1. where does the text come from


2. what are the key words
   


3. what is it's context within the hebrew tradition
   


4. what is its context within the near east tradition
   


5. what are the implications of it within the narrative


6. what is it's narrative structure
   


7. what are the major gaps
   


8. what does the work have going on formally
   


9. what questions remain to be answered.
   


10. does it feature a llama

i am going to start with quesiton two:

key words in the passage:

• "yet this story is told with a quite remarkable exonomy of language and is quite unforgettable. WE note that the story is linked with a place-name which by its very form suggests an acient cult centre. It is also linked with a dietary law (which is not otherwiuse mentioned in the LAw, a taboo on eating the sciatic muscle. Thirdly it is related to the giving to Jacob of a new name, Israel which is, to our mind, most unnaturally interperted, AGain the word for WRestle is nowhere else used in the bible and has obviously been chosen for its similarityy in sound to Jabbok. Although this must not be pressed too far, the supernatural antagonist is not described as Yahweh, and if the name ISrael and Peniel are a guide, it is at El, a cannanite god. Lastly the location is important, it is at the crossing of the river, the threshold of the land of CAnaan, and in popular thought, thresholds were always dangerous to those who crossed for the first time. All this suggests that we have here a very ancient story which, because it had so strong a hold on the imagination, was particullary valuable for interperation and reinterpertaion. In its final form in the book of GEnesis, it at least points to the fact that Jacob is entering the new land, the land of promise..." (107, Torch Bible Commentaries, Gensis 12-50, AS Herbert,SCM PRess, London, 1967)


• breaking of the day/night


• (because supernatural visitors only happened in the night)


• "...it was a commonplace that God's face would not be seen "no one shall see me adn live" This reflects a concern not for God but for the life of the one seeing. In this story, God is not only the one endangered by the daylight, it is Jacob! To see God in the full light of day would have meant death for Jacob. If Jacob holds on until daybreak, he is a dead man! at the same time, the continued grapsing of God on Jaocob's part in the near-dawn light also says something about JAcob. GHe is willing to risk death for the sake of the dicvine bleassing. JAcob's action suggests that he will risk seeing the face of esau too. (New Interperters, 566)
• the folkloric charatchter of this haunting episode becomes especialyl clear at this point. The notion of a night spoiurt that loses its power or is not permitted to go about in daylight is common to many folk traditions, as is the troll or gaurdian figure who blocks access to a ford or briudge. This temporal limitation of activity suggests that the man is certainly not God Himselfg and porably not an angel in the ordinary sense. It has lead Claus WEstermann to conclude that the nameless wrestler must be thought as some sort of demon. Nahum SArna, follwoing the midras, flatly idneitifies the wrestlr as the tutelary spirit of Esau. But the real point, as Jacob's adversary himself suggests when he refuses to reveal his name, is that he resists identification. Appearing to Jacob , he is the embodiment of portentious atagonism in Jacob;'s dark night of the soul. He is obviously in some sense a double of Esau as adversary but he is also a doubling of all with whom Jacob has had to cotend and he may equally well be an externalziation of all that Javob has to wrestle with within himself. A powerful physical metaphor is nitmatied by the story of wrestling: Jacob, whos name can be construed as "he who acts crookedly" is ben, pernanetly lamed, by his nameless adveredary in order to be made straight before his reunuion with Esau (Alter, 180)
  


• "flocks and caravans often travel at night,. To lead a large flock over the Javvok, which flows through a deep gorge, the modern NAh ez-Zerqa, was a difficult task...: (Rad, Conmmentary on Genesis, Westminster Press, 1966)


• Angel (Torah Commentary: "the classic commentaries are nearly unanimous in seeing him as evil, a maligh force. He may have been Esua's gaudian ange (Gen R 77:3) "Before encountering Esau in the flesh, his spirit struggled with the spirit of ESau) He may have been the demonic gaurdian of the riger, his proouse seems to have been to weaken Jacon on the eve of his confrantion with Esau)
• the initial identifaciton of the anonymous adversay is from Jacob's point of view and so all he knows of him in what he sees, that he is a man. (Alter, The Five Books of Moses, A Translation with Commentary, Norton and Co. 2004)
• Even more mysterious is the unindentafied man whose featrures and acitons have muich in common wiht charahcters found in cross coultural folk stories, such as the dangerous river demon, a spirit that gaurds or protects a body of water and a being that must vanish by day break, Westerman therefore idnetides the being who taccakcs Jacob as a hostile demon or evil spirit...SArna on the other hand denies the association. Notiong , he contends explicitly portrats the man as a dfangerous river spoirit that blocks humans as they attempt to cross the ribver. Everyone and everything that Jacob carreid across was safe on the other side. Fuithermore most oftne humans attempt to appease these river spirits to ensure a safe cross. Jacob does nothing of the sort. Finally, the mysterious assialint ends up blessing JAcob, an action that sarna argues cannot be done by a demon in a bliblical story. (Bayford, 373)
• Closterman claims as man
  
