Jacob's Ladder

I am teaching a course this semester on Isaiah in the New Testament. Tomorrow we will be looking more broadly at the Old Testament in John's Gospel. One text that I have worked on previously and plan to discuss tomorrow is John 1:51 and Genesis 28:12. In preparing for the class, I searched for images of Jacob's ladder and ran across this painting by Marc Chagall, titled "Jacob's Ladder".

Check out this image!

I have always imagined Jacob out by himself in the hill country. Chagall has painted a village or city scene. Jacob is in the lower right and the ladder does not come near his head as some rabbinic interpretations would have it. There are also the other interesting characters on the left -- the chicken with the two figures and the group of people in the upper left. The painting is worth some further thinking.

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