Reading Jacob’s divine encounter through Nikos Kazantzakis

This essay reinterprets Jacob’s struggle in Genesis 32 through Nikos Kazantzakis’s Bergsonian-influenced philosophy of struggle. Rather than viewing the event as divine punishment for past wrongs, it emphasizes the heterogeneity of struggle across physical, intellectual, and spiritual domains. Jacob’s encounter with the divine ‘Other’ is framed as a transformative moment, integrating fragmented life experiences. Drawing on Kazantzakis, the essay argues that such struggles are not isolated but part of a broader existential process. Jacob’s wrestling becomes a catalyst for identity and spiritual awakening, shifting the focus from retribution to integration and self-realization through the complexity of lived experience.