Bible Synapse
Did Jacob rename Luz as Bethel on his way to Paddan Aram or on his return?
Hard question · Creation, the flood and the patriarchs · raised by 1 of the lists sceptics circulate
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Fleeing from Esau, Jacob sets up a pillar where God met him in a dream, “And he called the name of that place Beth–el: but the name of that city was called Luz at the first.”
And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for his pillows, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it. And he called the name of that place Beth–el: but the name of that city was called Luz at the first.
Back from Paddan Aram, Jacob comes “to Luz, which is in the land of Canaan, that is, Beth–el”, builds an altar and calls the place El-bethel.
So Jacob came to Luz, which is in the land of Canaan, that is, Beth–el, he and all the people that were with him. And he built there an altar, and called the place El–beth–el: because there God appeared unto him, when he fled from the face of his brother.
God appears to Jacob there again; Jacob sets up a pillar, and “Jacob called the name of the place where God spake with him, Beth–el.”
And Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he talked with him, even a pillar of stone: and he poured a drink offering thereon, and he poured oil thereon. And Jacob called the name of the place where God spake with him, Beth–el.
The objection
Genesis 28 says that Jacob renamed Luz as Bethel when he stopped there on his flight to Paddan Aram. But in Genesis 35, on his way back, he comes “to Luz, which is in the land of Canaan, that is, Beth–el”, names the place El-bethel, and then “called the name of the place where God spake with him, Beth–el”. Critics ask when the name was given: on the way out, or on the way home.
The answer
On both journeys, and Genesis presents the second naming as the keeping of a promise made at the first. When Jacob fled from Esau, God met him in a dream. In the morning he set up his stone as a pillar, named the place Bethel, ‘house of God’, and vowed that if God brought him home in peace, “this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God’s house” (28:18–22).
The name was in use from then on. While Jacob was still in Haran, God spoke of the place by it: “I am the God of Beth–el, where thou anointedst the pillar” (31:13). When he was home again God told him, “Arise, go up to Beth–el” (35:1). Then Jacob kept his vow. He built an altar and called the place El-bethel, ‘God of Bethel’ (35:7); God appeared to him again, and Jacob set up a new pillar, poured a drink offering on it and named the place Bethel once more (35:14–15). As Haley puts it, the Bethel of the vow had become an actual Bethel, and the second naming confirmed the first. Nothing in chapter 35 says that the name was given for the first time.
The words “Luz, which is in the land of Canaan, that is, Beth–el” (35:6) are the writer helping his readers. The Canaanite town was still known as Luz, and Jacob himself could later say, “God Almighty appeared unto me at Luz in the land of Canaan” (48:3). Judges 1:23–26 tells how the house of Joseph took the town, after which the name Luz went with a survivor to a new town in the land of the Hittites.
Other answers Christians give
A holy place beside the town
Some read Joshua 16:2, “from Beth–el to Luz”, as showing that Jacob’s Bethel was a spot near the town of Luz rather than the town itself; on that view Jacob named the place of the pillar, and the town took the name only in the days of the judges. Keil thought Jacob named the town, and that Joshua distinguishes the hill country of Bethel from the town of Luz.
Two sources
Many critical scholars assign the two namings to different sources. The writer of chapter 35 plainly knew the story of chapter 28, for God’s command in 35:1 recalls how he appeared to Jacob “when thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother”.
From the classic commentators
at the first time Jacob made a vow that, if God would bless and keep him till his return, the pillar which he had set up should be "God's house." Upon his return, in view of the abundant blessings which he had received, he performed his vow, changing the ideal to an actual Bethel, and thus emphasizing and confirming the original nameJ. W. Haley, Alleged Discrepancies (1874), p. 410
Sources
- J. W. Haley, An Examination of the Alleged Discrepancies of the Bible (1874), p. 410
- Keil & Delitzsch, Commentary on Genesis 28, at Bible Hub
- Keil & Delitzsch, Commentary on Genesis 35, at Bible Hub