Bethel/Luz - when was it's name changed? (genesis, Israel, Jacob)

[whoppers]

Bethel is an important religious site for ancient Israel, with a long history extending back to the Patriarchal Age. It's name had once been Luz. But when was it changed?

Bethel means "House of God" ("House of 'El").
Luz means "to turn aside", "to depart" - "with devious or crafty connotations" (Boling, AB, p. 59 - who translates Luz as Deception)

[In discussing the area that the Benjamites would receive]:
From there the boundary passed on south-ward to Luz, to the flank of Luz - that is, Bethel;
(Joshua 18:13, NJPS)

Fair enough. Later, in the Book of Judges, we have the taking of the town:

The House of Joseph, for their part, advanced against Bethel, and [YHWH] was with them.
While the House of Joseph were scouting at Bethel (the name of the town was formerly Luz), their patrols saw a man leaving the town. They said to him, "Just show us how to get into the town, and we will treat you kindly."
He showed them how to get into the town; they put the town to the sword, but they let the man and all his relatives go free.
The man went to the Hittite country.
He founded a city and named it Luz, and that has been its name to this day.
(Judges 1:22-26, ibid)

Notice how "deceptive" and "devious" the House of Joseph is in attaining access to the town. Also keep in your mind that the man later establishes a town called Luz.

But there's a problem. The texts state that Luz was the name of the town formerly, and it's implied that it retained that name until the House of Jospeh conquered it, destroyed everyone in it (except for the one guy and his kin) and then renamed it Bethel. Joshua seems to back this up. But was the town always called Luz?

In the Book of Genesis, after Jacob flees for his life from his understandably irate brother, he comes across a place in which he has a dream (Jacob's "Ladder"). Upon waking,

Shaken, he exclaimed, "How awesome is this place! This is none other than the abode of God, and that is the gateway to heaven!"
Early next morning, Jacob took the stone that he had put under his head, set it up as a pillar, and poured oil on its top.
He named that site Bethel, whereas the former name of that town had been Luz.
(Genesis 28:17-19, AB)

Uh oh! Slight problem. Luz was "the former name of that town"? Another problem is that Bethel was already known as a sacred site prior to Jacob.

Yahweh appeared to Abram and said, "I will give this land to your offspring."
He built there an altar to Yahweh who had appeared to him.
From there he moved on to the hill country east of Bethel, where he pitched his tent, with Bethel to the west and Ai to the east. And he built there an altar to Yahweh and invoked Yahweh by name.
(Genesis 12:7-8, ibid), and

From Egypt Abram went up to the Negeb, with his wife, all his possessions, and Lot. Now Abram was very rich in livestock, silver, and gold.
From the Negeb he went by stages toward Bethel, to the place between Bethel and Ai where his tent had stood formerly - the site of the altar that he had built there the first time; and there he invoked Yahweh by name.
(Genesis 13:1-4)

The Patriarchs were fond of setting up cultic sites to worship at (which the later book of Deuteronomy would condemn in it's insistence on only one place for proper worship - what later became the Temple), and Bethel had a long and respectable history. But Luz? What gives?

BACK TO JACOB, who had renamed the place Bethel - because it's former name had been Luz. Jacob returns to Bethel:

God said to Jacob, "Proceed to Bethel, where you shall remain to build there an altar to the God who appeared to you when you were fleeing from your brother Esau."

So Jacob told his household and all the others who were with him, "Rid yourselves of the alien gods in your midst, [with whom he had apparantly been okay with up until then!] then cleanse yourselves and put on fresh garments. We will proceed to Bethel, where I shall build an altar to the God who answered my when I was in distress, and who has been with me wherever I have gone."

[They did, buried them under the Terebinth Tree, and a "great terror from God fell on the settlements about them" so that they didn't chase Jacob]

Thus Jacob arrived in Luz - that is, Bethel - in the land of Canaan, together with all the people who were with him.
There he built an altar and named it El-bethel, for it was there that God had revealed himself to him when he was fleeing from his brother.
(Genesis 35:1-3, 6-7)

So confusing.... Later, when Jacob is old and blessing Ephraim and Manasseh (after the journey to Egypt, and the Jospeh story - remember, it is the House of Joseph who will invade Luz/Bethel in Judges):

Jacob said to Joseph, "El Shaddai appeared to me at Luz, in the land of Canaan, and blessed me and said to me, 'I will make you fertile and numerous, and raise you into an assembly of tribes..."
(Genesis 48:3-4)

So - there's the mystery. If you're bored this weekend, feel free to resolve it. It'll give you something to do. As an extra tidbit, Josiah the King of Judah will have severe problems with these holy sites, and proceed to "tear them down" and destroy them. What a spoil-sport!