Texts in Conversation
Sirach presents a skeptical view of dreams and visions, a perspective that contrasts with apocalyptic traditions such as in 1 Enoch, that rely heavily on dreams and visions to present their own narratives and teachings as authoritative.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
1 Enoch 14:8
Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
7 Your petition for them will not be granted, nor will your petition for yourselves, even though you weep and pray and speak all the words contained in the writing I have written. 8 And the vision was shown to me. In the vision, clouds called me and a mist summoned me; the path of the stars and the lightnings sped me on and hurried me, and the winds in the vision gave me wings and carried me upward, lifting me into heaven. 9 I went in until I came near a wall built of crystals and surrounded by tongues of fire, and it began to frighten me. 10 I went through the tongues of fire and came near a large house built of crystals. The walls of the house were like a mosaic floor of crystals, and its foundation was of crystal.
Date: 300 BCE – 100 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
Sirach 34:1
Ben Sira, Ecclesiasticus
Deuterocanon
1 Vain and false hopes are for a man void of understanding. Dreams give wings to fools. 2 As one who grasps at a shadow and follows after the wind, so is he who sets his mind on dreams. 3 The vision of dreams is a reflection, the likeness of a face near a face. 4 From an unclean thing what can be cleansed? From that which is false what can be true? 5 Divinations, and soothsayings, and dreams, are vain. The heart has fantasies like a woman in labor. 6 If they are not sent in a visitation from the Most High, don’t give your heart to them.
Date: 195–180 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... This poem is ben Sira’s polemic against dreams. It is included in the present group of passages because it illustrates that dream interpretation has no place in his teaching activity. The Hebrew breaks off in verse one, and therefore the Greek version is the basis for our translation. The presupposition behind this didactic essay is that dreams have given hope to some Jews (Sirach 34:1, 7), a hope with which ben Sira is not at all sympathetic. Ben Sira provides no specifics about the content of the dreams in question, but his satirical remark in 34:1b may provide something of a clue. The colon “fools are sent winging” (ἀναπτερόω) by dreams may be aimed at those who claim visionary ascents to heaven (compare 1 Enoch 14:8). Ben Sira is aware of the “dream-vision” (ὅρασις ἐνυπνίου) and its parabolic-like interpretation (ὁμοίωμα). The fact that he belittles those who place their hope in dreams as “stupid men” and “fools” (34:1) ..."
Randal A. Argall, 1 Enoch and Sirach: A Comparative Literary and Conceptual Analysis of the Themes of Revelation, Creation and Judgment, EJL 8 (Atlanta: Scholar's, 1995), 81.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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