Jacob's Ladder () is a ladder or staircase leading to

Heaven Heaven, or the Heavens, is a common Religious cosmology, religious cosmological or supernatural place where beings such as deity, deities, angels, souls, saints, or Veneration of the dead, venerated ancestors are said to originate, be throne, ...

that was featured in a dream the Biblical Patriarch

Jacob Jacob, later known as Israel, is a Hebrew patriarch of the Abrahamic religions. He first appears in the Torah, where he is described in the Book of Genesis as a son of Isaac and Rebecca. Accordingly, alongside his older fraternal twin brother E ...

had during his flight from his brother

Esau Esau is the elder son of Isaac in the Hebrew Bible. He is mentioned in the Book of Genesis and by the minor prophet, prophets Obadiah and Malachi. The story of Jacob and Esau reflects the historical relationship between Israel and Edom, aiming ...

in the

Book of Genesis The Book of Genesis (from Greek language, Greek ; ; ) is the first book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. Its Hebrew name is the same as its incipit, first word, (In the beginning (phrase), 'In the beginning'). Genesis purpor ...

(chapter 28). The significance of the dream has been debated, but most interpretations agree that it identified Jacob with the obligations and inheritance of the people chosen by

God In monotheistic belief systems, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. In polytheistic belief systems, a god is "a spirit or being believed to have created, or for controlling some part of the un ...

, as understood in

Abrahamic religions The term Abrahamic religions is used to group together monotheistic religions revering the Biblical figure Abraham, namely Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The religions share doctrinal, historical, and geographic overlap that contrasts them wit ...

Biblical narrative

The description of Jacob's Ladder appears in Genesis 28:10–19:

Judaism

The classic

Torah The Torah ( , "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The Torah is also known as the Pentateuch () ...

commentaries offer several interpretations of Jacob's Ladder. In '' Pirkei De-Rabbi Eliezer'' 35:6-10, the ladder signified the four exiles the Jewish people would suffer before the coming of the messiah. First, the angel representing the

Neo-Babylonian Empire The Neo-Babylonian Empire or Second Babylonian Empire, historically known as the Chaldean Empire, was the last polity ruled by monarchs native to ancient Mesopotamia. Beginning with the coronation of Nabopolassar as the King of Babylon in 626 BC a ...

climbed "up" 70 rungs and then fell "down": a reference to the 70-year Babylonian exile. Then, the angel representing the exile of the

Achaemenid Empire The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire, also known as the Persian Empire or First Persian Empire (; , , ), was an Iranian peoples, Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great of the Achaemenid dynasty in 550 BC. Based in modern-day Iran, i ...

went up several steps and fell, as did the angel representing the exile of Greece (the

Hellenistic period In classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Greek history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 BC, which was followed by the ascendancy of the R ...

Ptolemaic Kingdom The Ptolemaic Kingdom (; , ) or Ptolemaic Empire was an ancient Greek polity based in Ancient Egypt, Egypt during the Hellenistic period. It was founded in 305 BC by the Ancient Macedonians, Macedonian Greek general Ptolemy I Soter, a Diadochi, ...

, and the Seleucid Empire). Only the fourth angel, who represented the final exile of the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Roman people, Romans conquered most of this during the Roman Republic, Republic, and it was ruled by emperors following Octavian's assumption of ...

, called " Edom" (whose guardian angel was

himself), kept climbing higher and higher into the clouds. Jacob feared that his children would never be free of Esau's domination, but God assured him that at the End of Days, Edom too would fall. Another interpretation of the ladder keys into the fact that the angels first "ascended" and then "descended". The

Midrash ''Midrash'' (;"midrash"
. ''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. ; or ''midrashot' ...

explains that Jacob, as a holy man, was always accompanied by angels. When he reached the border of the land of

Canaan CanaanThe current scholarly edition of the Septuagint, Greek Old Testament spells the word without any accents, cf. Septuaginta : id est Vetus Testamentum graece iuxta LXX interprets. 2. ed. / recogn. et emendavit Robert Hanhart. Stuttgart : D ...

(the future

Land of Israel The Land of Israel () is the traditional Jewish name for an area of the Southern Levant. Related biblical, religious and historical English terms include the Land of Canaan, the Promised Land, the Holy Land, and Palestine. The definition ...

