Did Jacob literally wrestle with God or with an angel? And did Jacob see God’s face? (Gen 32:24-30)
The text from Genesis 32 reads as follows:
24 Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. 25 When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he struck him on the hip socket, and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. 26 Then he said, “Let me go, for the day is breaking.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go, unless you bless me.” 27 So he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” 28 Then the man[b] said, “You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with humans and have prevailed.” 29 Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And there he blessed him. 30 So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, yet my life is preserved.” (NRSV)
The incident is key in Jacob’s life as the moment when his name was changed to Isra-El, literally “struggle with God”. Yet the Bible consistently teaches that man cannot see God (Exodus 33:20; John 1:18; 1 Timothy 6:16). So as with similar appearances we would expect that this ‘man’ was an angel. And sure enough Hosea 12:4 confirms that Jacob wrestled with an angel. So Jacob did not literally see the face of God, but saw God’s messenger, the Angel of the LORD. Compare also Judges 13:21-22 where Samson’s parents see an angel:
21 The angel of the Lord did not appear again to Manoah and his wife. Then Manoah realized that it was the angel of the Lord. 22 And Manoah said to his wife, “We shall surely die, for we have seen God.” (NRSV)
Footnote: In recent years some Trinitarian, Oneness and Arian (for example some Jehovah’s Witnesses) have tried to use Jacob’s encounter with the angel representing God as proof of a “christophany” or appearance before Jesus’ conception and birth of a pre-existent Jesus. There is not much to be said on this subject that is not already dealt with in other answers on this website, such as Are there any Old Testament appearances of Jesus? and other articles which will come up using the search box. It only needs to be stated again that – among other plain passages – the first two chapters of Hebrews repeatedly show that Jesus was never an angel, nor an archangel.
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