Enos’ wrestle with God and its connection to the Old Testament

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A few years ago I read an excellent article by Matt Bowen that helped me to see the Book of Mormon in a new light, especially Enos’ narrative regarding his wrestle with the the Lord.^[1]Matt Bowen, “And There Wrestled a Man with Him” (Genesis 32:24): Enos’s Adaptations of the Onomastic Wordplay of Genesis, Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 10, … Continue reading Bowen emphasizes that understanding the reconciliatory embrace between Jacob and Esau in Genesis 33 is pivotal for grasping Enos’s perception of Christ’s atonement and its profound impact on his life. The Book of Mormon prophet Enos, describing his “wrestle” with God, to Bowen, shows that he was punning on the name of his dad:

1. Behold, it came to pass that I, Enos, knowing my father that he was a just man (הוא היה איש צדיק) – for he taught me in his language, and also in the nurture and admonition of the Lord—and blessed be the name of my God for it— 2. And I will tell you of the wrestle which I had before God, before I received a remission of my sins (Enos 1.1-2).

Enos’s preface not only mirrors Nephi’s play on his name (with “Nephi” meaning “good” in Egyptian, as seen in 1 Nephi 1.1) but also evokes the wordplay on “Jacob” woven through Genesis. This is particularly evident in Genesis 32’s account of Jacob (יַעֲקֹב Yaʿăqōb) crossing the Jabbok (יַבֹּק Yabbōq) river and wrestling (וַיֵּאָבֵק wayyēʾābēq) with a divine being.

By using the term “wrestle” (אָבַק ‘āḇaq in Hebrew), Enos intentionally alludes to his pun, linking his father, the “just man” he mentioned in his introduction, to their ancestral father from across the sea, the patriarch Jacob, who also engaged in a spiritual wrestle. Thus, Jacob’s transformative encounter becomes a template for Enos’s own spiritual journey, as the son of a man named after the patriarch.

Matt Bowen examines the symbolic embraces experienced by Jacob and Enos, representing the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Enos, following in the footsteps of his father Jacob and his ancient patriarch Jacob for whom he was named, yearned for reconciliation or “atonement” with his brethren both the Nephites (Enos 1.9) and the Lamanites (Enos 1.11-14). Just as Enos wrestled with the Lord, Jacob experienced his “wrestle” with the “man” in Genesis 32, after which he experienced a “reconciliation” or “atonement” with Esau, his long-estranged brother. Jacob’s approach, marked by profound humility and submission, prompts Esau’s warm embrace:

And he passed over before them, and bowed himself to the ground seven times, until he came near to his brother. And Esau rant to meet him, and embraced him [וַיְחַבְּקֵהוּ wayĕḥabbĕqēhû], and fell on his neck, and kissed him, and they wept (Genesis 33.3–4).

In this story, “embraced” plays on “Jacob” in a manner akin to the play on “wrestle” (יֵּאָבֵק yēʾābēq) and Jacob (יַעֲקֹב Yaʿăqōb), crafting a brilliant pun that highlights Jacob’s transformation: from “heel-grabber” or “usurper” to “the one who is embraced,” or made “at-one” with. This pun supports Hugh Nibley’s view that the term typically rendered as “wrestled” might equally mean “embraced.”^[2]Hugh W. Nibley, The Message of the Joseph Smith Papyri: An Egyptian Endowment, 2nd ed., Deseret Book, 2005, p. 434. Nibley writes, “One of the most puzzling episodes in the Bible has always been … Continue reading

Bowen suggests there’s undeniable evidence that Enos’s account of his pivotal “wrestle before God” (Enos 1.2) refers back to the seminal “wrestle” at Peniel of his ancestor (and namesake) of his father Jacob, considering the layered significance of the name “Jacob” carried also by his father. In navigating his father’s teachings, Enos himself undertook a form of “wrestle” to find reconciliation with God and his brothers. He subtly invokes his own name through wordplay, echoing his uncle Nephi’s self-referential wordplay (1 Nephi 1.1) and the “wrestling” encounters in Genesis 32. Through nuanced wordplay, Enos intimates that he, too, has become “Israel”—one who has “struggled with God and prevailed,” and a “man” who has “seen” God.