Jacob’s Nightly Encounter at Peniel and the Status of the Son: Reading Genesis 32 with Athanasius

Abstract

This paper considers the theophany at Penuel-Peniel/Εἶδος Θεοῦ (Genesis 32) and its use by Athanasius of Alexandria. The biblical text itself is quite enigmatic, forcing the readers to entertain a variety of interpretive solutions. Athanasius continues, unsurprisingly, the venerable tradition of Christological exegesis – identifying, that is, the mysterious man with the Word of God incarnaturus – but seems to reinforce the inherited Christophanic exegesis by taking advantage of a textual ambiguity that only occurs in the LXX text. This further allows him to highlight, repeatedly, the dogmatic import of the biblical text, showing that, once the divine appearance to Jacob is understood Christologically, the theophany can only be accounted for by confessing the Son as “proper” (ἴδιος) to the Father, inseparable from him according to essential propriety (κατὰ τὴν ἰδιότητα τῆς οὐσίας), ὁμοούσιος with the Father.