In Genesis 32:27 Jacob asks the angel of the Lord his name. Why?
Gen 32:27-29
“What is your name?” the man asked.
“Jacob,” he replied.
Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men, and you have prevailed.”
And Jacob requested, “Please tell me your name.”
But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed Jacob there.
In almost all cultures, including our modern western culture, to know someone's name is to be able to know them fully and address them personally. In Jacob's case, he wanted to know the name of the one who was about to bless him and who did bless him and whom he wanted to continue to bless in return.
Notice that an abject or person without a name or title is impossible to identify - that is why one of the first tasks of Adam was to name the animals and objects around him as recorded in Gen 2.
Jacob realized that his wrestling opponent was far more than a mere human but God Himself. Moses craved the same information in Ex 3:13-17 and was told:
Ex 3:13, 14 - God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ ” God also told Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.’ This is My name forever, and this is how I am to be remembered in every generation.
{My answer is based on the the fact - as I read it - that it is not Jacob who asks the angel's name, but the angel (called "the man") who asks Jacob's name.}
Then a man wrestled with him until the break of dawn. 26 When the man saw that he could not prevail over him, he struck Jacob’s hip at its socket, so that Jacob’s socket was dislocated as he wrestled with him. 27 The man then said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go until you bless me.” 28 “What is your name?” the man asked. He answered, “Jacob.”
We cannot know what was in the mind of the angel (called a man in the text). In fact, if he was indeed the angel of the Lord, he must already have known Jacob's name. We may guess that the angel asks in order to clarify that the way humans have thought of Jacob is not the way God thinks of him - and from now on Jacob is to focus on God rather than his previous life.
Jacob can mean "to follow, be behind," but it can also mean "to supplant, overreach" or come from the Hebrew word for "heel."
From the Hebrew name יִשְׂרָאֵל (Yisraʾel) meaning "God contends", from the roots שָׂרָה (sara) meaning "to contend, to fight" and אֵל (ʾel) meaning "God".
If we try to understand the angel's viewpoint, asking Jacob's name serves clarify how Jacob understood himself and how others thought of him -- a subservient grasper who tried to supplant his older brother. From now on, he is a contender with and for God, and God has blessed him. Henceforth he will represent God as His champion.
From a literary standpoint, the question provides the dramatic basic for the name change. Source critics thus focus on why the narrator describes the angel as asking Jacob's name. A frequent explanation is that source "J" calls him Jacob and source "E" calls him Israel. In combining the accounts, an editor or earlier story-teller has used this scene to explain why the patriarch is sometimes called Jacob and at other times Israel.
Conclusion: The angel asks not because he does not know, but in order to clarify that the patriarch will no longer need to deal with his brother but with God. From a literary standpoint, he asks because this provides the narrative basis for two different names being used for the same person.
I completely understand why the angel of the lord asked for the name of Jacob, even though he certainly knew it already. We have to admit our shortcomings before God if we are going to stop living a life for ourselves. I understand why at times he is addressed as Jacob and other times as Israel. This depends if he is acting like he is living for himself or for God.
The scriptures were Genesis 32:27-29. Here we see the man (aka angel of the LORD) ask Jacob for his name and in v29 we see Jacob ask for the angel's name. THAT was the question and I do believe some have graciously helped me understand. And thank you to those who did.
