Terminology Tuesday: DREAMS IN THE NET & GRECO-ROMAN LITERATURE

DREAMS IN THE NT AND GRECO-ROMAN LITERATURE. Belief in the reality and significance of dreams and visions was widespread in ancient times. The people of the Greco-Roman world believed that dreams and visions were ways of receiving divine messages, prophecy, and healing. Dreams and visions in which a message was delivered in a direct and imperative fashion were valued more than symbolic dreams and visions, which required interpretation. But there was also great interest in the interpretation of dreams. Handbooks on dream symbolism were popular and part of the almost universally accepted belief that all dreams were significant in some way.


This belief in the revelatory significance of dreams and visions is also found in the OT; significant dreams and visions come from Yahweh who uses them as one means of communicating with human beings. The prophets are also called “seers,” perhaps because the word of God so often comes through dreams and visions. But the emphasis in the OT is always on the revealed word of God, not the mode of that revelation. For this reason God also gives the interpretation of dreams and this interpretation is as important as the dream itself. The OT is also concerned with distinguishing true dreams and visions, which are genuine revelations of God, from those which are false. Only those dreams and visions which lead the people into a more faithful relationship with God are regarded as genuine revelations.


The NT, in common with both the OT and the Greco-Roman world, regards dreams and visions as one of the significant ways in which God chooses to reveal himself. But the NT understanding of dreams and visions is also unique in several ways. In the NT the meaning of a dream is always stated directly; interpretation of symbolic content is not required. Even when the symbolic content of a vision is given, the emphasis falls on the revelatory meaning of the vision. In keeping with this confidence that God’s revelation is meant to be understood, the NT expresses little concern with the problem of false dreams and visions. Only once, in Jude 8, are dreams spoken of in a disparaging manner; even here, the real problem is the character of those who have the dreams, not the dreams themselves. The central message of the NT is that God has uniquely revealed himself in Christ. In the NT, dreams and visions are always seen as secondary to this central revelation and are significant only in relationship to God’s revelation in Christ.


In the NT, dreams and visions are not always clearly distinguished from one another or from other more ordinary ways of seeing. The common word for dream (Gk onar) is found only in Matthew. The words used for vision (Gk horama, optasia, horasis) are found mainly in Luke-Acts. It is not always clear from the contexts in which these words are used whether they refer to dreams, visionary experiences, or some other form of revelation. Visionary experiences are not always referred to as visions either. Even the great vision written down in the book of Revelation is only referred to as a vision once, in Rev 9:17. The NT always emphasizes the revelatory nature of dreams and visions, not the dreams and visions themselves.


The gospel of Matthew sees dreams as one of the ways that God communicates with humans and reveals his will to them. The fact that the message is delivered in a dream is stated, but the meaning of the dream is what is highlighted. In the infancy narrative, God uses dreams to direct and warn both Joseph and the wisemen. Matthew is also the only gospel to refer to a dream or vision during the public ministry of Jesus. In Matt 17:9, Jesus refers to the transfiguration as a vision. Here the word vision is probably best understood as referring to what was seen; this is the way Mark 9:9 (= Luke 9:36) understands it. In Matt 27:19, Pilate’s wife has a dream which warns Pilate that he ought not to crucify a righteous man. This dream, like those of the infancy narratives, reveals God’s continuing intervention on Jesus’ behalf.


Luke’s gospel opens with Zechariah’s vision of an angel who prophesies concerning the birth of John. Luke 24:23 mentions a vision of angels who tell the women who come to Jesus’ tomb that he is alive. In both cases the vision is used to announce an unexpected action of God. No dreams or visions are mentioned during Jesus’ lifetime in Luke, Mark, or John. All four gospels see Jesus as a unique and full revelation of God. The revelation of God in Jesus is a complete revelation. Dreams and visions are not necessary when God chooses to reveal himself in such a direct and unequivocal way.


In Acts the preaching of the gospel and the fellowship of the early Christians both point to this revelation of God in Christ. Dreams and visions are a sign of God’s continuing presence in the church through the Holy Spirit. Acts 2:17 declares that the coming of the Holy Spirit is marked by dreams, visions, and prophecy. God reveals his will to the church through the Spirit; and one of the means the Spirit uses is visionary experience. Visions mark the advance of the gospel into the gentile world. Paul’s vision on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:1–9 = Acts 26:9–20) and his vision of the man of Macedonia (Acts 16:9–10) both initiate crucial events in the missionary activity of the church. Peter’s vision in Acts 10 is especially important in this regard. This is the only vision in Acts in which the symbolic elements of the vision are mentioned in detail and the only one for which the interpretation is not immediately given. It is only when Peter sees the Holy Spirit fall upon Cornelius that he understands the meaning of the vision. As he reports in Acts 11:1–18, he then interprets the vision as an indication that the gentiles are to be included in the church as gentiles. God’s revelation through visions directs the decisions of the early church, especially the crucial decision to accept gentiles as members of the community of Christ.

In 2 Cor 12:1–10 Paul writes about an ecstatic visionary experience. As is typical of the NT accounts of visions, almost no details about the vision itself are given. In fact, Paul declares that he does not know enough about the mode of the vision to give details and cannot speak about the content of the vision. The point of his story about the vision is not the vision itself but the revelation he received as a result of the vision. This revelation leads him to a greater understanding of what it means to suffer as an apostle of Christ.


In the NT, dreams and visions are understood as one of the ways that God communicates his will to human beings. When a dream or vision is mentioned, the emphasis is always on the message which is revealed and the revelatory character of the experience. The revelations received in dreams and visions are understood in relationship to the unique revelation of God in Jesus Christ. All true revelations of God are part of this great revelation in Christ.
  Bibliography  Kelsey, M. 1974. God, Dreams, and Revelation. Minneapolis.JANET MEYER EVERTS

Everts, J. M. (1992). Dreams in the New Testament and Greco-Roman Literature. In D. N. Freedman (Ed.), The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary (Vol. 2, pp. 231–232). New York: Doubleday.

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