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In Genesis 28, Jacob dreams at Bethel of a stairway to heaven, after which he woke up afraid. Jubilees 44 reinterprets that same dream as a warning about Egypt, so its memory makes Jacob afraid to go down years later.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Genesis 28:12
Hebrew Bible
11 He reached a certain place where he decided to camp because the sun had gone down. He took one of the stones and placed it near his head. Then he fell asleep in that place 12 and had a dream. He saw a stairway erected on the earth with its top reaching to the heavens. The angels of God were going up and coming down it 13 and the Lord stood at its top. He said, “I am the Lord, the God of your grandfather Abraham and the God of your father Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the ground you are lying on. 14 Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west, east, north, and south. And so all the families of the earth may receive blessings through you and through your descendants. 15 I am with you! I will protect you wherever you go and will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I promised you!” 16 Then Jacob woke up and thought, “Surely the Lord is in this place, but I did not realize it!” 17 He was afraid and said, “What an awesome place this is! This is nothing else than the house of God! This is the gate of heaven!”
Jubilees 44:2
Pseudepigrapha
1 Israel set out from Hebron, from his house, on the first of the third month. He went by way of the well of the oath and offered a sacrifice to the God of his father Isaac on the seventh of this month. 2 When Jacob remembered the dream that he had seen in Bethel, he was afraid to go down to Egypt. 3 But as he was thinking about sending word to Joseph that he should come to him and that he would not go down, he remained there for seven days on the chance that he would see a vision about whether he should remain or go down.
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Notes and References
... This may refer to the seven tablets, which presumably foretold the Egyptian servitude. At the same time, it might be a reference to Jacob’s dream at Bethel in Genesis 28:12–15. It should be noted that because Genesis 28:17 said Jacob ‘was afraid’ after he woke up, his dream was sometimes interpreted as a frightening vision of the future; see my, The Ladder of Jacob, 9–35. ...
Kugel, James L.
A Walk Through Jubilees: Studies in the Book of Jubilees and the World of Its Creation
(p. 278) Brill, 2012
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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