This could be applied to any Jacob in trouble whose first thought is how do I get out. Let us say supplanting was Jacob's trouble, from which he was not released until 21 years of servitude with Laban, wrestling the angel for a new name. Virtue does not lie solely in the name. Some named Israel might as well have the name of Jacob. Old name. The new name supposes a new heart.
Jacob is Jacob, elder or younger, Israel or Dutchman. Do attributes of a person attach from the name? Names are at least memorials. This does not justify saying that Jacob is a symbol of Jacob or Israel of Pennsylvania and that since Jacob's trouble started when the desire of all nations would come, Israel and Judah brought out of captivity and restored to the land given to their forefathers to possess suggests that the Pennsylvania Germans are going to repatriate themselves into their former beliefs, although were it so, those beliefs would be like Isaac digging again the wells of water of Abraham (Gen 26.18).
Our Jacob dates from 1717. The factual Jacob the Elder is not Jacob the Patriarch whose name was changed to Israel, father of the twelve tribes. Come with me now to yesteryear, the 1720s and 30s in Philadelphia colonies, before the American revolt, Take it as another planet time and space, yet like our own. Human society is miracle enough we hardly know. The passions are rougher, less controlled. In means of traditional communication, horseback and letter, language, we imagine ourselves superior. They spoke German. A golden age? Here the themes of Penn began. It is a golden age of peace, the main concern, with justice. It had naivete too, beliefs later ages would dismiss. Roll it up 300 years later and it is a golden age compared to this.
