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Genesis 28 is ambiguous when it describes if God stood on Jacob’s ladder or beside Jacob. Jubilees interprets it as God on the ladder, and John follows a similar reading, making Jesus the ladder so the angels rise and fall on the Son of Man.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Jubilees 27:21
Pseudepigrapha
20 He took one of the stones of that place and set it at the place where his head would be beneath that tree. He was traveling alone and fell asleep. 21 That night he dreamed that a ladder was set up on the earth and its top was reaching heaven; that angels of the Lord were going up and down on it; and that the Lord was standing on it. 22 He spoke with Jacob and said: ‘I am the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you are sleeping I will give to you and your descendants after you.’ 23 ‘Your descendants will be like the sands of the earth. You will become numerous toward the west, the east, the north, and the south. All the families of the nations will be blessed through you and your descendants.’
John 1:51
New Testament
48 Nathanael asked him, “How do you know me?” Jesus replied, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” 49 Nathanael answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the king of Israel!” 50 Jesus said to him, “Because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? You will see greater things than these.” 51 He continued, “I tell all of you the solemn truth—you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”
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Notes and References
"... Affirming the influences of the Jacob traditions, Neyrey at the same time draws attention to some differences between the biblical account of Jacob's vision and the passage from the Gospel of John. He notes that 'in Genesis 28:12 three statements are made: (1) a ladder on earth reaches to heaven; (2) angels ascend and descend on it; and (3) the Lord stands on it and reveals himself. In John 1:51, however, (1) the heavens are opened, but there is no mention of a ladder linking heaven and earth; (2) angels ascend and descend, not on the ladder but on the Son of Man; and (3) he corresponds to the Lord of the theophany.' ..."
Orlov, Andrei A.
The Greatest Mirror: Heavenly Counterparts in the Jewish Pseudepigrapha
(pp. 105-106) State University of New York, 2017
* 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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