Texts in Conversation
In the Ladder of Jacob, God repeats to Jacob the promise from Genesis 12 that all the families of the earth will be blessed. God sets its fulfillment at the end of time, as the dream describes history running to that end.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Genesis 12:3
Hebrew Bible
1 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go out from your country, your relatives, and your father’s household to the land that I will show you. 2 Then I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you, and I will make your name great, so that you will exemplify divine blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, but the one who treats you lightly I must curse, so that all the families of the earth may receive blessing through you.” 4 So Abram left, just as the Lord had told him to do, and Lot went with him. (Now Abram was 75 years old when he departed from Haran.)
Ladder of Jacob 1:8
Pseudepigrapha, Hebrew Bible Expansions
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.
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Notes and References
“... Christfried Böttrich suggests the author of this literary work gave Jacob’s dream, recorded in Genesis 28:11-22, an apocalyptic interpretation, adding “that is why it seems plausible to attribute the Ladder of Jacob first of all to the genre of apocalypse.” The ladder of Jacob’s dream is considered a representation of the history of the world stretching from the time of Jacob to the end of time, when his descendants will finally possess the promised land and see God’s promises spoken to Abraham in Genesis 12:1-3 fulfilled (Lad. Jac. 1:9-11). ...”
Sigvartsen, Jan A.
The Afterlife Views and the Use of the Tanakh in Support of the Resurrection Concept in the Literature of Second Temple Period Judaism: The Apocrypha and the Pseudepigrapha
(p. 317) Andrews University, 2016
* 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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