Israel

Overview

• The name God gave to Jacob, and so the name of the covenant people descended from his twelve sons.
• In the New Testament the Church — Jew and Gentile together — is called the true "Israel of God."

Summary

"Israel" is first of all a name given to a man. After wrestling through the night with God, Jacob is renamed Israel, "for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed" (Genesis 32.28). His twelve sons become the twelve tribes, and their descendants the nation God redeems out of Egypt, binds to Himself by covenant at Sinai, and settles in the Promised Land. Through the prophets God calls this people His son, His vine, and His bride — the bearer of the promises until the coming of the Messiah.[^1]

The Israel of God

The New Testament does not discard Israel but reveals what it always pointed toward. St. Paul insists that "not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel" (Romans 9.6) — membership in the true people of God was never merely a matter of blood but of faith and promise. On the cross the covenant is opened to all nations, and the Church, Jew and Gentile alike, becomes "the Israel of God" (Galatians 6.16).[^2] This is not a replacement of Israel by a foreign body: Paul's image is of wild branches grafted into Israel's own cultivated olive tree, sharing its root (Romans 11.17-24). The Church understands herself as the continuation and fulfillment of Israel's story in Christ.

Sources

[^1]: Jacob renamed Israel (Genesis 32.28); the twelve tribes and the covenant nation redeemed from Egypt. [^2]: Romans 9.6 and Galatians 6.16 on the true Israel; the grafting of the nations into Israel's olive tree (Romans 11.17-24).