John Calvin Commentary Genesis 48:16

"the angel who hath redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; and let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth." — Genesis 48:16 (ASV)

The Angel who redeemed me. He so joins the Angel to God as to make him his equal. Truly, he offers him divine worship and asks the same things from him as from God. If this is understood indifferently of any angel whatever, the sentence is absurd. No, rather, as Jacob himself sustains the name and character of God in blessing his son, he is superior, in this respect, to the angels.

Therefore, it is necessary that Christ is meant here, who does not bear in vain the title of Angel, because he had become the perpetual Mediator. And Paul testifies that he was the Leader and Guide of the journey of his ancient people (1 Corinthians 10:4). He had not yet indeed been sent by the Father to approach closer to us by taking our flesh, but because he was always the bond of connection between God and man, and because God formally manifested himself in no other way than through him, he is properly called the Angel.

To this may be added that the faith of the fathers was always fixed on his future mission. He was therefore the Angel, because even then he poured forth his rays, so that the saints could approach God through him, as Mediator. For there was always such a wide distance between God and men that, without a mediator, there could be no communication.

Nevertheless, though Christ appeared in the form of an angel, we must remember what the Apostle says to the Hebrews (Hebrews 2:16), that he took not on him the nature of angels, so as to become one of them, in the manner in which he truly became man; for even when angels put on human bodies, they did not, on that account, become men.

Now, since we are taught in these words that the peculiar office of Christ is to defend us and deliver us from all evil, let us take heed not to bury this grace in impious oblivion.

Indeed, seeing that it is now more clearly exhibited to us than formerly to the saints under the law—since Christ openly declares that the faithful are committed to his care, that not one of them might perish (John 17:12)—it ought so much the more to flourish in our hearts, both that it may be highly celebrated by us with suitable praise and that it may stir us up to seek this guardianship of our best Protector.

And this is exceedingly necessary for us. For if we reflect on how many dangers surround us, and that we scarcely pass a day without being delivered from a thousand deaths, from where does this deliverance arise, except from that care taken for us by the Son of God, who has received us under his protection from the hand of his Father?

And let my name be named on them. This is a mark of the adoption previously mentioned, for he puts his name upon them so that they may obtain a place among the patriarchs. Indeed, the Hebrew phrase means nothing other than to be reckoned among the family of Jacob. Thus, the name of the husband is said to be called upon the wife (Isaiah 4:1), because the wife borrows the name from the head to which she is subject.

All the more ridiculous, then, is the ignorance of the Papists, who would prove from this that the dead are to be invoked in prayers. Jacob, they say, desired after his death to be invoked by his posterity. What! That being prayed to, he might bring them aid, and not—according to the plain intention of the speaker—that Ephraim and Manasseh might be added to the society of the patriarchs, to constitute two tribes of the holy people?

Moreover, it is astonishing that the Papists, while framing for themselves innumerable patrons under this pretext, should have passed over Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as unworthy of the office. But the Lord, by this brutish stupor, has avenged their impious profanation of his name.

What Jacob adds in the next clause, namely, that they should grow into a multitude, also refers to the same promise. The sum amounts to this: that the Lord would complete in them what he had promised to the patriarchs.