Jacob's Ladder: the Tower of Babel, the Gate of Heaven, and the Son of Man
Old Testament: Genesis 28:12-13
And he saw in his sleep a ladder standing upon the earth, and the top thereof touching heaven: the angels also of God ascending and descending by it; And the Lord leaning upon the ladder, saying to him: I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac; the land, wherein thou sleepest, I will give to thee and to thy seed.
Old Testament, also: Genesis 11:4
And they said: Come, let us make a city and a tower, the top whereof may reach to heaven: and let us make our name famous before we be scattered abroad into all lands.
New Testament: John 1:51; Acts 7:55
And he saith to him: Amen, amen I say to you, you shall see the heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man. ... But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looking up steadfastly to heaven, saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God. And he said: Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.
The connection
Scripture tells of two things whose top reached to heaven. At Babel men said, "Come, let us make a city and a tower, the top whereof may reach to heaven: and let us make our name famous" (Genesis 11:4). The Lord came down, confounded their tongue and scattered them. At Bethel no one built anything. Jacob, who had just deceived his father and was fleeing his brother, lay down alone at sunset with a stone for a pillow, and "he saw in his sleep a ladder standing upon the earth, and the top thereof touching heaven: the angels also of God ascending and descending by it; and the Lord leaning upon the ladder" (Genesis 28:12-13). The Lord came down again, this time to bless: "I will be thy keeper" (28:15). Jacob woke and said, "this is no other but the house of God, and the gate of heaven" (28:17). Christ names Himself the ladder: "you shall see the heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man" (John 1:51). No man climbs to heaven; "no man hath ascended into heaven, but he that descended from heaven, the Son of man" (John 3:13). St Stephen, dying, saw that promise kept: "Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God" (Acts 7:55). St Augustine: "Christ is the ladder reaching from earth to heaven, or from the carnal to the spiritual: for by His assistance the carnal ascend to spirituality." And of Babel: "If pride caused diversities of tongues, Christ's humility has united these diversities in one." The Catechism teaches that Christ, entered into heaven, lives for ever to make intercession for us (CCC 662).
Moral sense
Babel is heaven by effort and for glory, and it ends in confusion. Bethel is heaven given to a helpless sinner who had done nothing to deserve it. "By grace you are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, for it is the gift of God; not of works, that no man may glory" (Ephesians 2:8-9). Grace came first, and then Jacob answered it: he set up the stone, anointed it and made his vow (Genesis 28:18-22), and years later he could say, "I am not worthy of the least of all thy mercies" (Genesis 32:10). We climb, but on a ladder God set up, and only through Christ: He "is able also to save for ever them that come to God by him; always living to make intercession for us" (Hebrews 7:25).
Anagogical sense
Moses offered to be blotted out for his people, and St Paul wished himself anathema for his brethren. Christ did what they could only offer: He died, "yea that is risen also again; who is at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us" (Romans 8:34). St Gregory the Great notes that sitting is the posture of a judge and standing of one who helps, so Stephen in his contest saw Him standing; St Ambrose says He stood "as his advocate." The way up is His own flesh, "a new and living way which he hath dedicated for us through the veil, that is to say, his flesh" (Hebrews 10:20), and at the end the gate Jacob named stands open: "behold a door was opened in heaven ... Come up hither" (Apocalypse 4:1).
The Fathers
St Augustine, Reply to Faustus XII: "The angels denote the evangelists, or preachers of Christ ... Christ is the ladder reaching from earth to heaven, or from the carnal to the spiritual: for by His assistance the carnal ascend to spirituality." Tractates on John VI: "If pride caused diversities of tongues, Christ's humility has united these diversities in one. The Church is now bringing together what that tower had sundered." St Gregory the Great: "Now sitting is the attitude of a judge, standing of one fighting or helping." St Ambrose, Letter 63: "Jesus was standing as his advocate."
Warrant
Scriptural, because Christ applies Jacob's vision to Himself at John 1:51, naming the heaven opened and the angels ascending and descending. St Augustine reads it so in Reply to Faustus XII and in the City of God XVI, and contrasts Babel's pride with Christ's humility in his Tractates on John (VI). St Gregory the Great (Catena Aurea on Mark 16) and St Ambrose (Letter 63) explain why Stephen saw Him standing. Checked in the languages: the Hebrew gives both Babel's tower and Jacob's ladder a rosh, a top or head, in heaven, and the Septuagint has he kephale for both; the Lord's coming down at Genesis 11:5, 7 and the angels descending at 28:12 are one verb, yarad, katabaino. The angels' anabainontes and katabainontes stand in the Septuagint of Genesis 28:12 and again in John 1:51, and Come up hither at Apocalypse 4:1 is anaba, the same verb. Hebrews 7:25 and Romans 8:34 both use entynchano, to intercede. The lead was Dunk's, from Genesis 11:4, John 14:6, Hebrews 10:19-20, Acts 7:55 and Apocalypse 4:1 read together, with Moses and St Paul offering themselves for their people.
Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 662.
The verses
Genesis 28:12 · Genesis 28:13 · Genesis 11:4 · John 1:51 · Acts 7:55
