The different usages of the names Jacob and Israel reflect a geographic divide between the northern and southern kingdoms’ stance toward this patriarch.
Dr. Rabbi Tzemah Yoreh
Jacob by James Tissot Date: c. 1896-1902 thejewishmuseum.org
Jacob Is Named Israel Twice
Jacob is renamed Israel in two different stories. When Jacob returns from living with Laban, he encounters an angel on the way and wrestles with him. In that story, Jacob asks for a blessing before releasing the angel, whom he had just defeated. The angel responds:
בראשית לב:כח וַיֹּאמֶר אֵלָיו מַה שְּׁמֶךָ וַיֹּאמֶר יַעֲקֹב. לב:כט וַיֹּאמֶר לֹא יַעֲקֹב יֵאָמֵר עוֹד שִׁמְךָ כִּי אִם יִשְׂרָאֵל כִּי שָׂרִיתָ עִם אֱלֹהִים וְעִם אֲנָשִׁים וַתּוּכָל.
| Gen 32:28 Said the other, “What is your name?” He replied, “Jacob.” 32:29 Said he, “Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with beings divine and human, and have prevailed.” |
The new name ישראל “Israel” is a combination of the verb ש.ר.ה, “to strive with,” and a designation for God, אל. The passage uniquely describes a person successfully battling God or his messenger, a suitable folk etymology for the origin of Israel’s name.
A little later on, when Jacob arrives in Bethel, he is again named Israel:
בראשית לה:ט וַיֵּרָא אֱלֹהִים אֶל יַעֲקֹב עוֹד בְּבֹאוֹ מִפַּדַּן אֲרָם וַיְבָרֶךְ אֹתוֹ. לה:י וַיֹּאמֶר לוֹ אֱלֹהִים שִׁמְךָ יַעֲקֹב לֹא יִקָּרֵא שִׁמְךָ עוֹד יַעֲקֹב כִּי אִם יִשְׂרָאֵל יִהְיֶה שְׁמֶךָ וַיִּקְרָא אֶת שְׁמוֹ יִשְׂרָאֵל.
| Gen 35:9 God appeared again to Jacob on his arrival from Paddan-aram, and He blessed him. 35:10 God said to him, “You whose name is Jacob, you shall be called Jacob no more, but Israel shall be your name.” Thus He named him Israel. |
The passage here is strange since it makes no reference to the previous renaming, implying that this story is either unaware of or deliberately ignoring the naming tradition preserved at the end of Genesis 32.
A Prediction of a RenamingTraditional commentators were cognizant of this doublet, and in some cases suggested that the first story is not really a naming at all, but instead depicts the angel informing Jacob of what would happen in the future. Thus, Rashi (32:29) writes:
לא יעקב יאמר עוד שמך – לא יאמרו עליך עוד שהברכות בעקיבה וברמייה כי אם בשררה ובגילוי פנים, סופך שהקב״ה נגלה עליך בבית אל ומחליף את שמך ושם הוא מברכך,
| “Your name shall no longer be Jacob” – people will no longer say about you that you received the blessings through trickery and deceit (the meaning of “Jacob”), but rather with striving and openly (the meaning of “Israel”), and in the end, the Holy One, praised by he, will appear to you in Bethel and change your name and there he will bless you. |
Rashi is building here on a midrashic reading of Isaiah 44:26 in Genesis Rabbah (78). The verse says:
מֵקִים דְּבַר עַבְדּוֹוַעֲצַת מַלְאָכָיו יַשְׁלִים
| Who confirms the word of his servant,and fulfills the prediction of his messengers |
R. Berechiah (in Gen. Rab. 78) offers a midrash in the name of R. Levi tying this verse into God’s fulfilling the prediction of his angel that told Jacob about his new name:
… שנגלה הקדוש ברוך הוא על אבינו יעקב בשביל לקיים גזירתו של אותו מלאך שאמר לו לא יעקב, ואף הקדוש ברוך הוא אמר לו כן…
| …The Holy One praised be he appeared to our father, Jacob in order to confirm the decree of that angel who said to him “Jacob no longer [will be your name],” and thus the Holy One, praised be he, said to him the same… |
This explanation is clearly homiletical, but it illustrates the problem of the double naming.
