Jacob’s Standing Stone
Jacob sets up a stone pillar and pours oil on it in Genesis 28:18; Genesis 35:14 also mentions a pillar, a drink offering, and oil. These standing stones are distinct from the altars he builds in 33:20 and 35:7. This upright stone is a separate comparison display, not evidence that it stood beside Abraham’s altar or this illustrative camp.
Key points
- Jacob’s pillar marks remembrance of the place where God spoke to him.
- Look for: One upright stone apart from the altar, with an illustrative sheen of oil at its top.
- Illustrated location: Remembrance
- An educational illustration, not an exact historical reconstruction. Genesis records the patriarchs building altars but does not specify their dimensions, masonry, or full appearance. The low rough fieldstones, ash, tent fabric, and arrangement are illustrative choices. Wood on an altar is explicit in Genesis 22:9. The later earth and unhewn-stone altar instructions in Exodus 20:24–25 offer a comparison, not a direct blueprint for Abraham or Jacob. The tent, oak, and separate Jacob pillar bring together different passages for study; they do not establish that all these features stood together at one historical site.
Scripture
- Genesis 28:16–22 — Jacob sets up a stone pillar and pours oil on it in Genesis 28:18; Genesis 35:14 also mentions a pillar, a drink offering, and oil. These standing stones are distinct from the altars he builds in 33:20 and 35:7. This upright stone is a separate comparison display, not evidence that it stood beside Abraham’s altar or this illustrative camp.
- Genesis 33:18–20 — Jacob sets up a stone pillar and pours oil on it in Genesis 28:18; Genesis 35:14 also mentions a pillar, a drink offering, and oil. These standing stones are distinct from the altars he builds in 33:20 and 35:7. This upright stone is a separate comparison display, not evidence that it stood beside Abraham’s altar or this illustrative camp.
- Genesis 35:1–7, 14–15 — Jacob sets up a stone pillar and pours oil on it in Genesis 28:18; Genesis 35:14 also mentions a pillar, a drink offering, and oil. These standing stones are distinct from the altars he builds in 33:20 and 35:7. This upright stone is a separate comparison display, not evidence that it stood beside Abraham’s altar or this illustrative camp.