Does Jacob's wrestling make us love Yahweh?

[marco]

The OT is filled with delicious stories and it is hard to pick the funniest, so perhaps the following has rivals for humour.

We are in the days before Christ arrived, so the world doesn't know about good neighbours or about the rewards for the meek. We have Sir Jacob, soon to be called Sir Israel, on a brave adventure.




Genesis 32:22-32

22 That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two female servants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 23 After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. 24 So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. 25 When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacobs hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. 26 Then the man said, Let me go, for it is daybreak.

But Jacob replied, I will not let you go unless you bless me.

27 The man asked him, What is your name?

Jacob, he answered.

28 Then the man said, Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel,[a] because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.

God rewarded the hero with a limp. Obviously the story is remarkably plausible; an unsuspecting Jacob is attacked and has to defend himself by wrestling non-stop all night. Such is life.

Are we attracted into believing in Yahweh from reading this account?

Or does it make us feel the story is for primitives and children?

[marco]

[Replying to post 3 by Elijah John]

Or Jacob could have wrestled with an angel. If one believes in angels, it isn't hard to accept the account as being factual.

I think if one believes in wrestling angels then the world must seem a scary place. The figurative interpretation, strained though it is, has the virtue of removing our blushes.

[marco]

Or does it make us feel the story is for primitives and children?

I've grown accustomed to seeing myth everywhere in the Bible and this particular story is no exception. Here are a couple of somewhat disjointed, but hopefully interesting observations about this passage.

First, Ignc Goldziher sees this story as part of a solar myth. He claims that the etymology of Jacob's name is "the follower," meaning the night sky. Esau is "the hairy one," also known as Edom, "the Red," both appellations of the sun. The wrestling match is a cyclical one in which the night limps away as dawn overcomes it.

The story also includes a pun with a rather elaborate setup that might once have been an etymology for the river Jabbok. In Hebrew, Jacob's name is , Ya'aqob. The root for "wrestle" is , 'abaq. The name of the river is , Yaboq. This might be a coincidence, except the Hebrew author used a somewhat odd verb form in context to turn 'abaq into yiba'eq in 32:24. The result is that "Jacob wrestled at the Jabbok" is akin to "Ya'aqob yiba'eqed at the Yaboq."

That is very interesting and instructive. Perhaps religionists have abused some beautifully arcane messages meant to explain the puzzling cycle of seasons and the wonder of night submitting to the sun. Persephone became an explanation for the seasons by her abduction to the Underworld. Nearer our own time when children play "ring o' roses" (maybe only in the UK) and they "all fall down", it might refer to the Black Death which gave rose coloured spots and caused people to fall down ill.

Bringing Yahweh tumbling into these human explanations is the equivalent of the men who wanted to break industrial equipment. We advance but Yahweh pulls us back.

[William]

[Replying to post 10 by marco]

A creator who allows us to wrestle with questions of spirituality?

William: In a physical environment, yes.

That is a wonderful concession.

William: A wonder to behold, yes!

Do you mean using our imagination to construct another world?

William: No. I mean another world used its imagination to construct this one.

In any event I can't see how we can be physically injured in this game unless we are dreaming at the edge of a cliff.

William: That is a great analogy! Indeed, what was pain before a universe was created to explore that? ...On many levels - physical, mental, emotional, spiritual...

I'm afraid the remainder of your esoteric post defeats my best endeavours.

William: Perhaps basic Catholicism does not enable one to be mindful of such...

[William]

[Replying to post 12 by marco]

Bringing Yahweh tumbling into these human explanations is the equivalent of the men who wanted to break industrial equipment. We advance but Yahweh pulls us back.

William: It is necessary or we would destroy ourselves and everything in our paths with our reckless use of filth machines...Lock-down that wild beast until it learns to respect its situation...

[Charles]

Are we attracted into believing in Yahweh from reading this account?

Where is your proof that this story is told to attract belief in YHWH??? This assumption on your part seems to be chosen because it does not fit that premise at all.

The lessons taken from this story have been varied and fairly obvious but no one except you has suggested that it is told to attract non-believers to faith in YHWH...