Two Namings – Two Sources
Critical scholars have long argued that each of these name changes derives from different sources. The source of the second renaming, in ch. 35, is easy to identify as Priestly, since it refers to Jacob’s arrival from Paddan-aram, the name used in Priestly texts.[1]
Critical scholars have long argued that each of these name changes derives from different sources. The source of the second renaming, in ch. 35, is easy to identify as Priestly, since it refers to Jacob’s arrival from Paddan-aram, the name used in Priestly texts.[1]
The first renaming of Jacob, in ch. 32, after he wrestles with the angel, likely derives from the E source.[2] This is evident from the use of the word Elohim in the explanation of the name, which is the standard name for God in this source, as opposed to in J, which uses YHWH. The J source, then, does not include a renaming story.
“Your Name Shall No Longer be Jacob,” But It Is!
Both the E and P stories seem clear: Jacob is no longer going to be called Jacob, only Israel. And yet, even after these renaming episodes, the patriarch is still referred to as Jacob in E, J, and P texts.
This contrasts with how the name change functions in the story of Abram and Sarai, both of whom are renamed in chapter 17:
בראשית יז:ה וְלֹא יִקָּרֵא עוֹד אֶת שִׁמְךָ אַבְרָם וְהָיָה שִׁמְךָ אַבְרָהָם כִּי אַב הֲמוֹן גּוֹיִם נְתַתִּיךָ.
| Gen 17:5 And you shall no longer be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I make you the father of a multitude of nations. |
בראשית יז:טו וַיֹּאמֶר אֱלֹהִים אֶל אַבְרָהָם שָׂרַי אִשְׁתְּךָ לֹא תִקְרָא אֶת שְׁמָהּ שָׂרָי כִּי שָׂרָה שְׁמָהּ.
| Gen 17:15 And God said to Abraham, “As for your wife Sarai, you shall not call her Sarai, but her name shall be Sarah. |
God says that the old names will no longer be used,[3] and indeed, after ch. 17, the Torah never refers to them again by their old names.[4]
An Additional Name?
The problem of the persistence of name Jacob after these renamings has bothered both ancient and medieval commentators. The standard approach was to suggest that Israel was not meant to replace Jacob, but to supplement it. Thus, Abraham ibn Ezra (35:10) writes [bold added]:
לא יקרא שמך עוד יעקב לבדו כי גםישראל
| Henceforth, you shall not be called Jacob exclusively, butalso Israel. |
This solution, which is also preferred by R. Joseph Bekhor Shor (12th cent.; Gen 35:10), appears already in the 3rd cent. Mekhilta de-Rabbi Ishmael on Exodus (Masekhta de-Pascha16), likely playing off the word “another” (עוד):
ויאמר לא יעקב יאמר עוד שמך וגו’ שם הראשון נתקיים לו ושם השני נתוסף לו
| “Said he, ‘Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel’” – the first name was established for him and the second added for him. |
Genesis Rabbah (78) actually records a debate about the exact the relationship between these two names:
תני לא שיעקר שם יעקב אלא כי אם ישראל יהיה שמך, ישראל יהיה עיקר ויעקב טפילה,
| It was taught: It isn’t that the name Jacob was to be uprooted, “rather Israel will be your name” – Israel will be the main [name] and Jacob will be secondary. |
ר’ זכריה בשם ר’ אחא מכל מקום יעקב שמך אלא כי אם ישראל יהיה שמך, יעקב עיקר וישראל מוסיף עליו.
| R. Zechariah in the name of R. Acha said: “Jacob is certainly your name, “rather Israel will be your name” – Jacob is your main name and Israel is added to it. |
This solution is elegant, but unfortunately does not comport with what the text says: The texts in Genesis 32 and 35 never say or imply that Israel is an extra name; they both state clearly that the name Jacob is replaced by Israel.
A Source Critical Solution
The standard Documentary Hypotheses does not offer a clear solution to this problem, since, as noted above, both E and P continue to use both names for the patriarch. The Supplementary Hypothesis (SH), however—according to which the Pentateuch began with one original text (E) and was expanded by successive additions (J, then P, etc.)[5] without cutting earlier material from the revered core text[6]—offers a plausible solution: In the Joseph cycle,[7] J uses the name Jacob exclusively while E uses the name Israel.
