What does Israel mean?

 Israel was not only a man’s name, but also a descriptor or label given to Israel's decedents, the people chosen by Jehovah God to do His will. Initially, and for hundreds of years before Jesus lived, God's chosen people were descendants of Israel, so God's covenant people were labeled, "Israel. After Jesus' resurrection, God’s chosen people became anyone who accepted Jesus as savior. At this time, these people were added to God's chosen people because of Jesus' sacrifice. After Pentecost, a group of people including Jews and Gentiles who accepted Jesus as the Messiah started a church in Rome. Because of social agitation, Emporer Claudius exiled all Jews from Rome for about 15 years not long after the combined church had started to meet in Rome. When the Jews returned to Rome after this exile they wanted the religious atmosphere to be reestablished as it was when they had left, however, the Gentile Church had moved on without their Jewish members. When Paul wrote to the Church at Rome, he tried to quell the controversy that had developed by describing the expansion of God's covenant as the Gentiles being a grafted olive branch (Rom. 11:11-31). When Jesus died, the group of people who were within God's covenant people expanded to include all those who accepted Jesus as the Messiah and Savior - both Jew and Gentile. This also led Paul to state that "All Israel will be saved" (Rom. 11:26). This would probably be better translated as,  "all God's covenant people will be saved"; this was intended to mean both Jews and Gentile. Only later was the word Israel applied to a land mass.  (cf. also Isa. 45:17; Rom. 11:26; Rom. 8:11)