There are many different, but related, meanings of the word Israel in the Bible. Here is the story ...
The word Israel
The word Israel in Hebrew is יִשְׂרָאֵל. It is formed from its root which has a meaning which most scholars think conveys the idea of struggling, wrestling or fighting (whether literally or metaphorically). It is combined with the suffix אֵל ('el) meaning God. The term El for God is found in other titles like Elohim and El-Shaddai (Genesis 17:1). When Israel was rendered in Greek in the Septuagint and in the New Testament it was spelt as Ἰσραήλ. It came into Latin as Israel, and that was also used in English where the spelling of Israel is found in the John Wycliffe translation of 1382, and also as Israel in William Tyndale’s New Testament from 1526. It has been used ever since.Today the name Israel is still used as a first name especially, although not exclusively, by Jewish people. The name Israel is also sometimes transliterated from Hebrew as Yisra’el, Yisroel, Israil, and it is spelt as Ysrael in Spanish-speaking countries.
Israel in the Bible
The proper noun ‘Israel’ is used over 2,000 times in the Bible. It is included in 34 out of the 39 books in the Old Testament, and in 13 of the 27 New Testament books. However, it does not always mean the same thing. It is used in several different but related and sometimes overlapping ways. Basically, the term was first applied as a name to a person, then to his family, then to a nation, then to territories they settled in, and later to concepts, as the semantic meaning developed and expanded over time.
Jacob alias Israel
The first use of Israel in the Bible is as another name for Jacob. Jacob was the younger of twin sons Esau and Jacob, born to Isaac and Rebecca. Isaac in turn was the second son of Abraham by Sarah, but was born after Ishmael, but before Abraham’s other sons by Keturah (Genesis 25:1-2).In Genesis 32, the story is told of Jacob wrestling with an unnamed man. The man asked Jacob what his name was, and he answered that it was Jacob (Genesis 32:27). It was then that the man said, “Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed” (Genesis 32:28 KJV).It is a bit of a mysterious story. Jacob thought that he had wrestled God himself, since “Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, ‘It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared’” (Genesis 32:30). In later tradition, Hosea identified the man as an angel (Hosea 12:4).
People have debated whether he wrestled with a man, with an angel or with God, or if it was metaphorical. The new name is mentioned again a little later: “And God said unto him, Thy name is Jacob: thy name shall not be called any more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name: and he called his name Israel”(Genesis 35:10 KJV). From this point Jacob is known as both Jacob and Israel, and both names continued to be used interchangeably. We also find other biblical characters with two names. Jacob’s son Joseph was also called Zaphnathpaaneah in Egypt (Genesis 41:45). Gideon was also called Jerubbaal (Judges 6:32). Daniel was also known as Belteshazzar (Daniel 1:6-7). Then in the New Testament we have Dorcas also known as Tabitha (Acts 9:36 - 42) and Simon also known as Peter.
Israel the family
Jacob, alias Israel, had many children. His name Israel came to be used like the family name or surname. He had a dozen sons who are named. Daughters are also mentioned (Genesis 34:9; 37:34-35; 46:5-7; 46:15), but Dinah is the only one who is named (Genesis 30:21). The descendants of Israel by his twelve sons became known as the Israelites, or the ‘children of Israel’ or the ‘people of Israel’ or just Israel. After Jacob died, the name of Israel no longer meant just Jacob, but the meaning was extended to mean his descendants, and the nation which grew from them.
Israel the nation
Jacob, and his family settled in Goshen in Egypt, because of a famine (Genesis 47). When Jacob’s family settled in Egypt they were called Israel so that it says, “And Israel dwelt in the land of Egypt, in the country of Goshen; and they had possessions therein, and grew, and multiplied exceedingly” (Genesis 47:27 KJV). Within the book of Exodus, the word Israel usually refers to the Israelites. In the books of Exodus and Joshua, the term ‘children of Israel’ is used.
Territory of Israel
Later when the twelve tribes of the nation of Israel settled and formed their own country, that land was called Israel. For a few centuries, the territory of Israel was ruled by the Judges, as detailed in the book of Judges, the meaning of Israel extended to mean the land inhabited by the nation of Israel, and it is called the ‘territory of Israel’ (Judges 19:29 RSV). The book of Judges ends with: ‘In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did what was right in his own eyes’ (Judges 21:25).