E and Israel – J and JacobA number of passages show the Elohist’s (E) preference for the name Israel.[8] For example, in chapter 48, Joseph meets his father again for the first time:
בראשית מח:ח וַיַּרְא יִשְׂרָאֵל אֶת בְּנֵי יוֹסֵף וַיֹּאמֶר מִי אֵלֶּה. מח:ט וַיֹּאמֶר יוֹסֵף אֶל אָבִיו בָּנַי הֵם אֲשֶׁר נָתַן לִי אֱלֹהִיםבָּזֶה וַיֹּאמַר קָחֶם נָא אֵלַי וַאֲבָרֲכֵם. מח:יוְעֵינֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל כָּבְדוּ מִזֹּקֶן לֹא יוּכַל לִרְאוֹת וַיַּגֵּשׁ אֹתָם אֵלָיו וַיִּשַּׁק לָהֶם וַיְחַבֵּק לָהֶם. מח:יא וַיֹּאמֶר יִשְׂרָאֵל אֶל יוֹסֵף רְאֹה פָנֶיךָ לֹא פִלָּלְתִּי וְהִנֵּה הֶרְאָה אֹתִי אֱלֹהִים גַּם אֶת זַרְעֶךָ.
| Gen 48:8 Noticing Joseph’s sons, Israel asked, “Who are these?” 48:9 And Joseph said to his father, “They are my sons, whom God has given me here.” “Bring them up to me,” he said, “that I may bless them.” 48:10 Now Israel’s eyes were dim with age; he could not see. So [Joseph] brought them close to him, and he kissed them and embraced them. 48:11 And Israel said to Joseph, “I never expected to see you again, and here God has let me see your children as well.” [9] |
And later in that same chapter:
בראשית מח:כא וַיֹּאמֶר יִשְׂרָאֵל אֶל יוֹסֵף הִנֵּה אָנֹכִי מֵת וְהָיָה אֱלֹהִים עִמָּכֶם וְהֵשִׁיב אֶתְכֶם אֶל אֶרֶץ אֲבֹתֵיכֶם.
| Gen 48:21 Then Israel said to Joseph, “I am about to die; but God will be with you and bring you back to the land of your fathers. |
The name Elohim (God) as opposed to YHWH marks this text as Elohistic, and here the third patriarch is referred to only as Israel.[10]
In contrast, J uses the name Jacob in the Joseph cycle (ch. 37-50). For example:
בראשית לז:לד וַיִּקְרַע יַעֲקֹב שִׂמְלֹתָיו וַיָּשֶׂם שַׂק בְּמָתְנָיו וַיִּתְאַבֵּל עַל בְּנוֹ יָמִים רַבִּים. לז:לה וַיָּקֻמוּ כָל בָּנָיו וְכָל בְּנֹתָיו לְנַחֲמוֹ וַיְמָאֵן לְהִתְנַחֵם וַיֹּאמֶר כִּי אֵרֵד אֶל בְּנִי אָבֵל שְׁאֹלָה
| Gen 37:34 Jacob rent his clothes, put sackcloth on his loins, and observed mourning for his son many days. 37:35 All his sons and daughters sought to comfort him; but he refused to be comforted, saying, “No, I will go down mourning to my son in Sheol.” |
Note that the phrase in italics about Jacob going to Sheol in grief appears again in Judah’s plea to Joseph:
בראשית מד:יח וַיִּגַּשׁ אֵלָיו יְהוּדָהוַיֹּאמֶר… מד:לא וְהָיָה כִּרְאוֹתוֹ כִּי אֵין הַנַּעַר וָמֵת וְהוֹרִידוּ עֲבָדֶיךָ אֶת שֵׂיבַת עַבְדְּךָ אָבִינוּ בְּיָגוֹן שְׁאֹלָה.
| Gen 44:18 And Judah approached him [Joseph] and said…44:31 when he (=Jacob) sees that the boy is not with us, he will die, and your servants will send the white head of your servant our father down to Sheol in grief.[11] |
From following this trope, we see that in one J text Jacob (not Israel) says it, and it is repeated by Judah (a J character that does not appear in E) in his attempt to convince Joseph to have mercy on the brothers’ poor elderly father.
