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In Genesis, Jacob wrestles a man at the Jabbok until daybreak. Rabbinic tradition in Genesis Rabbah identifies the wrestler as Esau’s guardian angel, basing this on Jacob’s words to Esau that seeing his face was like seeing the face of God.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Genesis 32:24
Hebrew Bible
23 He took them and sent them across the stream along with all his possessions. 24 So Jacob was left alone. Then a man wrestled with him until daybreak. 25 When the man saw that he could not defeat Jacob, he struck the socket of his hip so the socket of Jacob’s hip was dislocated while he wrestled with him. 26 Then the man said, “Let me go, for the dawn is breaking.” “I will not let you go,” Jacob replied, “unless you bless me.”
Genesis Rabbah 77:3
Aggadah
Rabbinic
Rabbi Chunya said, "He appeared to him in the image of a shepherd. This one had a flock and this one had a flock. This one had camels, and this one had camels. He said to him, "Take across what is yours, and after that, I will take across what is mine." Jacob, our father, took across what was his, and said, "Let us return and let us see, lest we forgot something." After he returned, "a man wrestled with him" (Genesis 32:25)." Rabbi Chama bar Chanina said, "He was the ministering angel of Esav. And that is [what he meant] when he said to him, 'For this have I seen your face as I saw the face of God and you have accepted me' (Genesis 33:10). There is a parable about an athlete that got up and wrestled with the son of the king. He lifted his eyes and he saw that the king was standing behind him and [so] he fell to the ground in front of [the son]. This is what [is meant by that which] is written, 'and he saw that he could not overcome him.'" Rabbi Levi said, "'And he saw' the Divine Presence 'and he could not overcome him.'" Said Rabbi Berachia, "We do not know who won, whether it was the angel or whether it was Yakov. And from that which it is written, 'and a man wrestled (vayitabek, the root of which contains the letters that spell dust) with him,' prove who was covered in dust - the man that was with him.' Said Rabbi Chananya bar Yitschak, "The Holy One, blessed be He, said to him, 'He is coming against you and he has five charms in his hand: his merit, the merit of his father, the merit of his mother, the merit of his grandfather, and the merit of his grandmother - measure yourself [and see] if you can stand even against his merit.' Immediately, 'And he saw and he could not overcome him.' There is a parable of a king that had a wild dog and a tamed lion. And the king took his son and endeared him to the lion, [such that] if the dog would take him on, the king would say to him, 'The lion was not able to stand in front of him and you want to take him on?' So [too], if the nations of the world will come to take on Israel, the Holy One, blessed be He, will say to them, 'Your ministering angel was not able to stand in front of him and you want to take on his children?'" "And he touched the hollow of his thigh" - he touched the righteous men and women, the prophets and prophetesses, which were to arise from him in the future. And which is this? The generation of persecution (shemad). "And he touched the hollow of Yakov's thigh" - Rabbi Berachia and Rabbi Eliezer [disagreed about this]: Rabbi Eliezer said, "He pressed it down." Rabbi Berachia said in the name of Rabbi Assi, "He split it like a fish." Rabbi Nachman bar Yakov said, "He separated it from its place, as it is written (Ezekiel 23:18), 'and my soul was separated etc... like my soul was separated' [in which the context shows that the verb for touching also means separating]." Said Rabbi Chanina bar Yitschak, "That whole night both of them were striking each other, the shield of this one across from the shield of that one. Once the sun rose, 'And he said, send me away from here as the sun has risen.'
Date: 500 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
... Guardian angels of a special kind are those who bear the image of the one they have been tasked with protecting. Midrash Psalm 55 § 3 (146B): Rabbi Joshua ben Levi (ca. 250) said, “What does ‘He redeems my soul in peace’ (Psalm 55:19) mean? The image (namely from the world of the angels) goes before a man, and the (heavenly) beings cry out and say (to the demons who invisibly surround the man), ‘Make way for the image of God!’ ”—Similarly in Deuteronomy Rabbah 4 (201D), where in the Venice edition of 1545, the unusual term for image is supplied. In Midrash Psalms 17 § 8, the plural is used: Images from the angels go before a man. … In any case, the reading of the text is ensured by the designation of men as the image of God. The following contrast is probably intended: The image of God calls out, “Make way for the image of God!” ‖ Genesis Rabbah 78 (50A): Rabbi Hama ben Hanina (ca. 260) said, “It was Esau’s prince of angels (with whom Jacob wrestled); Genesis 33:10, ‘Therefore I saw your face, like the face of the angel (according to the Midrash).’ Your face is like the face of the angel.” ...
Strack, Hermann L., and Paul Billerbeck
A Commentary on the New Testament from the Talmud and Midrash, Volume 2: Mark through Acts
(p. 960) Lexham Press, 2022
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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