• 
  
• thigh, hip


• ...."the struggle was indeseuves for a long peroid, until the mysterious antagoinst touched Jacob's hip, which was put out of joint by the tourch, as though bny a magical power. Here is a passage where a much older form of our saga is revealed. The words in v. 25 are so strangely unrleated that one might htink at first, in veiw of the hopelessness of the fight, that Jacob hjad won the upper hand over his angangist (by a trick of fighting). This interpertation would best suit the continuion in v 26, where the antagionist asks Jacob to let him go and then also the later statement that Jacob had prevailed (rad, 316)
• whether this notation coneals an earleir aetiology of a cultiuc dance, eg a limping dance (cf 1 Kings 18:26 can no longer be decided. It is further rpoerted that the Isrealites reverently remembed this crippling of their ancestory in a very curious cultic uisage connected with their slaughter of animals. OF all the things which happend on that night when the name ISreal was recieved, this cripping of the ancersor became the subject of an especaally nutyured memory (Rad, 319)
• the inclination of modern transations to render the verb here as "struck" as unwarranted, being influenced either by the context or by the the cognate noun nega, which means plauge or affliciton., But the verb naga in the qal conjugation always means "to touch" even "to barely touch" and only in the pi'el conjugation can it mean "to afflcit" the adversdary mamis jacob with a magic touch, or if one prferes, by skillful pressure on a pressure point.
  


• wrestle:


• (Torah Commentary: this may be an acocunt of Jacob's wrestling with his consicence, toron between his human tendency to avoid an unpleasent enounter and the divine impulse in him that urgers him to do the difficult but right hting. The position my find suppourt in the text "you have striven with beings divine and human (v. 29) which can asl e trandlated "you have striven wqith God and with men" We can imagine Jacob saying to himself, "Until now, I have responded to difficult situtuations by lying and running, I deiced my father. I ran away from Esau. I left Laban's house stealthily instead of congronting him. I hate myself for being a person who lies and runs. But I'm afraid of faciing up to this situation" By not defeating his concieince, Jacob wins. He outgrows his Jacob identity as the trickster and becomes Israel, t he one who contends with God and people instead of avoiding or manipulating htem., At the end of the struggle, he is physically wounded and emotionalyl depleted. Neverletheless, the torah descibes him (in 33:18) as shalem, translated safe, with connoations of "whole", at peace with himself (shalem is related to the word shalom", posessing an intergrity he never had before. " (s'fat emet) Rashbam sees God as sending an angel to wrestle with Jacob to prevent him from running away as he may have been tempted to do, complelling him to do the right thing. And B. Jacob writes" God answers a person's prayeers if the person rays by searching himself, becoming his own opponent")


• "it is not really clear who the victor is" (new jerome bible commentary, roland murphy, prentice hall, 1990,33)


• abaaw is a play on the name of the river yabboq (new jerome, 34)


• did Israel see itself engaged in a fateful combat with God, such as teh testing of father barham in Gen 22 suggests. (new jerome, 34)


• "why does god wrestle with Jacob. Many Suggest taht God respoonsds to Jacobs history of deception; the story constituioes a disciapanry move on God's part to teach Jacob that he cannot proceed in to the fture relying on his own devices. Hence, some claim the story presents Jacobs conversion to a life more attuned to the ways of God. Yet, we find no evidence of that in the narrative--no negative judgement of Jacob's behaviours, no repetence on Jaocb';s part and no fundamental change in JAcob's subsuqent life pattern. Indeed, in giving Jacob a new name, God commends Jacob for strugglign and names him in view of who he has been in the past, and given his rpsoen to the divine challenge, still is.
• the image of wrestling has been implicit throughout the Jacob story; in his rolling away trhe huge stone from the mouth of the well, and in his multiple contending s with LAban. Now in thsi culimanting moment of his life story, the charachtezintg image of wresting is made explicit and literal. (Alter, 179)
• After doing so, however, he reamins on the other side, his possesions. AFter doing so, however, he ramins on the other side and has another expereine of the netherworld between fantasy and realtily, between the divine and the mundane. In a narrative nortourous for its ambiguity, Jacob wrestles with a 'man' until morning. The first example of ambiguity is ecvident in the abudnance of third person masculine singular verbs, many of which have no explicit referent. As a result it is often uncluear who is speaking. (Susan A Brayford, Genesis, from the Septaugint Commentary Seires, Koninklijke Brill NV, 207, 373)
• classical antcedents in the idea of wrestling a demon who only has strength at night (Jupiter in the Amphityron of Plato (Westerman, 518)
  


• jacob


• among its listery featuers, the story plays on various wrods, espexcialy the names JAcob and ISreal, and the words face, esp. ion 32:21, 30 and 33:10. (The new Interperters Bible Vol 1, Abingdon PRess, Nashville, 565, 1994)