), the angels who were assigned to the

Holy Land The term "Holy Land" is used to collectively denote areas of the Southern Levant that hold great significance in the Abrahamic religions, primarily because of their association with people and events featured in the Bible. It is traditionall ...

returned to

and the angels assigned to other lands came down to meet Jacob. When Jacob returned to

, he was greeted by the angels who were assigned to the Holy Land. Yet another interpretation is that the place at which Jacob stopped for the night was, in reality, Moriah, the future home of the

Temple in Jerusalem The Temple in Jerusalem, or alternatively the Holy Temple (; , ), refers to the two religious structures that served as the central places of worship for Israelites and Jews on the modern-day Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem. Accord ...

, which was considered to be the "bridge" between Heaven and Earth. The ladder therefore signifies the "bridge" between Heaven and Earth. Moreover, the ladder alludes to the giving of the Torah as another connection between Heaven and Earth. In this interpretation, it is also significant that the word for ''ladder'' () and the name for the mountain on which the Torah was given, () have the same

Gematria In numerology, gematria (; or , plural or ) is the practice of assigning a numerical value to a name, word, or phrase by reading it as a number, or sometimes by using an alphanumeric cipher. The letters of the alphabets involved have standar ...

. The Hellenistic Jewish philosopher

Philo Philo of Alexandria (; ; ; ), also called , was a Hellenistic Jewish philosopher who lived in Alexandria, in the Roman province of Egypt. The only event in Philo's life that can be decisively dated is his representation of the Alexandrian J ...

, born in

Alexandria Alexandria ( ; ) is the List of cities and towns in Egypt#Largest cities, second largest city in Egypt and the List of coastal settlements of the Mediterranean Sea, largest city on the Mediterranean coast. It lies at the western edge of the Nile ...

, ( ) presents his allegorical interpretation of the ladder in the first book of his . There, he gives four interpretations, which are not mutually exclusive: * The angels represent souls descending to and ascending from bodies (some consider this to be Philo's most explicit reference to the doctrine of

reincarnation Reincarnation, also known as rebirth or transmigration, is the Philosophy, philosophical or Religion, religious concept that the non-physical essence of a living being begins a new lifespan (disambiguation), lifespan in a different physical ...

). * In the second interpretation, the ladder is the human soul, and the angels are God's ''logoi'', pulling the soul up in distress and descending in compassion. * In the third view, the dream depicts the ups and downs of the life of the "practiser" (of virtue vs. sin). * Finally, the angels represent the continually changing affairs of humankind. The narrative of Jacob's Ladder was used, shortly after the destruction of the

Second Temple The Second Temple () was the Temple in Jerusalem that replaced Solomon's Temple, which was destroyed during the Siege of Jerusalem (587 BC), Babylonian siege of Jerusalem in 587 BCE. It was constructed around 516 BCE and later enhanced by Herod ...

in the Siege of Jerusalem (70 CE), as the basis for the pseudepigraphic '' Ladder of Jacob''. This writing, preserved only in

Old Church Slavonic Old Church Slavonic or Old Slavonic ( ) is the first Slavic languages, Slavic literary language and the oldest extant written Slavonic language attested in literary sources. It belongs to the South Slavic languages, South Slavic subgroup of the ...

, interprets the experience of Patriarchs in the context of Merkabah mysticism. A hilltop overlooking the Israeli settlement of Beit El north of Jerusalem, believed by some to be the site of Jacob's dream, is a tourist destination during the holiday of

Sukkot Sukkot, also known as the Feast of Tabernacles or Feast of Booths, is a Torah-commanded Jewish holiday celebrated for seven days, beginning on the 15th day of the month of Tishrei. It is one of the Three Pilgrimage Festivals on which Israelite ...

Christianity

Jesus Jesus (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Chris ...

said in John 1:51, "And he saith unto him, 'Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see

open, and the angels of

ascending and descending upon the Son of man.'" This statement has been interpreted as associating Jesus with the ladder in that Jesus bridges the gap between Heaven and Earth. Jesus presents himself as the direction to which the ladder points. As Jacob saw the reunion of Heaven and Earth in a dream, Jesus brought this reunion—metaphorically the ladder—into reality. Adam Clarke, an early 19th-century

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a Protestant Christianity, Christian Christian tradition, tradition whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother ...

theologian and Bible scholar, elaborates: The theme of a ladder to Heaven is often used by the

Church Fathers The Church Fathers, Early Church Fathers, Christian Fathers, or Fathers of the Church were ancient and influential Christian theologians and writers who established the intellectual and doctrinal foundations of Christianity. The historical peri ...

