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Q: Our bible study group has discussed this for a long time without getting a satisfying answer, so now we turn to you. In Genesis, God renames Jacob as Israel. But there are numerous verses where he continues to be called Jacob; there are instances where both names are used in the same verse. This continues into Exodus. Other people are renamed and only the second name is subsequently used. Can you explain the significance of this? Thank you! – (From M)

A: Thank you, dear M, I am honored to be the place where all unsatisfying answers come to rest. Let me also congratulate your bible study group for avoiding the sacred inattention with which people read the bible. Because you read the bible carefully with your mind fully engaged you caught one of the real textual problems about the change of Jacob’s name to Israel and then back to Jacob and then back to Israel sometimes in the same verse.

The issue you discovered and asked me about is that Jacob is the only person whose name is changed but he is still occasionally referred to by his previous name. We know this by looking at other previous name changes that stuck.

In Genesis 17:1-5 Avram’s name is changed by God to Avraham and that’s it. Avraham is never called Avram again.

In Genesis 17:15 Avraham’s wife Sarai has her name changed to Sarah and that’s it. She is never called Sarai again. Both Sarah and Abraham have old names that were just as complimentary as their new names so it is hard to know why their names were changed.

The same is true in the change of Joshua’s name by Moses from Hoshea to Joshua in Numbers 13:16, and with the change of Solomon whose name is changed by the prophet Nathan from Solomon to Jedediah in 2 Samuel 12:24,25.

Things are a bit clearer with Joseph’s name change in Genesis 41:45 where the pharaoh gave Joseph an Egyptian name, zaphenath-paneah along with a wife to hide his Hebrew ancestry in the court of the Pharaoh.

The change of Naomi’s name by herself marks her grief at the passing of her husband and sons as she goes from Naomi to Mara which means “bitter.” (Ruth 1:20).

After conquering Israel, (2 Kings 24:17), Nebuchadnezzar changed Mattaniah’s name to Zedekiah.

In the Christian Testament (John 1:42) Jesus changes Simon to Peter (occasionally) and Saul is changed (always) to Paul.

Let us return to the Jacob/Israel issue in Genesis 32:28. The reason for the initial change was clearly to improve his name and reward him for his victory in the angel wrestling match. Jacob is a negative name meaning trickster and Israel means “One who strives with God and man and prevails” but why oh why as you asked does his new name of Israel not become his actual new name for the rest of his life?

This is what I think…

Abram's name is changed for good because both names are only names of an individual person. Sarai's name is changed for good to Sarah because both names are only names of an individual single person. But the name Israel is special. It is simply too big a name for one person to own. Israel is the name of an entire people, and the man Jacob holds the name only tentatively, provisionally, incompletely, until his children's children emerge from Egypt 600,000 strong and take their place at Sinai where they take possession of the name b’nei yisrael “The children of Israel” once held by their forefather Jacob.

After learning that his son Joseph was alive in Egypt, Jacob journeys down there to see his son and live out his remaining days. When Jacob dies, he is embalmed according to the arts of Egypt and then is not buried. Joseph for some strange reason asks permission to take the body of his father up out of Egypt and bury it in the caves of Machpelah with Abraham and Sara and Isaac and Rebeccah. Had Jacob been buried in Egypt, then two Israel's would have had to leave Egypt when the 400 years of slavery were completed. This could not be. A single Israel had gone down into Egypt, and a single Israel was to leave Egypt. But it would be a different Israel. The Israel which went down was a man and the Israel which came up was a people. A people 600,000 strong, who were traveling to Mt. Sinai where they would take possession of the name Israel for ever…and ever.

I hope this answer is acceptable to your bible class, dear M. After I die I will check it with Joseph/Israel and try to find some way to let you know. Tommy will be there to help me.

God bless.

(Send ALL QUESTIONS AND COMMENTS to The God Squad via email at godsquadquestion@aol.com. Rabbi Gellman is the author of several books, including “Religion for Dummies,” co-written with Fr. Tom Hartman. Also, the new God Squad podcast is now available.)

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