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Ladder of Jacob

About this book
Chapter 3

1 And while I was still speaking my prayer, there appeared a voice before my face, saying: Sarekl, prince of those who rejoice, you who are over visions, go and make Jacob understand the interpretation of the dream which he saw,⁠ and show him everything he saw; but first bless him. 2 And the archangel Sarekl came to me, and I saw: it was a face […] terrifying; but I was not afraid of his look, for the face which I had seen in my dream […] was more than this, and I did not fear the face of an angel. 3 And the angel said to me, What is your name? And I said, Jacob. 4 But he said to me, Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but your name shall be like my name, Israel.⁠ 5 And when I came from Fandana in Syria to meet my brother Esau, he came to me and blessed me, and called my name Israel, and did not tell me his name until I pressed him under oath, and then he told me, Because you were […]

Texts in conversation

Compare Genesis 32:28 and Ladder of Jacob 3:4

Hebrew Bible · Pseudepigrapha, Hebrew Bible Expansions

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Summary

In Genesis, a man who wrestles with Jacob renames him Israel but does not give his own name. In the Ladder of Jacob, the one who renames him is the archangel Sarekl, who says the new name is like his own.

Passages

Genesis 32:28

Hebrew Bible
25 When the man saw that he could not defeat Jacob, he struck the socket of his hip so the socket of Jacob’s hip was dislocated while he wrestled with him. 26 Then the man said, “Let me go, for the dawn is breaking.” “I will not let you go,” Jacob replied, “unless you bless me.” 27 The man asked him, “What is your name?” He answered, “Jacob.” 28 “No longer will your name be Jacob,” the man told him, “but Israel, because you have fought with God and with men and have prevailed.” 29 Then Jacob asked, “Please tell me your name.” “Why do you ask my name?” the man replied. Then he blessed Jacob there. 30 So Jacob named the place Peniel, explaining, “Certainly I have seen God face to face and have survived.”
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Genesis

Ladder of Jacob 3:4

Pseudepigrapha, Hebrew Bible Expansions
1 And while I was still speaking my prayer, there appeared a voice before my face, saying: Sarekl, prince of those who rejoice, you who are over visions, go and make Jacob understand the interpretation of the dream which he saw, and show him everything he saw; but first bless him. 2 And the archangel Sarekl came to me, and I saw: it was a face […] terrifying; but I was not afraid of his look, for the face which I had seen in my dream […] was more than this, and I did not fear the face of an angel. 3 And the angel said to me, What is your name? And I said, Jacob. 4 But he said to me, Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but your name shall be like my name, Israel.
1–100 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in the Ladder of Jacob

References

“... Jacob’s vision in Lad. Jac. 1 involves twenty-four human faces, one on each side of the twelve steps of the ladder, and the image of a terrifying face at the top of the ladder, an early indication of the later traditions about the figure of Jacob engraved on the divine throne in heaven. In Lad. Jac. 2 Jacob prays for an interpretation of his dream, and in chapter 3 he hears Sariel being instructed to interpret the dream. In chapter 4 Sariel changes Jacob’s name to Israel (“similar to my name”—Sariel), and in chapter 5 Sariel interprets the dream as a brief review of the history of Jacob’s descendants. Thus, for Lad. Jac. 5, the dream is “some sort of symbolic message about the future.” ...”
Philip Church, Hebrews and the Temple: Attitudes to the Temple in Second Temple Judaism and in Hebrews, NovTSup 171 (Leiden: Brill, 2017), 251.

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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Genesis 32:28 and Ladder of Jacob 3:4

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