Biblica_2:Layout 1 21-11-2011 13:02 Pagina 441 441 THE DECEPTIVE PEN OF SCRIBES In the end, it appears that the sudden fall of northern Israel and its remarkable survival of the Assyrian threat forced Judeans into a vital societal debate negotiating their identity against the new reality. In that regard, I see Na’aman’s proposal as an important challenge to biblical scholarship that has tended to overlook the vital role of the southern Judeans in actively reshaping their own identity by means of reinterpretation of the northern tradition. This reconceptualization of their identity may very well have begun in the pre-exilic Judean society, or more precisely around the time of Josiah, following Na’aman’s suggestion, when Judah’s political aspiration grew larger. Although this aspiration did not last long — Judeans quickly were forced to deal with an entirely different theological challenge from their own fall — the reconceptualization continued, though in different forms, during and after the exile. If so, to trace this continued development of Judean identity reconstruction through many other texts dating from this turbulent era would be a promising way of furthering research in the same direction. In the story, Jacob struggled with God (or “a man”), prevailed over him, and became Israel (Gen 32,24.28). In history, Judah struggled with northern Israel, somehow prevailed over it, and ultimately became the new Israel. Claremont Claremont School of Theology Koog P. HONG 1243 Yale Ave Claremont, CA 91711, USA SUMMARY Nadav Na’aman has recently proposed that the Judean appropriation of Is- rael’s identity occurred as a result of the struggle for the patrimony of ancient Is- rael. This paper locates textual evidence for such a struggle in the Judean reworking of the Jacob tradition, particularly the Bethel account (Gen 28,10- 22), and argues that taking over the northern Israelite shrine myth after the fall of northern Israel was part of the ongoing Judean reconceptualization of their identity as “Israel” that continued to be developed afterwards.