Jacob’s Ladder

Also known as: Jacob’s Dream, Vision at Bethel, Ladder to Heaven, Jacob’s Vision, The Ladder of Jacob

The vision granted to the Patriarch Jacob at Bethel as he fled toward Haran (Genesis 28:10–22): a ladder set on the earth with its top reaching to heaven, the angels of God ascending and descending upon it, and the Lord standing above it to renew the covenant of Abraham and Isaac. The Church reads the ladder as a type of Christ, who unites heaven and earth (John 1:51), and of the Theotokos, through whom God descended to dwell among us.