101 Myths of the Bible: how ancient scribes - Conscious Evolution TV

148
yth #58:
God changed Jacob’s name to Israel.
The Myth: And God appeared unto Jacob again, when he came out of Padanaram,
and blessed him. And God said unto him, Thy name is Jacob: thy name shall not
be called any more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name; and he called his name Israel.
(Gen. 35:9–10)
The Reality: Genesis gives two different accounts of how Jacob came to be called
Israel, reflecting the views of two rival factions in the kingdom of Israel.
In the previous myth, we saw that when Jacob wrestled a stranger, the stranger
blessed him by changing his name from Jacob to Israel. This event occurred at the site
of Penuel. Although Jacob believed that he had looked on the face of God (the
stranger), we know that couldn’t be the case because in the Book of Exodus, when
Moses asked to see God’s face the deity replied,“Thou canst not see my face: for there
shall no man see me, and live” (Exod. 33:20). So, according to that story at least, God
couldn’t have been the one who changed Jacob’s name, because Jacob, as a human,
couldn’t look on the face of God and live. Additionally, in the discussion of Myth #57
we saw that the stranger was actually Esau.
However, the Bible has a second story about Jacob’s change of name. In this
account, occurring some time after the reunion with Esau, God directed Jacob to go to
Beth-el, the place where he dreamed of the ladder. At Beth-el, God directly told Jacob
that henceforth his name would be Israel and then renewed his covenant to give
Canaan to Israel and his descendants.
These two stories show how rival factions attempted to change incidents in biblical
history to suit their own purposes. Here, we have one story claiming a name change
in Penuel and another saying Beth-el. The histories of these two cities provide clues as
to why two different stories came about.
When King Solomon died, Jeroboam led a revolt against Solomon’s heir to the
throne, and split off the Kingdom of Israel from Judah. Jeroboam established two