In Search of an Elusive Jewish Core: The “Ladder of Jacob” Revisited

The article revisits the discussion about the potential influence of Jewish traditions concerning the image of Jacob engraved on the Throne of Glory on Jacob’s vision in the Slavonic Ladder of Jacob. First suggested by James Kugel, the influence of Jewish traditions associated with Jacob’s engraved image has been recently called into question by Sabine Fahl and Christfried Böttrich. The article argues that instead of focusing on differences in content between the two narratives, one must explore the tradition on Jacob’s image as a formulaic scene that allows for the creation of new content through the selective reassembly and re-use of the scene’s structural elements. The Ladder’s composers were either unfamiliar with the narrative behind the structure, or they chose to ignore that narrative. Instead, the Ladder adopts individual building blocks from the tradition on the image of Jacob and then reassembles these blocks into a new narrative. The article uses the relationship between the Ladder and Jewish traditions on the image of Jacob as a starting point for a broader argument about the Ladder as a product of Byzantine literature.