John Chrysostom : "So let us hasten now so that I may savor something of our meeting before I die. I mean, already the news has dumbfounded me, has banished an old man's weakness and invigorated my resolve; so once I have the good fortune to meet him and enjoy the consummation of joy, I shall then bring my life to a close." Without delay the good man took to the road, showing all haste and anxiety to see the object of his desire and gaze upon him, dead for so many years and become the prey of wild beasts, as he thought, and now made king of Egypt. — HOMILIES ON Genesis 65.4 Origen of Alexandria : But since we have said that it is Jacob who "rekindles his spirit," but Israel who says: "it is a great thing for me, if my son Joseph is still alive," you too, who hear these things, beginning from that place where it is written that "he said to him: your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, because you have prevailed with God, and with men you have been made mighty," running through all Scripture, can find the difference of this appellation. For example, as when he says: "announce to me your name," here the one who does not know the name is not said to be Israel, but Jacob. But where "they do not eat the sinew that grew numb in the breadth of the patriarch's thigh," they are said to be not the sons of Jacob, but the sons of Israel. But he who, looking up, saw Esau coming and with him four hundred men, and worshiped seven times the fornicator and profane one, and him who for one meal "sold his birthright," is called not Israel, but Jacob. And also when he offers him gifts and says: "if I have found favor before you, receive these presents from my hands, because I have seen your face, like one who sees the face of God," here he was not Israel, but Jacob. And where he heard that Dinah his daughter had been defiled "and Jacob held his peace until his sons should come," he is not called Israel. But you too, as I said, if you observe, will find similar things. In the present reading, therefore, not Jacob, but Israel says: "it is a great thing for me, if my son Joseph is still alive." But also when he comes to the well of the oath and "offers a sacrifice to the God of his father Isaac," he is called not Jacob, but Israel. But if you should ask why, speaking to him by night in a vision, God does not say "Israel, Israel," but "Jacob, Jacob," it is perhaps because it was night and he still merited to hear the voice of God through a vision and not yet openly. And when he enters Egypt, he is called not Israel, but Jacob "and his sons with him," and when he stands "before Pharaoh," to bless him, he is named not Israel, but Jacob; for Pharaoh did not receive the blessing of Israel. And it is Jacob, not Israel, who says to Pharaoh that "the days of his life are few and evil." Which indeed Israel would never say. But after these things it is said not of Jacob, but of Israel, that: "he called his son Joseph and says to him: if I have found favor in your sight, put your hand under my thigh, and you shall do upon me mercy and truth." And he who worshiped upon the top of Joseph's staff was not Jacob, but Israel. Then again, when he blesses the sons of Joseph, he is called Israel. And when he calls together his sons, he says: "come together, that I may announce to you what shall befall you in the last days. Be gathered, sons of Jacob, and hear Israel your father." But perhaps you may ask why they who come together are called "sons of Jacob," but he who blesses them is called "Israel." See whether perhaps this is indicated, that they had not yet advanced so far as to be equaled to Israel in merits. And therefore they are called "sons of Jacob," as inferiors, but he who was already perfect and gave the blessings, conscious of things to come, is called "Israel." Indeed, that it is said that the "buriers" of Egypt buried not Jacob, but Israel, will seem to be a great question. But I judge that in this their vice is set forth, for whom, because every understanding of good things and all clear-sightedness of heavenly intelligence was hateful, Israel is said to be buried by them, because among the impious the holy die and are buried. Let these things, as far as could occur for the present, be recorded by us concerning the difference of Jacob and Israel. — HOMILIES ON Genesis 15.4