What was the relationship between Jacob and Jesus?
Jacob is an ancestor of Jesus: Matthew names him at the beginning of Jesus’ genealogy. Matthew 1:2; Luke 3:34
They are connected in 3 ways:
1. Ancestor of Jesus
What the Bible says
Matthew 1:2
Abraham begot Isaac. And Isaac begot Jacob. And Jacob begot Judas and his brethren.
Douay-Rheims Bible (Challoner revision), public domain.
Did you know?
Jesus said that many will recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 8:11
2. The ladder
Jesus told Nathanael that they would see the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man. It is an allusion to Jacob’s ladder. John 1:51; Genesis 28:12
What the Bible says
Genesis 28:12
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;
John 1:51
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.
Douay-Rheims Bible (Challoner revision), public domain.
Did you know?
Just before, Jesus called Nathanael “a true Israelite. There is no duplicity in him.” Israel was Jacob’s new name. John 1:47; Genesis 32:29
3. At his well
Jesus, tired from the journey, sat down by Jacob’s well, and there he spoke with a Samaritan woman. John 4:5-7
What the Bible says
John 4:5
He cometh therefore to a city of Samaria, which is called Sichar, near the land which Jacob gave to his son Joseph.
John 4:6
Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well. It was about the sixth hour.
Douay-Rheims Bible (Challoner revision), public domain.
Did you know?
The Samaritan woman asked Jesus whether he was greater than Jacob, who had given them that well. John 4:12