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Ladder of Jacob

About this book

The Ladder Explained

Chapter 4

1 But he said this to me, “The ladder which you saw, which had twelve steps with two human faces that changed their appearance — now this ladder is this age, and the twelve steps are the times of this age, and the twenty-four faces are the kings of the lawless nations of this age.⁠

2 “Under these kings your children’s children and the line of your sons will be tested. They will rise up against the lawlessness of your descendants, and will devastate this place through four descents of the sins of your descendants.

3 “And from the wealth of your ancestors this palace will be built in the temple dedicated to your God and your fathers. But through the anger of your descendants it will lie deserted until the fourth descent of this age. For you saw four visions.⁠

Continue to the Letter of Aristeas

Texts in conversation

Compare Ladder of Jacob 4:1 and Philo, On Dreams 1.151–152

Pseudepigrapha, Hebrew Bible Expansions · Classical

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Summary

In the Ladder of Jacob, the ladder is this age, whose steps are times of foreign rule over Jacob's descendants. Philo's On Dreams similarly interprets the ladder metaphorically, but instead describes it as the life of a person who practices virtue.

Passages

Ladder of Jacob 4:1

Pseudepigrapha, Hebrew Bible Expansions
1 But he said this to me, “The ladder which you saw, which had twelve steps with two human faces that changed their appearance — now this ladder is this age, and the twelve steps are the times of this age, and the twenty-four faces are the kings of the lawless nations of this age.2 “Under these kings your children’s children and the line of your sons will be tested. They will rise up against the lawlessness of your descendants, and will devastate this place through four descents of the sins of your descendants.3 “And from the wealth of your ancestors this palace will be built in the temple dedicated to your God and your fathers. But through the anger of your descendants it will lie deserted until the fourth descent of this age. For you saw four visions.
1–100 CE Read in the Ladder of Jacob

Philo, On Dreams 1.151–152

Classical
151 And perhaps this statement is not wrong; for the wise have obtained the heavenly and celestial country as their home, having learned to keep mounting upwards; but the wicked have received as their share the dark recesses of hell, having from the beginning to the end of their existence practised dying, and having been from their infancy to their old age familiarised with destruction. 152 But the practitioners of virtue, because they stand on the boundary between two extremes, frequently go upwards and downwards as if on a ladder, either drawn upwards by a more powerful fate or dragged down by the worse; until God, the umpire of this contention and conflict, awards the victory to the more excellent class and utterly destroys the other.
20–50 CE Read in Philo, On Dreams Book 1

References

“... Jacob sees a ladder in his dream and is frightened. What is frightening, this motif asserts, is the ladder itself. In this respect it bears some resemblance to Philo’s explanation of Jacob’s dream, with which we began. The difference is that, while Philo wished to relate the “irregular course” symbolized by the ladder to Jacob’s own life, the “Staircase of History” motif relates it to the life of Jacob’s descendants, the people of Israel: the ladder represents the coming ages of history, and Jacob sees the terrible things that lie in store for his offspring. No wonder he says, “How fearsome is this place!” ...”
James L. Kugel, The Ladder of Jacob: Ancient Interpretations of the Biblical Story of Jacob and His Children (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2006), 30.

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 4:1 and Philo, On Dreams 1.151–152

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