Gunkel
L Schmidt
Martin Archard
Claus Westerman, GEnesis 12-36
rituals of naming
exodus 4:24;26
ellinger
mount of gilead
j source
face of god
why are both names retained
gilead/edom
tutleraly spirt
rashi
river demons


other notes:







"By means of a dietary regulation (not mentioned elsewherei nthe OT) Isreal's memory will be continually jopgged regarding the struggle between jacob and god. This regulatrion instutionalised the memory. It provides an ongooing mark of self infentifaction for Jaov;s desenceants. Thsi memory, asscoiated with bodily ritual, draws attention to Jacob/Israel's self-idneity, invluding not simplay a psirutal reality, but all of Isreals life as well. An animal--part opf Gods creation--focuses on this human memory" (also perhaps a breaking away from the human sacrifices required by el?) (new interperters, 535)

"the late jewish midrash understands the demand to be relweased as follows: "I must sing in the morning choir befoires Fod's throne. Now one must assume that Jacob has discovered something of the divine nature of his opponenet, for in an odd contrast to his previous defense, he struggles to wrest a blessing from him, viz. dinvine vitality. It is better not ot explain this as an especially pious quality; it is more correct to encounter with God. This cluthcing at God and his power of blessing is so elemental that it goes beyond what we understand by peity or impeity. This request however, is not granted at all. Ratyher, Jacob must first be asked who he is. In the entire secion which follows one must bear in mind that the ancients did not consider a name as simply sound and smoke. On the contrary, for them the name was clsoely linked with its bearer in such a way that the name continaed something of the schatachter of the one who bore it... (Gerhard Von Rad: Genesis: A Commenatry, New Westminster PRess, 316)

(We saiod above that by the time of the YAhwist many interperations of the story had been made, adn that it had become quite broken in the tradition. B ut preceisley because of its breaks and joints it reciived ins essential spaciousness; presciously the looseness in the inner connection of the statemens to one another makes room for many ideasl tfor the indincidual procesdings and words in the event, as every espositor sees are not presceily limited with respect to their meaning and their siginifcance. And every exegete will likewise encouvneter something somwhere in this narrative which can no longer be intereopreted. (Rad, 319)

Gunkel claims vs 29 is unclear. general crit. consensus that 33 is a later addition to explain the dietary taboo. less of a clear conensus that 28-29 might be, because of the later discussion of israel, and some limited discussion of a later inclusion on v 26, because it just doesnt fit in.



what is contested is what has been added subsquently and when, and hence the meaning and the purpose of the text as a whole ... (Claus Westermann, commentary on gen 12-36, Fortress Press, 26)

Westerman's Schematic:

vv. 23-24 Interniary
v. 25 a man wrestles with him
26-30 outcome of the struggle
26a-27a opponents request to let him go
27a-30a Jacob's counter, condition, request for name.
30b attacker refuses name, blesses Jacob
31 Jacob Names the Place
32a Merging into inteniary

no memorial stone, no cultic place?
32:26b is unattached to the rest of the story, maybe all of 26