Jacob pillow
As Stone of Jacob the stone is called, on which the head of the ancestor Jacob rested than he on the run from his twin brother Esau after Harran slept. There he dreamed of Jacob's ladder and God gave him the promise in a dream that his descendants would be numerous and that the land would be his own. The corresponding Bible passage reads:
- Jacob left Beersheba and went to Haran. He came to a certain place where he stayed because the sun had set. He took one of the stones of this place, put it under his head, and fell asleep there. Then he had a dream: He saw a staircase that stood on the ground and reached up to heaven. Angels of God rose and descended on it. And behold, the Lord stood above and said, I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham, and the God of Isaac. I want to give you and your descendants the land you are lying on. Your descendants will be as numerous as the dust of the earth. You will unstoppably expand to the west and east, north and south and through you and your descendants all generations of the earth will receive blessings. I am with you, I protect you wherever you go and I bring you back to this land. Because I won't leave you until I do what I promised you. Jacob awoke from his sleep and said: Really, the Lord is in this place and I did not know it. Fear overcame him and he said: How awesome this place is! Here is nothing but the house of God and the gate of heaven. Jacob got up early in the morning, took the stone he had placed under his head, set it up as a stone, and poured oil on it. Then he named the place Bet-El (place of worship). The city used to be called Lus. Jacob made the vow: When God is with me and protects me on this path that I have taken, when he gives me bread to eat and clothes to wear, when I return home safely to my father's house and the Lord himself as me God proves, then the stone that I put up as a stone should become a house of God and of everything you give me, I will give you the tenth part. ( Gen 28.10 EU )
According to the description, the stone is a batyl (that is the Greek equivalent of the Semitic Beth-El ). These are mostly conically shaped cult stones that often have holes or notches. Sometimes these form a stylized face (especially the Bätyle of the Nabataeans ).
The biblical Bet-El is now located near the Palestinian village of Baitin in the West Bank .
According to a Scottish legend, the Stone of Destiny , on which the Scottish kings were crowned, and which for a long time was part of the coronation chair of the Kings of England in Westminster Abbey , is identical to the Pillow of St. James.
The Pillow of St. James also appears centrally in Carl Amery's novel The King's Project , which is about using a time machine invented by Leonardo da Vinci to get possession of the authentic Pillow of St. James, as the Stone of Destiny , on which, according to tradition, the legitimate British Kings have to be crowned, an obvious forgery, and thus legitimize a Jacobite succession to the throne.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Carl Amery: The Royal Project. Piper, Munich & Zurich 1974