Irenaeus Irenaeus ( or ; ; ) was a Greeks, Greek bishop noted for his role in guiding and expanding Christianity, Christian communities in the southern regions of present-day France and, more widely, for the development of Christian theology by oppos ...

, in the second century, describes the

Christian Church In ecclesiology, the Christian Church is what different Christian denominations conceive of as being the true body of Christians or the original institution established by Jesus Christ. "Christian Church" has also been used in academia as a syn ...

as the "ladder of ascent to God". In the third century,

Origen Origen of Alexandria (), also known as Origen Adamantius, was an Early Christianity, early Christian scholar, Asceticism#Christianity, ascetic, and Christian theology, theologian who was born and spent the first half of his career in Early cent ...

explains that there are two ladders in the life of a

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

: the ascetic ladder that the soul climbs on Earth, by way of—and resulting in—an increase in virtue, and the soul's travel after death, climbing up the heavens toward the light of God. In the fourth century, Gregory of Nazianzus wrote of ascending Jacob's ladder by successive steps toward excellence, interpreting the ladder as an ascetic path. At the same time, Gregory of Nyssa narrated that

Moses In Abrahamic religions, Moses was the Hebrews, Hebrew prophet who led the Israelites out of slavery in the The Exodus, Exodus from ancient Egypt, Egypt. He is considered the most important Prophets in Judaism, prophet in Judaism and Samaritani ...

climbed l Jacob's ladder to reach the heavens, where he entered a remade

tabernacle According to the Hebrew Bible, the tabernacle (), also known as the Tent of the Congregation (, also Tent of Meeting), was the portable earthly dwelling of God used by the Israelites from the Exodus until the conquest of Canaan. Moses was instru ...

; thus giving the ladder an apparent

mystical Mysticism is popularly known as becoming one with God or the Absolute, but may refer to any kind of ecstasy or altered state of consciousness which is given a religious or spiritual meaning. It may also refer to the attainment of insight ...

meaning. The ascetic interpretation is found also in John Chrysostom, who wrote: Himnastigi

Jacob's ladder as an analogy for a spiritually ascetic life enjoyed wide influence thanks to the classical work ''

The Ladder of Divine Ascent ''The Ladder of Divine Ascent'' or ''Ladder of Paradise'' (Κλῖμαξ; ''Scala'' or ''Climax Paradisi'') is an important ascetical treatise for monasticism in Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism, written by John Climacus in AD at Saint C ...

'' by John Climacus. As such, the Carthusian monk Guigo II used it as inspiration for his description of the steps of the '' Lectio Divina'', and the contemporary philosopher Peter Kreeft used it in his apologetics. Jacob's ladder is depicted on the facade of Bath Abbey in England, with angels climbing up and down ladders on either side of the main window on the west front. File:JacobsLaddertoHeaven.jpg, Jacob's Ladder, , illustration in an American book of Bible stories for children File:ACU Jacobs Dream artwork.JPG, ''Jacob's Dream'' artwork on the campus of Abilene Christian University

Islam

In Islam, Jacob () is revered as a

prophet In religion, a prophet or prophetess is an individual who is regarded as being in contact with a divinity, divine being and is said to speak on behalf of that being, serving as an intermediary with humanity by delivering messages or teachings ...

and patriarch. Muslim scholars drew a parallel between Jacob's vision of the ladder and

Muhammad Muhammad (8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious and political leader and the founder of Islam. Muhammad in Islam, According to Islam, he was a prophet who was divinely inspired to preach and confirm the tawhid, monotheistic teachings of A ...

's event of the Miʿrāj. The ladder of Jacob was interpreted to be one of the many symbols of

, and many see Jacob's Ladder as representing in its form the essence of Islam, which emphasizes following the "straight path". The twentieth-century scholar Martin Lings described the significance of the ladder in the Islamic mystic perspective:

References

External links

Jacob's Ladder from a Jewish perspective
at

Chabad.org Chabad.org is the flagship website of the Chabad, Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic Judaism, Hasidic movement. It was one of the first Jewish internet sites. History In 1988, Yosef Yitzchak Kazen, a Chabad rabbi, began creating a Chabad-Lubavitch prese ...