Who Was the Man That Wrestled with Jacob

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Interpretive question Who was the “man” with whom Jacob wrestled? After doing intensive search through the Liberty library I have found three resources that I will use to try and answer the question. Who wrestled with Jacob? By Fred Blumenthal published in the Jewish Bible quarterly volume 38, number two, 2010. In his article Blumenthal poses a series of questions, a total of eight and all. “Which he says the text leaves unanswered: 1. Why did Jacob take his family and possessions across the river, after having received the message that his brother was approaching with a small army? He points out that a river is a natural line of defense in an advantage which should have been maintain except that Jacob crossed it. 2. Why would Jacob have remained alone in the middle of the night? 3. Who was the unnamed opponent? At the outset he is called a man first 25 but in the course of the story he turns it into an angel. This is manifested by Jacob's demand for blessing from him prior to his release. 4. What was the attacker’s object? Blumenthal says that we are left wondering whether he wanted to kill, rob, or in some other fashion hurt Jacob. 5. Why did the first appearance of Don disturbed the fighting man/Angel so much? 6. If we deal with an angel, how is it possible that a heavenly being would find himself unable to defeat a human opponent? Blumenthal says not only was he apparently unable to pin Jacob down, he was even unable to detach himself from Jacob's grip and to disappear the way he had come. 7. The angelic wrestler then predicts the change of name from Jacob to Israel which takes place later. Blumenthal points out that he does not actually effect this change. For this he would have to need to say Yikare shimkha which he does not say. He uses the expression Ye-amer shimkha which connotes the prediction of a later event. What is the connection between

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