I should like, I said, to learn from you, Gentlemen, what is the force of the name of Israel. And as they were silent I continued: I will say what I know. For I do not think it right not to speak when I know. And when I suspect that you know, but do not wish to speak through envy or inexperience, I myself do not understand being always anxious (what to say), but I would rather speak simply and without guile, as my Lord said: The sower went forth to sow his seed; and some fell into the road, and other into the thorns, and other on the rocky soil, and other on the good ground.
One must therefore speak in hope of there being good ground somewhere. Since, in any case, He, my lord, as being strong and powerful, will, when He comes, demand the repayment of His own property from all, and will not condemn His steward, if He is aware that, because he knows his Lord is powerful, and will come and demand the repayment of His own, he is setting it out on every banker’s table, and has not dug and hid (his Lord’s property) for any reason whatsoever.
The name of Israel then means this: A man overcoming power. For ‘Isra’ is ‘a man overcoming’, and ‘el’ is ‘power’. And this it was prophesied that Christ would do when He had become man, by the mystery of the wrestling in which Jacob wrestled with Him who appeared to him, because He was ministering to the will of the Father, and yet was God because He was the First-born Child of all creatures.
For when He had become man, as I have already said, the devil came up to Him, namely that power which is also called Serpent and Satan, tempting Him, and striving his utmost to cast Him down by his request that He should worship Him. But He overthrew him, and cast him down, rebuking him for being evil, in his request that contrary to the Scripture he should be worshipped as God, having thus become an apostate from the mind of God. For He answers him: It is written: The Lord thy God shalt thou worship, and Him alone shalt thou serve. And, worsted and rebuked, the devil then withdrew.
But since our Christ was also to grow numb, namely in toil and in the sense of suffering, at the time that He was to be crucified, He proclaimed this also beforehand by touching Jacob’s thigh and making it grow numb. Further, Israel was a name given him from of old, with which He surnamed the blessed Jacob when He blessed him with His own name, proclaiming also by this that blessed Israel means all who flee by Him to the Father. But you, though you have understood nothing of all this, nor make preparation for understanding, expect assuredly to be saved, since you are children of Jacob according to carnal descent. But that in this also you are deceiving yourselves, I have shown repeatedly.