Geographic Considerations
E is unique among the Pentateuchal sources, having been composed in the Northern Kingdom, which was called Israel. J, in contrast, was composed in the Southern Kingdom of Judah, as was P and most of the Bible. [12] For E, Jacob/Israel is the most important patriarch. But for J, Abraham, the patriarch of the south, was the most important ancestor.
In E, Abraham sacrifices his son Isaac when the latter was a child, ending the line of Abraham; Jacob in E is not related to Abraham.[13] J resurrects Isaac and makes him Jacob’s father, thus making Abraham the progenitor of Jacob. Abraham is depicted much more positively by J than Jacob, and is given precedent by being his ancestor.
When the E document was brought to “southern Israel” (i.e., Judah), by scribes fleeing the North after the Assyrian conquest, Judean authors sought to make E’s account of Israel’s origins more relevant to their readers and thus added Judah and Judean themes everywhere they could. This process began with J, the first southern supplementer, but since all later sources were southern, this pattern persisted among later authors as well.[14] In the case of Jacob vs. Israel, perhaps J wished to de-emphasize the significance of this third patriarch, after whom the entire nation, “Israel” was named.
Narrative Considerations
In E, Jacob is a strong and virile character. He lifts the stone of the well on his own in 29:10, does not fear Esau,[15] and contends with Laban (31:36). His struggle and victory over an angel is consistent with this depiction of the third patriarch. In J, however, Jacob is always afraid: he fears his father (Gen 27:11-12), he fears Esau (32:8), and he fears the Canaanites (34:30).[16]
Since J’s Jacob is weak and fearful, it simply did not seem appropriate to use E’s name which implies strength and decisiveness. Thus, despite the fact that J wrote later than E and knew the story of Jacob’s name change to Israel, he continued to use Jacob exclusively. J also may have been uncomfortable with the idea that a man can defeat an angel which undergirds the name Israel in E’s narrative. E, on the other hand, would have little trouble with such a powerful human protagonist. Indeed, E’s Moses plagues Egypt with hail, locusts, and darkness with his own magical power, with no help from God.[17]
Finally, while E records that the Patriarch was named Jacob before the angel renamed him Israel, it is J that includes the negative etymologies for this name. First, when Jacob is born, J states:
בראשית כה:כו וְאַחֲרֵי כֵן יָצָא אָחִיו וְיָדוֹ אֹחֶזֶת בַּעֲקֵב עֵשָׂו וַיִּקְרָא שְׁמוֹ יַעֲקֹב…
| Gen 25:26 Then his brother emerged, holding on to the heel (עקב) of Esau; so they named him Jacob… |
Even more negative is Esau’s understanding of the name in the story in which Jacob steals Esau’s blessing:
בראשית כז:לו וַיֹּאמֶר הֲכִי קָרָא שְׁמוֹ יַעֲקֹב וַיַּעְקְבֵנִי זֶה פַעֲמַיִם אֶת בְּכֹרָתִי לָקָח וְהִנֵּה עַתָּה לָקַח בִּרְכָתִי…
| Gen 27:36 [Esau] said, “Was he, then, named Jacob that he might supplant me (ויעקבני) these two times? First he took away my birthright and now he has taken away my blessing!” |
This is not simply an etymology. Esau’s protest is a reflection of the negative light J shines on Jacob, which contrasts with E’s positive portrayal of this patriarch evident in the renaming account of Genesis 32. J’s insistence on using this name, with its negative connotations, and not the more positive “Israel,” should be seen as a way of J’s lowering the position of Jacob as the key patriarch in favor of Abraham.
Postscript: Jacob and Israel in P
What then of P’s name change? Why does P continue to use Jacob throughout chapters 35-50 despite the name change that states explicitly “no longer will you be called Jacob but Israel”?[18] P’s name change is an attempt by the Priestly author to “sanitize” the very problematic name-change of Chapter 32 in which a man defeats a divine being.
