Yisra-El

Delacroix, Jacob Wrestling with the Angel at Penuel 

ישראל


Genesis 12:4 is the earliest reference to the land that will become Yisra-El, but the actual name is not used until 32:29, when Ya'akov's name is changed to Yisra-El as part of his blessing when he stalemates the "man" at Penu-El.

Gesenius gives its root as Sarah + El (שרה אל), and takes it to mean "soldier of El", an etymology he clearly derives from the Penu-El story; but if so, does this now change our understanding of the name of Av-Raham's wife, as Sarah is spelled exactly the same way, but understood to be the feminine of Sar (שר) = "prince"? It cannot be both; Gesenius too regards the patriarchess Sarah as meaning "princess", and especially her previous name, Sarai (שָׂרַי). Given that the immolation, the wrestling, the blessing, the seven years, et cetera, all reflect the coronation ritual of the sacred king, "prince" is far more likely as an etymology for Yisra-El: literally "he will be a prince of El" - we can almost imagine the master of ceremonies declaring the words as the scarlet cloak and the crown of thorns are being put on.

"Soldier of El" is also contradicted, or at least modified, by Genesis 35, the other version of Ya'akov's re-naming, the one that tends to be forgotten or overlooked in favour of the Penu-El story. There, Elohim first instructs Ya'akov to go to Beit-El (also called both Luz and El Beit-El in the same passage) and establish an altar there, after which Devorah dies and is buried beneath the weeping oak at Alon Bachot, and then Elohim, needless of any wrestling match but very much a part of a ceremony of covenant-making, informs Ya'akov that he is now to be known as Yisra-El (Genesis 35:10).

The Beit-El version in fact makes much more sense, because it was at Beit-El (Genesis 28:10-22) that Ya'akov began his epic journey, where he dreamed the ladder of the "angels" (the Milky Way), and where he made his pledge to give a tenth of all he earned; that he should end the epic there fits the mythological pattern, and suggests that the Penu-El version was probably the start and end of an entirely different tribal myth, later amalgamated as one into the version we now have.

On the other hand the name may (I happen to doubt it, but the hypothesis is taken seriously by many scholars, so let us include it) express the amalgamation of two cults, or even three, allowing for Yah (יה) rather than Yud (י) as the initial letter. Thus the Yisra-Elite confederation would have been a coming-together of three cults: those of Yah, Sarah and El, through a tribal marriage: Yah-Sarah-El = Yisra-El. 

Beney Yisra-El (בני ישראל) - the children of Israel - is used to denote all of Ya'akov's descendants, but, though the land is today called Israel, or Yisra-El in Ivrit, it was never known as Yisra-El in Biblical times; which is to say that we have no idea what the whole land was called in the time of Sha'ul, David and Shelomoh, but that after Shelomoh there was a civil war, with one kingdom now called Yehudah (Judah, later Judea, in English), and the other possibly called Yisra-El, though the prophets invariably refer to it as Ephrayim (אפרים); and that not after the tribe, but after a leader of the same name. Shomron (שומרון) was its capital city. 

The prophets also referred to Yehudah by a poetical name, Yeshurun (ישרון), cf Deuteronomy 32:15, 33:5, 33:26 and Isaiah 44:2. The significance of this name is not easy to deduce, especially as it only makes these four appearances. The first three letters are identical (ישר) in appearance to the key letters of Yisra-El, though the Sheen (שׁ - dot on the right ) here in fact replaces a Seen (שׂ - dot on the left). The root is YASHAR (ישר) = "to be straight" or "upright", and Yesharah (ישרה) is used in 1 Kings 3:6 to mean "integrity". It thus serves as a perfect epithet for Yisra-El - the righteous people of YHVH being in Yehudit Yishar-El (ישראל), and also a perfect synonym for Yeru-Shala'im, the "City of Wholeness". Which came first?

After the exile (late 6th century BCE) it was used by the tribes that were left as an alternative name for Yehudah (Judah).

Probably Yisra-El was the king's dynastic name, and therefore given to his followers (in the way we might speak of the Victorians or Edwardians), and not a tribal or personal name at all. Genesis 46:8 seems to confirm this, suggesting that Yisra-El is the tribe and Ya'akov its chief.

In modern times, retaining what can be retained of pre-Judaism in the "substitute" which is the Jewish religion, a distinction is made between three groups of men, Kohanim (Cohens), Beney Levi (Levites) and the rest - the rest all being referred to as Yisra-El.

On only one occasion are the adjectives Yisra-Eli (masculine) and Yisra-Elit (feminine) used; this is in Leviticus 2:10 and 11. They parallel Yehudah (masculine) and Yehudit (feminine).

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