390. We Are Climbing Jacob’s Ladder

The Story Behind the Hymn

'We Are Climbing Jacob's Ladder' is a traditional African American spiritual with no known individual author, passed down orally within Southern Black church communities before being collected and printed by folklorists and hymnal compilers in the years following the Civil War.

Its title and central image come from Genesis 28, in which the patriarch Jacob, fleeing his brother Esau, dreams of a ladder set up between earth and heaven, with angels ascending and descending upon it, a vision he wakes from declaring, 'this is the gate of heaven.'

Unlike spirituals that picture the afterlife as a single, completed crossing, such as a river or a ship's journey, this song pictures faith as continuous, effortful ascent, one rung at a time, with 'every rung' going 'higher, higher' rather than arriving all at once.

Its closing phrase in each verse, 'soldiers of the cross,' places the song within a broader family of spirituals and hymns that describe the Christian life using military language, framing spiritual growth as active, disciplined effort rather than passive waiting.

The song's simple, three-line repeated structure, with only small word changes between verses, made it especially suited to communal singing and easy memorization, allowing a whole congregation to join in almost immediately.

That same simple structure has made the song a lasting favorite in children's Sunday school settings, where its steady, climbing rhythm and short, repeated lines are easy for young voices to pick up quickly.

Its central metaphor, faith as a ladder climbed one deliberate step at a time rather than a destination reached in a single leap, has given the song lasting appeal as a picture of patient, ongoing spiritual discipline rather than a single moment of decision.