And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him.
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Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
Jacob’s withered thigh stands for bad Christians, so that we find in him blessing and limping. He is blessed with respect to those who live good lives; he limps with respect to those who live bad lives. But each kind is still included in one man. They will be separated and set apart later. This is what the church is longing for in that psalm: “Judge me, O God, and distinguish my case from an unholy people.” Yes, of course, because the Gospel says, “If your foot is a scandal to you, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God having one foot, than with two feet to go to the everlasting fire.” So these bad people have to be cut off in the end. For the time being the church is lame. It puts one foot down firmly; the other one, being crippled, it drags. Look at the pagans, brothers. Sometimes they find good Christians serving God, and they admire them and are attracted and believe. Sometimes they notice those who are living bad lives, and they say, “Look ...
So what does it mean, Jacob’s wrestling and refusing to let go? The Lord says in the Gospel, “The kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and those who act violently plunder it.” This is what we were saying earlier on: struggle, wrestle, to hold on to Christ, to love your enemy. You hold Christ here and now if you have loved your enemy. And what does the Lord himself say, that is, the angel in the person of the Lord, when he had got the upper hand and was holding him fast? He has touched the hollow of his thigh, and it has withered, and so Jacob was limping. He says to Jacob, “Let me go, it is already morning.” He answered, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” And he blessed Jacob. How? By changing his name: “You shall not be called Jacob but Israel; since you have got the upper hand with God, you shall also get the upper hand with men.” That is the blessing. Look, it’s a single man; in one respect he is touched and withers and in another he is blessed. This one single person in on...
Believing Jews and unbelieving Jews. Where were they first condemned? In the first of them, in the father of all of them, Jacob himself, who was also called Israel. Jacob means “supplanter” or “heel”; Israel means “seeing God.” When Jacob returned from Mesopotamia with his children, an angel wrestled with him, representing Christ; and while he wrestled, though the angel surpassed Jacob in strength, he still seemed to succumb to him, and Jacob to prevail. In the same sort of way the Lord Christ too succumbed to the Jews; they prevailed when they killed him. He was overcome by superior strength; precisely when he was overcome, he overcame for us. What’s that—when he was overcome, he overcame for us? Yes, because when he suffered, he shed the blood with which he redeemed us. So then, that is what is written: Jacob prevailed over him. And yet Jacob himself, who was wrestling, acknowledged the mystery involved. A man, wrestling with an angel, prevailed over him; and when he said, “Let me go...
Sinew, near the coxendix, or huckel-bone. (Du Hamel)
This was to convince Jacob, how easily he could have gained the victory over him; and to make him remember, that it was not simply a vision, but a real wrestling. (Tirinus)
