos 12:4) was recognized to be God (Gen 32:30). The angel-of-the-Lord theophanies are linked with major statements in redemptive history, including the Abrahamic and Mosaic covenants.” (Rooker)

Pre-incarnate Christ

Kaiser relies on Hosea 12:3-4, noting the parallelism between God and the angel there. He concludes: “It thus appears that the 'man' or 'angel' with whom Jacob wrestled was Jesus himself, in a temporary incarnate form prior to his permanent enfleshment when he would come to earth as a human baby. This is consistent with other places in the Old Testament where the 'angel of the Lord' can be identified as the second person of the Trinity.”

Note that in a way there is no need to definitively chose between the above divine possibilities since they are very closely related with one another as divine to one extent or another.

What is the overall significance of this event?

As you read through the following comments, I will not be surprised if you come to the same conclusion that I had, namely, that the majority of these scholars appear to some extent to be spouting out a lot of theological jargon to hide the fact that they are just as confused with the story as I happen to be.

Stubbs says “it indicates that the final goal of the relationship between God and Israel is that Israel and God can be intimately present to one another; to be 'uncovered' in a reversal of the fall, to see one another 'face to face.' The goal is for humanity, represented by Israel, to be able to stand in God's presence without shame, to be reconciled with God as Jacob and Esau were.”

Patterson: “In doing so Jacob learned that a person gains the victory in life only when he or she strives to receive divine blessing, a truth represented in the change of Jacob's name to Israel.”

“Jacob was given the final lesson that broke down his self-will and convinced him that God's blessing was not something to be seized but to be accepted as a gift of grace.” (Peake) Note how this interpretation appears to be the exact opposite of the lesson Stubbs gets out of the story.

Knight: “The new orientation that Jacob had then received was the sign that the objectionable, self-centered Jacob...was still beloved of God. The 'new' Jacob had therefore become known as 'Israel', because as a forgiven man he had now become a new personality.”

“His encounter with the angel taught Jacob that the ultimate struggle for blessing must be with God and not humans.” (McKeown)

Motyer says that “the story in Genesis 32:22-32 is prototypical; that is, it reveals the underlying dynamic of Israel's relationship with Yahweh so as to set a pattern for the nation's whole history...The encounter with Esau is the climax of God's fourteen year strategy to turn Jacob the schemer into someone after whom God himself can be named (32:9; cf. Exod. 3:15)...But he cannot have it so long as he remains 'Jacob', who wangles blessings by subterfuge. And he cannot have it so long as he regards God as there simply to serve his agenda, deliverance from Esau. He needs to realize that he is there to serve God, not vice versa.”

Kline: “Before entering the land of inheritance, he must undergo an experience that sealed him as a man of faith and pointed him by a mysterious sign to the ultimate source of saving blessing.”

“srh occurs only 3x in the OT, all in reference to Jacob's wrestling with the divine being in Gen 22 (Hos 12:4-5 refers to this tradition, using srh twice). The primary occurrence is in Gen 32:29...The purpose of the text is to make a theological claim about God's transformation of Jacob, the former trickster.” (Bracke)

“The surprise ending of reconciliation [between Jacob and Esau] (Gen 33:4) is anticipated by Jacob's 'wrestling' in Genesis 32:24-32, when Jacob's name is changed by God to signal a transition from a relationship of deceit to one that God had restored...From a theological perspective, conflict with God, and the necessity of ultimately submitting to him, is part of the human condition and integral to the gospel.” (Knauth)

“In this way, the community of Israel, as descendants of this god-wrestler, is depicted as a group that successfully strives with God and humans.” (Carr)

The footnote in the Jerusalem Bible states that “the patriarch holds fast to God and forces from him a blessing; henceforth all who bear Israel's name will have a claim on God. It is not surprising that this dramatic scene later served as an image of the spiritual combat and of the value of persevering prayer (St. Jerome, Origen).”

Another final problem I have with most of the above comments in this last section is that they act as if Jacob was a totally changed, and better, person after this encounter. However, within a few verses he will baldly lie to Esau by telling him that he will go with him when he had no intention to do so but headed off in another direction instead. He was just as devious as ever, and it wasn't until a number of years later that some sort of real reconciliation between the two brothers occurred.

In that respect, I somewhat agree with Hamilton, who proposed that the duplicate renaming of Jacob to Israel mentioned in Genesis 35:10 is to be taken as follows: “This is not to be explained as a clumsy doublet. Rather, the reference to the name change before Jacob is reconciled with Esau and after he is reconciled with Esau suggests that Jacob did not fully become Israel until after he was reconciled with his estranged brother.” But a full reconciliation did not really occur until Genesis 35:29, and even after that, the names Jacob and Israel continue to both be used right up to the time of Jacob's death (see Genesis 50:24).