Are God’s angels coming to Christ, or via Christ to his church on earth? In other words: does the ladder from heaven lead to Christ or is Christ himself the ladder? Is Christ comparing himself to Jacob (Genesis 28:12), or does he compare his church to Jacob?
Interpretation 1: The ladder leads to Christ
Summary:
The ladder leads from heaven to Christ on earth.
Arguments in favour of this view:
Just as angels once came from heaven to Jacob in Bethel via a ladder to assist him, so they come to the Son of Man now. Jesus knows himself to be the true seed of Jacob in whom the dream at Bethel is finding its fulfillment.
The heavenly ladder, which in Jacob’s day had no firm foothold on earth, now finds it in Christ. The contact between the Father and him is permanent.
Examples of this can be found in Mark 1:13 and Luke 22:43.
The ladder had no
mediatorial function
with either Jacob or Christ. Therefore Christ himself cannot be the ladder.
Arguments against this view:
In this view Jacob would have foreshadowed Christ. Christ may be a descendant of Jacob, yet for most of his life, Jacob did not portray a shadow of Christ. Instead, his life often showed how it should not be done. His example was not intended for imitation but demanded a completely different person.
If Christ is the destination of the descending and ascending angels, it is not fitting to say at the same time that Christ is also the fulcrum or foothold of the ladder. Jacob was not the foothold either, that was the earth (Genesis 28:12). For this, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the Septuagint, uses the preposition “en.” The ladder stood on the earth. This preposition is not used in John 1:51.
There are indeed instances in the Gospels where Christ is served by angels. But that is precisely what his disciples did not see, while Christ does promise this in John 1:51. Moreover, at one point Christ also deliberately withheld such angelic assistance (see Matthew 26:53–54).
In certain manuscripts of the NT, John 1:51 also contains the words: “from now on,” in Greek “ap arti.” (
From now on you will see the heavens opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending.
) But those words would have been spoken too soon if we follow the above interpretation because there was no uninterrupted angelic contact during Jesus’ life on earth. These words would not fit until after Christ’s resurrection. But then they would also not last longer than the forty days (after Jesus' resurrection), because after that Christ himself would be back in heaven. Could the words “ap arti” (from now on
) have been omitted from later manuscripts at some point because those who copied the manuscripts also believed that Christ promised in John 1:51 that the angels would be coming to him?If Christ were the destination of the angels, there should have been two prepositions in Greek: angels ascending from and descending to Christ.
The ladder did indeed have a connecting function in Jacob’s dream. Why else would Jacob have seen that ladder specifically? Even without a ladder God’s angels would be able to reach him.
Interpretation 2: Christ is the ladder
Summary:
Christ is the ladder, the path of communication, along which God’s angels assist his church. Anyone who comes to believe in Jesus of Nazareth as the Son of Man who is also at the same time the Son of God will receive a broad perspective. Just like Jacob, he ends up in Bethel
(God’s house) where the heavens are open and where God’s angels bridge the distance between God and us on earth: through Jesus Christ, who by his work of atonement reopened the way to the heavenly Father.
Arguments in favour this view:
In the Greek translation of the Old Testament (the Septuagint) we read that Jacob saw a ladder on (Greek: “en”) the earth and angels of God who ascended and descended on it (or via it; Greek “epi”). The Greek text of John 1:51 does not contain the words “on (Greek:
en
) the earth,” but it does say that angels ascend and descend on/over/along (Greek: “epi”) the Son of Man.If Christ were the destination of the angels, there should have been two other prepositions in Greek: angels ascending from and descending to Christ via a flight of stairs. The preposition “epi” that is used here makes it clear that he himself is the ladder.
In Genesis 28:12, “epi” is followed by the genitive form, but in John 1:51, “epi” is followed by the accusative form of the Son of Man. However, the important grammars of New Testament Greek show that “epi” + acc. is interchangeable with “epi” + genitive or dative. A clear example of this is Matthew 14:25: “He came to them, walking on (Greek: “ep”) the sea.” In the Koinè text it says “epi” followed by a genitive form, while several other manuscripts there have “epi” followed by the accusative form.
51 And he said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you,you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”