Dreams In the Bible

The biblical view of dreams agrees substantially with that held by almost all ancient peoples. Dreams are
visions of things actually transpiring on an ultramundane plane, where persons are not bound to bodies
or events to specific moments and places. This plane is indistinguishable from that of the gods (or God),
and dreams are therefore considered to be divine communications (Gen. 20:3, 6; 31:10–11). What is
thus revealed may subsequently be actualized in historical fact. Accordingly, dreams are regarded as
presages or omens. They are best understood by visionaries, i.e., by prophets, mantics, and ecstatics,
who, in their suprasensory states, are in rapport with the "divine dimension," and it is to such persons
that God vouchsafes dreams when He wishes to communicate with mankind (cf. Num. 12:6). In the
Bible, "dreamer," "prophet," and "magician" are related terms (cf. Jer. 23:28; 27:9; 29:8; see
*Divination). The final interpretation of dreams rests with God (Gen. 40:8).

Dreams are usually symbolic, and their interpretation (known as oneiromancy) revolves around the
unraveling of their images. Dreambooks, in which such images are codified, feature in Egyptian and
Mesopotamian literature. Biblical examples of such symbolic dreams are those of Joseph (Gen. 37:5ff.),
of Pharaoh's butler and baker (ibid. 40:1ff.), and of Pharaoh himself (ibid. 41:1, 5); in Judges (7:13ff.) a
man's dream that a cake of barley rolls onto the Midianite camp and bowls it over is taken to portend
the imminent discomfiture of that people. Ancient Near Eastern parallels are afforded by a series of
prophetic dreams related in the Babylonian "Epic of Gilgamesh" and in the Hittite "Legend of Kessi."

Dreams that occur in sacred places are considered to be revelations from the resident deity. People in
search of divine direction resort to such shrines and sleep on the premises. This widespread practice,
called incubation, is attested for the ancient Near East by a Sumerian inscription of Gudea of Lagash and
a Hittite text of King Mursilis II of Hatti. The only clear instance in the Bible is the story of Jacob at Beer-
Sheba (Gen. 46:1ff.), though some scholars claim that the narratives of the infant Samuel at Shiloh and
of Jacob at Beth-El fall within the same category. It is necessary, however, to distinguish between
incubation, which involves a purposeful visit to a shrine, and more general revelation through dreams,
such as is described, for example, in I Kings 3:5–15 (Solomon at Gibeon). In sundry passages (e.g., Jer.
23:25; Zech. 10:2), the Bible speaks of false dreams. There appear to be two criteria for this designation,
as there are also for false prophecy: a dream may be deemed false either because it is not subsequently
realized, or because it never occurred at all. In the future Golden Age, says the prophet Joel (3:1), the
gift of prophetic dreaming will be bestowed on all men, young and old alike. In the Greco-Roman age,
apocalyptic visions were thought to be vouchsafed in dreams. Literary works inspired by this idea are
the Book of Daniel and the Apocalypses of Ezra and Baruch. There is evidence of a pious protest against
oneiromancy; both Ben Sira (31:1ff.) and the Letter of Aristeas (213–216) denounce belief in dreams.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:
A. Lowinger, Der Traum in der juedischen Literatur (1908); A. Kristianpoller, Traum und Traumdeutung
(Monumenta Talmudica, 4, 1923); J. St. Lincoln, Dream in Primitive Culture (1935); E.L. Ehrlich, in: BZAW,
73 (1953), 1–170; H.L. Oppenheim, Interpretation of Dreams in the Ancient Near East (1956); Jacob of
Marvège, She'elot u-Teshuvot min ha-Shamayim, ed. by R. Margoliouth (1957), introduction, 3–20; S.
Lieberman, Yevanit ve-Yavnut be-Ereẓ Yisrael (1962), 204–9; M. Harris, in: PAAJR, 31 (1963), 51–80.