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JACOB.—1. According to the genealogical list in Matthew, Jacob ( Ἰáêþâ ) is the father of Joseph the husband of Mary (Mat_1:15-16).
2. One of the reputed progenitors of the Jewish nation. Apart from the reference to Jacob’s well ( ðçãὴ ôïῦ Ἰáêþâ , see next art.), in Joh_4:6, and his place in the genealogies of Matthew and Luke (Mat_1:2, Luk_3:34), Jacob is mentioned in the Gospels only as one of the three patriarchs (Mat_8:11 ‘Many shall come from the east and the west; and shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob …’ cf. Luk_13:28 f., Mat_22:32 || Mar_12:26, Luk_20:37 ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’). These three were grouped from early times (Exo_2:24; Exo_3:6; Exo_3:15-16, Lev_26:42, 1Ki_18:36, 2Ki_13:23, Jer_33:26, 1Ch_29:18, 2Ch_30:6), and occupied a place apart in Jewish thought. According to the Rabbis, they alone were entitled to be called àָáåֹç ‘fathers.’ To them was traced not only the origin of the nation, but also the beginning of true worship. As a descendant of these three, a Jew might claim nobility and a special relationship to God. This claim was recognized as åְëåּç àָáåֹç ‘righteousness of the fathers,’ and was based on Exo_32:13. It was denounced by John the Baptist (see Abraham, and cf. Mat_3:9, Luk_3:8), and it figured prominently in the conflicts between Jesus and the Pharisees (cf. Joh_8:33; Joh_8:37). Apparently in the time of Jesus it was liable to be abused, and on this account later Rabbis refused to lay stress upon it, declaring it no longer valid. In Rabbinic literature, Jacob is recognized as the most important of the three patriarchs (cf. Lev_26:42). He prevails with God (Gen_32:28). He names the sanctuary the house of God (Gen_28:22), and, in contrast to Abraham the father of Ishmael, and Isaac the father of Esau, Jacob inherits the promise in his children (49).
Literature.—A most suggestive analysis of the character of Jacob, and a full discussion of the problems of the narrative in Genesis, including the names ‘Jacob’ and ‘Israel,’ is given by Driver in Hasting's Dictionary of the Bible ii. 526–535; cf. also Stanley, Jewish Church, i. pp. 46–66; Gore, Studia Biblica, iii. 37 f.; Ph. Berger, ‘La Signification Historique des Noms des Patriarches Hébreux’ in Mémoires de la Société Linguistique, vi. 150.
G. Gordon Stott.