Aphrahat the Persian Sage

Our father Jacob too prayed at Bethel and saw the gate of heaven opened, with a ladder going up on high. This is a symbol of our Savior that Jacob saw: the gate of heaven is Christ, in accordance with what he said: “I am the gate of life; every one who enters by me shall live forever.” David too said, “This is the gate of the Lord, by which the righteous enter.” Again, the ladder that Jacob saw is a symbol of our Savior, in that by means of him the just ascend from the lower to the upper realm. The ladder is also a symbol of our Savior’s cross, which was raised up like a ladder, with the Lord standing above it; for above Christ is the Lord of all, just as the blessed apostle said: “The head of Christ is God.” Now Jacob called that place Bethel; and Jacob raised up there a pillar of stone as a testimony, and he poured oil over it. Our father Jacob did this too in symbol, anticipating that stones would receive anointing—for the peoples who have believed in Christ are the stones that are anointed; just as John says of them: “From these stones God is able to raise up children for Abraham.” For in Jacob’s prayer the calling of the nations was symbolized.

But I must proceed to my former statement that Christ is called the stone in the prophets. For in ancient times David said concerning him, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the head of the building.” And how did the builders reject this stone that is Christ? How else than that they so rejected him before Pilate and said, “This man shall not be king over us.” And again in that parable that our Lord spoke that a certain nobleman went to receive kingly power and to return and rule over them; and they sent after him envoys saying, “This man shall not be king over us.” By these things they rejected the stone that is Christ. And how did it become the head of the building? How else than that it was set up over the building of the Gentiles and on it is reared up all their building. And who are the builders? Who but the priests and Pharisees who did not build a sure building but were overthrowing everything that he was building, as is written in Ezekiel the prophet: “He was building a wall of partition, but they were shaking it, that it might fall.” And again it is written, “I looked for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land, that I might not destroy it, but I did not find one.” And furthermore Isaiah also prophesied beforehand with regard to this stone. For he said, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Behold, I lay in Zion a chosen stone in the precious corner, the heart of the wall of the foundation.’ ” And he said again there, “Every one who believes on it shall not fear. And whosoever falls on that stone shall be broken, and every one on whom it shall fall, it will crush.” For the people of the house of Israel fell on him, and he became their destruction forever. And again “it shall fall on the image and crush it.” And the Gentiles believed on it and do not fear.