Pub Date : 2020-12-17DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780198871149.003.0002
B. Neil
This chapter traces the models of prophetic dream interpretation that were available to late antique Jewish, Byzantine Christian, and early Islamic writers from their own scriptural traditions. It offers a survey of those foundational scriptural traditions regarding the spiritual value and meaning of dreams and visions. First, it examines the Hebrew scriptures on prophetic dreams and their hierarchy of revelation. The ambiguity inherent in enigmatic dreams gave the chance of a starring role to two young men blessed with the divine gift of dream interpretation, Joseph and Daniel. Women had only a very limited place within the Hebrew prophetic tradition. Prophetic women were given a great chance to star in the New Testament writings, and especially in early apostolic tradition of Montanism. The chapter discusses how this third-century prophetic movement dealt with the question of extra-biblical prophecy through visions. The problem of discerning true from false prophets will be found to be a live issue for early Christian commentators such as Origen of Alexandria. Finally, the chapter contrasts the Judaeo-Christian scriptural tradition with the Qur’anic verses in which Muhammad, the Seal of the Prophets, described his various revelations.
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Pub Date : 2020-12-17DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780198871149.003.0005
B. Neil
This chapter is concerned with eastern monastic teachings on the meaning and significance of revelatory dreams, and the contemporaneous Talmudic tradition from Persia. The monastic sayings of the Byzantine East were focused on ascetics and were used predominantly as a guide for other ascetics. Eastern Christian monastics—men as well as women—and their lay followers, regularly received visions. In the first part of the chapter, the eastern monastic tradition of Byzantium is illustrated by various ascetic treatises from Evagrius, the Sayings of the Desert Fathers (and Mothers), and monastic writings from east and west Syria. The second part surveys late antique Jewish approaches to divination in dreams and the activity of the soul, examining the intersection of dream interpretation and rabbinic life in the Babylonian Talmud. A strong belief in the democratic nature of dream interpretation is evident here, especially in The Book of Blessings (Berakoth), according to which prophetic dreams were available to everyone, and professional interpreters were not needed to understand them. The third part contrasts these with early Islamic hadith on dreams and their interpretation.
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Pub Date : 2020-12-17DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780198871149.003.0006
B. Neil
This chapter turns to the hagiographic tradition and what it can tell us about the spiritual roles available to men and women within it. It is concerned mostly with archetypal-spiritual dreams and prophetic or mantic dreams, which pertained not only to the future but also to the present. Any dream in which a prophet, angel, saint, or other agent of God appears may be considered prophetic. Byzantine saints found new avenues of appearance through tangible items such as icons and holy relics. Their messages, which could have personal or wider significance, were generally clear in meaning and did not require interpretation by specialists. The chapter compares the dreams of holy Christian men and women with the dreams of their Muslim counterparts in the Sufi tradition. It shows that dreams allowed pious women a greater degree of spiritual agency than was normally accorded to them in either culture. This unusual equity of gender is also evident in the early hagiographic biographies of Muhammad. The chapter closes with apocalyptic visions in Judaism, Byzantine Christianity, and Islam, showing that they were symptomatic of communities in crisis, regardless of faith. Moving from community concerns to individual concerns about the afterlife, it looks at tours of the other world, including two undertaken by women.
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Pub Date : 2020-12-17DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780198871149.003.0001
B. Neil
The introductory chapter outlines the standard methods of approach that have been adopted in post-Foucauldian scholarship on dreams and their cultural importance. It reviews the history of recent scholarship on dreams and the various methods of approach to modern and pre-modern dreaming, including the gender studies perspective adopted here. It defines key terms such as ‘dream-vision’ and ‘divination’, and introduces the main themes of the chapters to follow. The study of the three monotheistic traditions—rabbinic Judaism, Byzantine Christianity, and early Islam—together in this volume shows the many ways in which dreams and spiritual authority were inextricably linked across the various cultures of the ancient Mediterranean. Ancient religious approaches to dreams are contrasted with modern psychoanalytic and social psychology approaches. The book adopts an ‘ecumenic perspective’ on dream interpretation, treating it as a shared ideology of pagans and monotheists in the East and West. An ecumenic perspective focuses on the common idea that the prophetic dream carried a message from the realm of the divine, rather than focusing on what prophetic dreams can tell us about the dreamer’s subconscious mind. The chapter offers a summary of the scope of the study and of the contents of the remaining six chapters.
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