The Trouble with Dreams

Abstract

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.