Yoseph: The Scriptures And Dreams
We come now to Yoseph's two ominous dreams which he was to tell, rather rashly, to his father and brothers. Before we consider this part of the story it will be useful to examine the attitude of the Old Covenant to dreams and their interpretation.
We have already encountered dreams which played a certain part in the stories in Bereshith -the dreams of Abraham in which YAHWEH entrusted him with definite missions; Abimelech's dream in which YAHWEH told him to return Sarah to her husband; Yacob's dream at the time of his first halt at Bethel. Subsequently, throughout the history of Yisrael, we shall discover many other examples of these nocturnal visitations. Does this mean that according to the Scriptures a dream is to be regarded as a real, authentic premonition, a warning from YAHWEH WHO thus shows us HIS will? Is it true that YAHWEH is willing thus to show us the future?
The whole of oriental antiquity in the first place, and subsequently Greek and Roman civilization, attached the greatest importance to dreams. At this period of his life Yoseph was at Hebron, in a social environment still permeated with Mesopotamian memories and customs brought from Ur and also from Haran by Abraham's clan. Now according to the Babylonian view dreams possessed a reality of their own. It mattered little that they occurred during sleep; the warning remained just as valid as if it had taken place in a waking state. Indeed it was believed that the individual when asleep was in a more receptive condition and that it was easier for him to enter into relations with the deity. Obviously when the theme of the dream was incoherent and really strange it required explanation. The Mesopotamians, like the Egyptians, sought out soothsayers who were specialists in this branch. The inhabitants of Canaan, under the influence of Egypt and Mesopotamia, were almost bound to adopt these same religious ideas.
In this case the position of the Scriptures seems to vary. We find, of course, the Scriptural writer telling us with all the assurance of a modern historian the revelations received in their sleep by certain chosen persons who might have been favoured with a vision (an interior one in most cases) during the day. But in addition to these exceptional nocturnal communications, which the Scriptures records with particular care, it makes a point also of putting us on our guard against seeking a systematic explanation of our ordinary dreams. Unlike the two great civilizations surrounding it. the small Hebrew clan, which was later to become the People of Yisrael, believed that it was wholly futile, even dangerous, to endeavour to discover the meaning of our dreams. The following passage from Ecclesiasticus, despite its relatively late date (second century B.C.) gives us a general idea of the attitude of the more advanced Hebrews on this problem:
Dreams put fools in a flutter. As well clutch at shadows and chase the wind as put any faith in dreams. Mirror and dream are similar things: confronting a face, the reflection of that face. What can be cleansed by uncleanness, what can be verified by falsehood? Divinations, auguries and dreams are nonsense, like delirious fancies of a pregnant woman. Unless sent as emissaries from the Most High, do not give them a thought; for dreams have led many astray, and those building their hopes on them have been disappointed. (Sirach 34: 1-7)
In the same way we shall find lawgivers and prophets strictly forbidding recourse to dreams to discover the future or furnish guidance in daily life. It is no less true that in certain very special cases the Scriptures admits that YAHWEH may manifest himself in a dream; inherent in such a direct revelation is so great a spiritual power that a creature favoured by them would find it impossible to doubt their transcendent nature. Thus while Ben Sirach, the author of Ecclesiasticus, bids us give no credit to our dreams, he is careful to add Unless sent as emissaries from the Most High.
Thus the faithful follower of YAHWEH was required to exercise scrupulous discrimination in the matter. Yoseph's dreams, it cannot be doubted, were Heavenly premonitions irrupting into a human condition in which the providence of YAHWEH, the protector of the Hebrew clan, was soon to show itself with startling results.
Yoseph's Two Premonitory Dreams
Yoseph's first dream, which unfortunately for him he hastened to tell his brothers, depicted all Yacob's sons in a field busy at the harvest; the time had come to bind the sheaves. Suddenly Yoseph's sheaf stood upright while all the others gathered round and bowed to his sheaf. This was a prefiguring of the scene, which actually happened, when Yoseph's brothers, to combat the terrible famine then raging in Canaan, came to the Egyptian territory of the Delta to ask for help. Without recognizing the man who fifteen years previously they had sold for a slave, they bowed low, their heads in the dust, before Yoseph, who at that time, had unexpectedly become viceroy of Egypt,
Those times had not yet come. But Yoseph's brothers, in true eastern fashion, detected some sort of symbolic lesson, 'So you want to be king over us,' they retorted, 'or to lord it over us?' And Bereshith adds: And they hated him still more, on account of his dreams and of what he said.
The second dream was as strange as the first. Yoseph told this one also to his family, 'I thought I saw the sun, he said, 'the moon and eleven stars, bowing to me.' The sun obviously referred to Yacob, his father, the moon to Rachel, his mother,2 and the eleven stars to his eleven brothers. This time Yoseph was sharply reproved by Yacob -he had no desire for this adolescent to imagine that all his family would one day bow down before him:
Yacob had lived in Upper Mesopotamia for too long to remain indifferent to these premonitory dreams Despite the scolding he gave to his favourite son he foresaw for him an unusual destiny, His father kept the2 thing in mind, 3 says Bereshith; he awaited the future with confidence.
The ten brothers, on the other hand, were out of all patience with these disquieting prophetic dreams.
2 It will probably be objected that at this time Rachel was no longer alive. It is likely that this version belongs to a cycle which places Rachel’s death at a later period.
3 An expression which may be compared with those used by Luka speaking of the Blessed Virgin firstly, at the birth of YAHSHUA and then during HIS hidden life at Nazareth. As for Mary she treasured all these things and ponder them in her heart (Luka 2:19) HIS mother stored up all these things in her heart (Luka 2:51).
Yoseph Index Yoseph Sitemap Scripture History Through the Ages Yoseph Egyptian Adventure Yoseph Scriptures and Dreams The Plot Against Yoseph Yoseph's Brothers Cruel Seqel Yoseph In The House Of Potiphar Yoseph In Prison Pharaoh's Strange Dreams Yoseph Slave Becomes Viceroy Of Egypt Yoseph's Unexpected Family Reunion The Ten Brothers Before Yoseph Yacob Goes To Egypt Yoseph and the Death Of Yacob YAHWEH's Sword History Further Anxieties Of Yoseph's Brothers Yisraelites Remain In Egypt Period Of The Great Persecution