Kingdom of Israel
After the Judges, the territory of Israel became a kingdom. The first kings were Saul, David and Solomon. The term ‘kingdom of Israel’ is first used in 1 Samuel 15:28. The use of Israel to mean the kingdom of Israel is found in 1 and 2 Samuel and in 1 Kings. Under King David and King Solomon, territories were conquered beyond the tribal lands of Israel. So, the Kingdom of Israel referred to all the territory ruled by the King of Israel. The Kingdom of Israel was greater than the territory of Israel, because it included the territory of Israel plus conquered subject peoples who were not Israelites.
Israel the Northern Kingdom
After the death of King Solomon, the Kingdom of Israel split into two. Here it gets confusing because Rehoboam remained king of the southern kingdom of Judah, but the northern tribes established a new kingdom under King Jeroboam which kept the name of Israel. From this time the term Israel referred to the northern kingdom, so that in Jeremiah we read: “I will restore the fortunes of Judah and the fortunes of Israel” (Jeremiah 33:7 ESV). In the books of Amos and Hosea, references to Israel are usually to the northern kingdom of Israel. Hosea was the last prophet before the northern kingdom of Israel fell to Assyria about 722 BC. At this time, many Israelites from the northern kingdom moved to the Kingdom of Judah.
House of Israel
Many of the inhabitants of Judah were taken into exile during three deportations starting in about 597 BC. During this time, these exiles were also known as the ‘house of Israel’, which is a phrase used many times, especially in the books of Jeremiah and Ezekiel to refer to the exiled community. This does not imply they all came from the northern kingdom, but once the land was lost, the term Israel was used to mean the nation.
Israel in the New Testament
In the New Testament the term ‘Israel’ appears in Greek just over 60 times. By the time of the New Testament, Israel is still used to mean variously the person of Jacob, the people of Israel, and the historic land of Israel. The meaning depends on context.When the holy family was in exile in Egypt, Joseph was told in a dream to go “to the land of Israel” (Matthew 2:20-21). At this time land was not technically called Israel then, because in Roman times the area was divided into the Roman provinces of Judaea, Samaria and Galilee. In the New Testament, the use of the word ‘Israel’ had come to be synonymous with the Jewish people, and the land of Israel refers to where they lived.
The Israel of God
In the New Testament another meaning of Israel emerges, although only in some cases. St Paul extends the use of the word ‘Israel’ to mean all the people of God, whether of Jewish or Gentile origin. He wrote to the church at Galatia, “Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule – to the Israel of God” (Galatians 6:16). His idea was that circumcision is now spiritual, and the idea of the spiritual Israel now includes Gentile believers.
This is expanded by Paul in Romans 2:29; 4:12; 9:6-8 and Philippians 3:3. Paul teaches about Israel in Romans 11 where he uses the analogy of Israel as an olive tree which they had been grafted onto (Romans 11, 17-25).
Such are the multiple meanings of Israel that Paul is able to play on words and write, “For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel” (Romans 9:6 NIV), with two meanings of Israel in the same sentence, the first to mean Jacob and the second to mean the people of God. In other places St Paul sometimes uses the interesting phrase “commonwealth of Israel”. He wrote to the Christians at Ephesus that they “were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world” (Ephesians 2:11-13), and goes onto describe how God has now reconciled Jews and Gentiles as one people of God. He describes Jews and Gentiles as being one in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:28).
Importance of context
There are many meanings of the word Israel in the Bible, which are defined according to context. In the Jewish Scriptures it was a man, then a family, then a nation, then a kingdom, then part of the divided kingdom. Later in the New Testament the word Israel retains these meanings but additionally is sometimes used by St Paul as a spiritual concept for all the people of God. Sometimes the text or the translation may clarify it with phrases like the “land of Israel” or the “people of Israel” but not always, and sometimes it is not so clear when a verse is read in isolation. There is always the danger of reading the biblical text anachronistically, by inferring a meaning from a later use of the term, which did not apply in earlier texts. On the other hand, when you read a verse and know how the word Israel was used in that context, it can help to untangle the meaning of some confusing passages.
