Continued from Chapter 7
(Genesis 32:25-31)
Christians use the biblical story of Jacob’s wrestling with an angel as proof of their belief in a triune deity. As with Genesis 18 and 19, they claim that this narrative proves God manifested Himself in human form.
And Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. And when he saw that he did not prevail against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was strained, as he wrestled with him. Then he said: “Let me go, for the day is breaking.” But he said: “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” And he said to him: “What is your name?” And he said: “Jacob.” Then he said: “Your name shall no more be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have striven with a divine being [’elohim] and with men, and have prevailed.” And Jacob asked him, and said: “Tell me, I pray, your name.” But he said: “Why is it that you ask my name?” And he blessed him there. And Jacob called the name of the place Peni’el: “For I have seen a divine being [’elohim] face to face, and my life is preserved.” (Genesis 32:25-31)
The word ’elohim may mean an angel (“divine being,” or “divine power”) and this, indeed, is its meaning in our verse: “I have seen an angel [or “a divine being”] face to face.” Further confirmation for this rendering is found in Hosea 12:4-5. In speaking of Jacob, the passage, written in parallel style, says: “And by his strength he strove
with a divine being [’elohim]; so he strove with an angel [malach], and prevailed.”
Jacob calls the place Peni’el—“The face of God” or “The face of a divine power.” The name Peni’el is the most natural and proper commemoration of the incident that Jacob could give, since it honors God, who sent the angel. The importance of only honoring God is highlighted by the angel’s refusal to divulge his name to Jacob when the latter requests it. The angel is aware that the knowledge of his name would not be of any benefit to Jacob, for all the power he possesses is directly from God. Therefore, in striving with the angel, Jacob is, in effect, striving with God.
Only God must be honored, not his messenger. The messenger only represents the one who sends him and in whose name he repeats the message exactly as given to him. To see the messenger is equivalent to seeing the sender. As a result, Peni’el (“The face of God” or “The face of a divine power”) is the only appropriate name Jacob could give to honor the sender rather than the messenger. Any interpretation which would have Jacob seeing God is in direct contradiction to the teaching of the Jewish Bible, in which God says: “You cannot see My face, for man shall not see Me and live” (Exodus 33:40). The fact that Jacob sees “’elohim face to face” only goes to prove that the divine being that Jacob wrestles with is not God. But, since the angel represents God, Jacob views the messenger as if it is God Himself. It is quite clear that this angel is not God manifested on earth as a human being. At no time does the Jewish Bible teach this belief.
Even the author of the Gospel of John agrees that God does not manifest Himself in a human form. He emphatically declares the impossibility of seeing God at any time (John 1:18, see also 1 John 4:12). Of Jesus, who trinitarians assert is God incarnate, that is, God in the flesh, John says he is “the only begotten god [alternately “son”]” whose function is to explain God (John 1:18). He does not consider Jesus to be the Lord God of Israel, only an angelic being who bridges the gulf between God and man. There is no legitimate reason to believe that Jacob’s encounter with an angel testifies in any way to a claim that God has ever appeared in human form or to a belief in a triune deity.
© Gerald Sigal
Continued