But since P is a supplementary layer to the combined J and E text, it would have made little sense for him to use the name Israel exclusively when the very text he was supplementing seemed to use it haphazardly. Any such desire for consistent use of the name Israel post his renaming would have been thwarted by J’s insistence on calling this patriarch Jacob exclusively and thus creating an inconsistent text in the Joseph cycle. What could P do other than follow suit?[19]
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Dr. Tzemah Yoreh has been fascinated with the bible since a young age. As a teenager he won the International Bible Contest (Diaspora division) and he went on to study bible and comparative literature at Hebrew University in Jerusalem where he earned his PhD in 2004. As a teacher in academic and community settings alike, Yoreh enjoys making biblical stories come to life and loves to surprise people as they discover sides of the bible they never knew. He has written numerous books and his work has been featured in the Jerusalem Post, the Forward, and the Times of Israel. He has taught Bible at many institutions in the U.S.A, Canada and Israel. He splits his time between Israel and North America with his spouse Aviva and their children Boaz and Elisha. Read an Interview with Dr. Tzemah Yoreh
[1] Editor’s note: See discussion in Zev Farber, “Who Was Rebekah’s Father?” TheTorah.com(2017).
[2] This is not a consensus position, and many documentary scholars attribute it to the J text, based on Wellhausen’s argument that earlier sources are more likely to have more explicit revelations as opposed to dream-revelations, and the historical priority of J to E. See, Julius Wellhausen, Die Composition des Hexateuchs und der Historischen Bücher des Alten Testaments (Berlin, 1899), 44. But attributing a text in Genesis that refers to God as Elohim to the Yahwist requires stronger evidence than that.
[3] See Bar Kappara’s statement in Genesis Rabbah 78 and b. Berakhot 13a, based on Gen 17:5, that anyone who refers to Abraham as Abram has violated a biblical commandment.
[4] Also, Abraham and Sarah’s names are changed only once, unlike Jacob who receives the name change twice. This contrast strengthens the impression that something is different about the Torah’s treatment of Jacob’s name change to Israel.
[5] Although many versions of the SH exist in biblical scholarship, this is the model to which I subscribe. For some examples of my SH model at work, see my, “How the Israelite Family Was Put Together: The Twelve Sons of Jacob,“ TheTorah.com (2017); “The Three Redactional and Theological Layers of the Plagues,” TheTorah.com (2016); “Israel’s Departure from Egypt: A Liberation or an Escape?” TheTorah.com (2016); “Speculating about the Original Text of the Decalogue,” TheTorah.com (2015); “The Sacrifice of Isaac in Context,”TheTorah.com (2014); “Noah’s Four Sons,” TheTorah.com (2014).
[6] According to this theory, only the original layer would read well on its own—the later materials were supplements, never meant to be read independently; reading them in isolation yields incomplete and incoherent texts. The Supplementary Hypothesis is in fact the more common way of looking at the Joseph stories, and many scholars accept that E or the Reuben layer is the first and primary layer and the Judah layer (corresponding to J) was added on later.
[7] E is not a straightforward narrative, but rather a composition based on five story cycles loosely connected: Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, and Balaam. A similar composition, also from the Northern Kingdom of Israel, is the core of the book of Judges, which is essentially a collection of loosely connected stories about northern heroic figures. Thus, although E uses the name Israel exclusively in the Joseph cycle (chs, 37-50), before the Joseph cycle, E still uses Jacob, whether at the end of the wrestling story (32:31), when meeting Esau (ch. 33) or in the Bethel story (ch. 35:2-7, 16-20). E uses the name Jacob consistently throughout the Jacob cycle and made the switch to Israel permanent only in the Joseph cycle (Genesis 37-50). An analogous example of this switch in names in different narrative cycles is the case of “Pharaoh” and “King of Egypt,” which are used interchangeably by E in the Joseph cycle but in the Moses cycle, E uses “King of Egypt” exclusively.
[8] Editor’s note: For a documentary style analysis of the end of the Joseph story which also connects the name Israel to E (though not exclusively), see Zev Farber, “Jacob’s Multiple Death Scenes: Bringing Parashat Vayechi to Life,” TheTorah.com (2015).
[9] See Chapter 46 as well:
בראשית מו:א וַיִּסַּע יִשְׂרָאֵל וְכָל אֲשֶׁר לוֹ וַיָּבֹא בְּאֵרָה שָּׁבַע וַיִּזְבַּח זְבָחִים לֵאלֹהֵי אָבִיו יִצְחָק. מו:ב וַיֹּאמֶר אֱלֹהִים לְיִשְׂרָאֵלבְּמַרְאֹת הַלַּיְלָה
וַיֹּאמֶר יַעֲקֹב יַעֲקֹב וַיֹּאמֶר הִנֵּנִי.
