I should like to learn from you, O men, said I, what is the meaning of the name Israel. And while they kept silence, I went on: I will say what I know; for I think it neither right for one who knows to keep silence, nor, suspecting that you know, to be ever concerned about wishing to deceive yourselves through envy or through ignorance, but to say all things simply and without guile, as my Lord said: 'A sower went forth to sow the seed; and some fell on the road, and some among thorns, and some on rocky ground, and some on the good ground.'
One must speak, then, in hope that there is somewhere good ground; since that Lord of mine, as strong and mighty, will come and demand His own from all, and will not condemn His steward, if He recognises that he, knowing his Lord to be mighty and that He will come and demand His own, put it out at every bank, and did not for any reason whatever bury it.
And so the name Israel means this: 'a man overcoming power'; for 'isra' is 'a man overcoming,' and 'el' is 'power.' Which also was prophesied through the mystery of the wrestling with which Jacob wrestled with Him who appeared in His ministering to the will of the Father, yet being God in that He was the firstborn child of all creation—it was thus prophesied that Christ, having become man, would toil.
For when He had become man, as I said before, the devil came to Him—that is, that power which is also called serpent and Satan—tempting Him and striving to overthrow Him by demanding that He worship him. But He undid him and overthrew him, convicting him of being wicked, in that contrary to Scripture he demanded to be worshipped as God, having become an apostate from the will of God. For He answers him: 'It is written: You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve.' And being defeated and convicted, the devil then withdrew.
But because He was also to become numb—that is, to be in toil and in the experience of suffering when He was to be crucified—our Christ made a proclamation of this too, by touching Jacob's thigh and causing it to become numb. And Israel was His name from above, which He bestowed when, blessing the blessed Jacob, He named him by His own name, proclaiming through this also that all who through Him flee for refuge to the Father are blessed Israel. But you, having understood none of these things, nor prepared to understand them, since you are children of Jacob according to the fleshly seed, expect that you shall by all means be saved. But that you deceive yourselves in this too has been demonstrated by me in many places.