CHAPTER CXXV
What Force the Word Israel Has, And How it Suits Christ.
"I wish, sirs," I said, "to learn from you what is the force of the name Israel." And as they were
silent, I continued: "I shall tell you what I know: for I do not think it fight, when I know, not to
speak; or, suspecting that you do know, and yet from envy or from voluntary ignorance deceive
yourselves,(3) to be continually solicitous; but I speak all things simply and candidly, as my Lord
said: 'A sower went forth to sow the seed; and some fell by the wayside; and some among thorns,
and some on stony ground, and some on good ground.'(4) I must speak, then, in the hope of
finding good ground somewhere; since that Lord of mine, as One strong and powerful, comes to
demand back His own from all, land will not condemn His steward if He recognizes that he, by
the knowledge that the Lord is powerful and has come to demand His own, has given it to every
bank, and has not digged for any cause whatsoever. Accordingly the name Israel signifies this, A
man who overcomes power; for Isra is a man overcoming, and El is power.(5) And that Christ
would act so when He became man was foretold by the mystery of Jacob's wrestling with Him
who appeared to him, in that He ministered to the will of the Father, yet nevertheless is God, in
that He is the first-begotten of all creatures. For when He became man, as I previously remarked,
the devil came to Him--i.e., that power which is called the serpent and Sa-tan--tempting Him,
and striving to effect His downfall by asking Him to worship him. But He destroyed and
overthrew the devil, having proved him to be wicked, in that he asked to be worshipper as God,
contrary to the Scripture; who is an apostate from the will of God. For He answers him, 'It is
written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shall thou serve.'(6) Then, overcome
and convicted, the devil departed at that time. But since our Christ was to be numbed, i.e., by
pain and experience of suffering, He made a previous intimation of this by touching Jacob's thigh,
and causing it to shrink. But Israel was His name from the beginning, to which He altered the
name of the blessed Jacob when He blessed him with His own name, proclaiming thereby that all
who through Him have fled for refuge to the Father, constitute the blessed Israel. But you, having
understood none of this, and not being prepared to understand, since you are the children of
Jacob after the fleshly seed, expect that you shall be assuredly saved. But that you deceive
yourselves in such matters, I have proved by many words.
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