מו:ג וַיֹּאמֶר אָנֹכִי הָאֵל אֱלֹהֵי אָבִיךָ אַל תִּירָא מֵרְדָה מִצְרַיְמָה כִּי לְגוֹי גָּדוֹל אֲשִׂימְךָ שָׁם.
| Gen 46:1 So Israel set out with all that was his, and he came to Beer-sheba, where he offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac. 46:2 God said to Israel in a vision by night,
and he said: “Jacob! Jacob!” He answered, “Here.”
46:3 And He said, “I am God, the God of your father. Fear not to go down to Egypt, for I will make you there into a great nation.
|
Of course, the passage is problem free from my perspective since the indented line employs the name Jacob in addition to Israel in v. 2, but this has the appearance of a Yahwistic (J) redaction. The beginning of Chapter 46 is the only revelation in the Joseph story cycle, and as such is important not only to E, but also to J, who decided to emphasize his name for the patriarch at this opportune moment.
[10] In the poem, in which Jacob blesses his sons, both names appear:
בראשית מט:ב הִקָּבְצוּ וְשִׁמְעוּ בְּנֵי יַעֲקֹב וְשִׁמְעוּ אֶל יִשְׂרָאֵל אֲבִיכֶם.
| Gen 49:2 Assemble and hearken, O sons of Jacob; Hearken to Israel your father. |
This poem is a late insertion and not J, thus it is not avoiding the name Israel. In addition, in poetic parallelism, there would be little choice but to include the other name.
[11] Judah’s using this imagery also implies that the third time this is said, by Jacob in 42:38, is also part of J.
[12] One stark difference between these sources is the place of Judah in the narrative. When E was composed, Judah was a separate polity, much smaller and less powerful than its northern neighbor. E does not see Judah as part of Israel and does not include Judah as one of Jacob’s sons. See my “How the Israelite Family Was Put Together,” for details. Editor’s note: for a different approach to E’s relationship to Judah, see, Marvin A. Sweeney, “Israel’s History as a Family Narrative,” TheTorah.com (2015).
[13] See my, “The Sacrifice of Isaac in Context.”
[14] When Judah appears in Genesis and elsewhere in the Torah, we can be sure that it was a southern scribe, though not necessarily J, who added him.
[15] In E, Jacob never cheated Esau out of his blessing and birthright. In E, Jacob’s journey begins in 28:10 when he departs from Beer Sheva; See, Tzemah Yoreh, Jacob’s Journey (New York: Modern Scriptures, 2012), 12-24.
[16] This is analogous to how Moses is described in E and transformed by J. In E’s version of the plagues and the Exodus, after Moses is appointed by God, he does everything on his own: He smites the Egyptians with the plagues, he leads the Israelites out of Egypt and parts the sea, he delivers them from Amalek and to Mount Sinai and he conquers the land of Canaan. In J, however, it is YHWH who smites the Egyptian; Moses is only a mouthpiece. Moreover, YHWH leads the Israelites out of Egypt, YHWH parts the Sea, and Joshua conquers Canaan only with the help of YHWH. In E, Moses is a strong forceful leader, in J he is diminished and fearful.
[17] For an analysis of the plagues and the exodus from Egypt according to my supplementary approach, see my, “The Three Redactional and Theological Layers of the Plagues.”
[18] For example, at the beginning of Chapter 37
בראשית לז:א וַיֵּשֶׁב יַעֲקֹב בְּאֶרֶץ מְגוּרֵי אָבִיו בְּאֶרֶץ כְּנָעַן. לז:ב אֵלֶּה תֹּלְדוֹת יַעֲקֹב…
| Gen 37:1 Now Jacob was settled in the land where his father had sojourned, the land of Canaan. 37:2 This, then, is the line of Jacob… |
[19] Just as P had no reason to use one name or the other consistently, having inherited the composite JE text, so too the redactor of Genesis (what I call B, or “the Bridger”), having inherited the composite JEP text, had no reason to either. And thus, in his supplements (described in an earlier fn), Judah speaks to his father Israel, which never happens in a J text.
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