Apocrypha
Ladder of Jacob
Vision of Bethel
9 chapters · read and listen
Reading note
An apocryphal or pseudepigraphal text — outside the canon of the Western churches, yet widely circulated among ancient Jews and Christians. Published here from a public-domain translation, edited for continuous reading.
Chapters
Dossier
The dream of the ladder at Bethel, told with what Jacob is said to have actually seen on its steps: faces, fire, and an interpretation Genesis does not record.
Where this text comes from
Preserved only in Old Slavonic, inside a compilation, from a lost Greek original. The date is uncertain, with proposals between the 1st and 4th centuries AD, and there is an obvious Christian layer at the end.
Why it is not in the Bible
Outside every canon.
What you will find
- The ladder is drawn with the precision of a diagram: twelve steps, two human faces on each one — twenty-four in all — and at the top a face hewn out of fire.
- Jacob sleeps with his head on a stone because the sun had set. Genesis settles that in half a line; here the scene takes its time.
- The closing vision, of the wounded one who will be worshipped by every creature, is the Christian passage added in Slavonic transmission.
Frequently asked questions
- Is the Ladder of Jacob the same episode as in Genesis?
- It is the same scene as Genesis 28, developed into its own book: the dream, the interpretation given by an angel, and what followed. Genesis sums up in a few verses what fills the whole text here.