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Ladder of Jacob

About this book
Chapter 1

1 Now Jacob went to his uncle Laban, and he found a place and fell asleep there, laying his head on a stone, for the sun had set, and there he saw a vision. 2 And there, a ladder was set up on the earth, whose top reached to heaven. 3 And the top of the ladder was a face like a man's, hewn out of fire.⁠ 4 Now it had twelve steps up to the top of the ladder, and upon each step up to the top were two human faces on the right and on the left — twenty-four faces seen down to their chests, on the ladder. 5 But the middle face was higher than them all, which I saw made of fire, to the shoulder and the arm, very terrifying, more than the twenty-four faces. 6 And as I looked, there were the angels of God ascending and descending on it; but the Lord was set above it, and he called me, saying, Jacob, Jacob. 7 And I said, Here I am, Lord. 8 And he said to me, The land where you sleep I will give to you and to your seed after you, and I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven and as the sand of the sea; through your seed all the earth shall be blessed, and those who live there, to the last times, the years of the end.⁠ 9 My blessing, with which I have blessed you, shall pour out from you to the last generation. 10 All in the east and the west shall be full of your seed.

Texts in conversation

Compare Ladder of Jacob 1:3 and Pseudo-Jonathan Genesis 28:12

Pseudepigrapha, Hebrew Bible Expansions · Targum

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Summary

In the Ladder of Jacob, the fiery face at the top of the ladder may be a heavenly image of Jacob. The Aramaic translation in Targum Pseudo-Jonathan may represent a similar tradition, as the angels say Jacob's image is engraved on God's throne.

Passages

Ladder of Jacob 1:3

Pseudepigrapha, Hebrew Bible Expansions
3 And the top of the ladder was a face like a man's, hewn out of fire. 4 Now it had twelve steps up to the top of the ladder, and upon each step up to the top were two human faces on the right and on the left — twenty-four faces seen down to their chests, on the ladder. 5 But the middle face was higher than them all, which I saw made of fire, to the shoulder and the arm, very terrifying, more than the twenty-four faces. 6 And as I looked, there were the angels of God ascending and descending on it; but the Lord was set above it, and he called me, saying, Jacob, Jacob.
1–100 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in the Ladder of Jacob

Pseudo-Jonathan Genesis 28:12

Targum
12 He had a dream, and behold, a ladder was fixed in the earth with its top reaching towards the heavens. And behold, the two angels who had gone to Sodom and who had been banished from their apartment because they had revealed the secrets of the Lord of the world, went about when they were banished until the time that Jacob went forth from his father’s house. Then, as an act of kindness, they accompanied him to Bethel, and on that day they ascended to the heavens on high, and said, “Come and see Jacob the pious, whose image is fixed in the Throne of Glory; and whom you have desired to see.” Then the rest of the holy angels of the Lord came down to look at him.
300–1200 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Pseudo Jonathan Genesis

References

“... Scholars have previously noted that in Ladder the fiery Face not only embodies God’s Glory but also seems to represent the heavenly counterpart of Jacob. They observe that the bust of fire, labeled in Ladder as the Face, can be associated with the heavenly “image” of Jacob engraved on the Throne of Glory. [...] A distinctive feature of this description is that the heavenly counterpart of Jacob, his “image,” is engraved on a very special celestial entity, on the Throne of Glory. Engraving on the Throne might indicate an association with the Kavod since the Throne is the central part of the Kavod imagery—the seat of the anthropomorphic Glory of the Lord. The image engraved on the Throne might be an allusion to the face, the fiery face, since it is engraved on the fiery and glorious Throne of the Glory. ...”
Andrei A. Orlov, From Apocalypticism to Merkabah Mysticism: Studies in the Slavonic Pseudepigrapha, JSJSup 114 (Leiden: Brill, 2007), 406–407.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Ladder of Jacob 1:3 and Pseudo-Jonathan Genesis 28:12

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