• both names retained in the narratives that follow (new inteperters, 566)
• Abrahams change of name was a mere rhetorical flourish compared to this one, for all the patricahs Jacob is one whose life is engangled in moral ambiguites. Rashi beautifully catheces the resopnse of the name change: "It will no longer be said that the blessings came t oyou through decisouing 'oqbah, a word suggested byt the radical of "crookedness" in the name Jacob but intsead through lordliness (serrah, a root that can be extracted from the name Is real) and openness. It is neverthelss noteworthy--and to my knowledge has not been noted--that the pronouncement about the new name is not completely fulfilled. Whereas ABraham is invrabibly called Abraham once the name is changed from Abram, the narrative continues to refer to his pateriach in most instances as Jacob, Thus, Irsreal does not really rpleace his name but becomes a synomyn for it--a practive reflected in the parrallleism of biblical poetry, where Jacob is always used in the first half o f the line and isreal, the poetic variation in the second half..." (ALter, 181)
• the he pronoun jumps around, where the referent is unclear in v. 27 (is it the angel, jacob, both?)
  


• israel (there are no fewer then three etiologies: the explanation of the name Isreal, the reswaon for the name Penuel/Peniel central event, and the wrestling with a man retains its mytstery) (new jerome, 33)


• the change of the name to ?Israel provides an etiology. The real etymology of yisrae'el is unknown (may god rule? but the popular explanation given here flows out of the encounter (you have struggled) sarita) The struggle has been with elohimn and anasim with God (or gods? elohim beings ? and humans (Esau and Laban?)_ according to the explanation given by the man... (new jerome, 34)


• "although isreal may actually mean something like "God rules" the narrator claims otherwise. The NRSV footnotes suggest a purspoeful ambiguity in the name:" God STrives" (God initates and engages in the wrestling_ and "the one who strives with God" (Jacob responds in kind. Jacob canot struggle with God if God refuses to be so engaged. God's giving this name, then has implications for God as well as for Jacob. It affirms a divine ommitment to stay with Jacon in the struggle. God will be caught up in the realtionship (New Itnerperters, 566)
• The name Isreal, which will be given to Jacob once more, is here interpetrted very freely and contrary to its original lingustic meaning (MAy God rule) in such a way that God is not the subject but the object of Jacob's struggle. Our translation strive is not quite assured What the addition and with men means here has long been asked. To relate it to the disputes with LAban or Esau seems to the only possiblty, though it is somewhat forced. PErhaps "God (gods) and men is only a superlative, stirring idiom, which may not be pressed. (317)


• blessing (Torah Commentaroy) The blessing must be one I will have earned in my own right, not by guile (Rashi) The angel asks Jacob, what is your name, the last time he sought a blessing, when hs father asked him, who are you, he answered that quesiton falsely, now that you are perared to testify truthfully as to who you are, you have shed that previous identity and are prepared to take on a new one, Isreal) (201)
  


• Penuel, Face of El (and Face in Verse 21)
• the two forms of the name, Penuel and Peniel, differ unessentialy only in the archaic nominal ending, the latter is used in v 30 because it makes the pun on the word for face, which is udes in the longe of the narratior, clearer. this narrative was therefore once aetiological ie it eplained the name of the city east of thje Jordan, which later became so imporntat. It may have been the saga about the acutary at teh cultic centre, which detrived its holiness from this very expereince. ,Since Mahanaim most porably and the "Mount of Gilead" certainly were south of the Jabbok , one must considuer that JAcob crossed the Jabook from soutth to north after he had moved along the south side of the Jaobbok on his journey from the east. (rad, 318)
• the name builds on "face to face", the face component being quite transparent in the hebrew. Again the term is elohim and there is no way of knowing whether it is singular or plular. The Hebrew says literally: My Life (or life-breath) was saved. (Alter, 190)
  


• Jabbok River (The Torah may be punning on the term ma-avor Yabbok, the crossing or transit point of the Jabbok--and the transition of Jacob to becoming a different person. Also note the word play b/w Jabbok (Yabbok) and the word for "he wrestled" Ye-avek) (Etz Hayim, Torah and Commentary. The Rabbinical Assembly, The United Synagouge of Coinserative Judaism, 2001, 200)


• "the present day WAdi Zerka which empties inothe Jordan ca 25 mil N of the DEad SEa, the movements of Jacob are confusing. Hios adventure occurs at Peneul, N. of the Jabbok did he cross that deep ravine with his family and possesionj and then return to the N side when he is alone (v 25) (New Jerome, 34)


• jabbok (an eastern tributary of t he Jordan , about twenty miles north of the dead sea), a frontier point for the promised land (deut 3:16)
  


• the danger of the ford is personifed in the spirit or femon who does not want to let the traveller cross the river... (Westerman, 515)
• rivers name changed, due to this incident, because previous name had become offensive, so three namings, one of the ford, one of jacob and one of the new nation (closterman, 519) (but not a naming of the angel)