Texts in Conversation
1 Enoch 85 and Daniel 7 both begin sections that follow a common apocalyptic pattern of a dream given as a special vision, later interpreted to describe future events, incorporating these elements into Israel's narrative future.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
1 Enoch 85:1
Pseudepigrapha
1 And after this I saw another dream, and I will reveal the entire dream to you, my son. 2 And Enoch raised his voice and spoke to his son Methuselah: 'To you, my son, I will speak: listen to my words--pay attention to the dream-vision of your father. 3 Before I married your mother Edna, I saw in a vision on my bed, and behold a bull emerged from the earth, and this bull was white; and after it came a heifer, and along with this heifer came forth two bulls, one of them black and the other red. 4 And the black bull attacked the red one and chased him across the earth, and then I could no longer see the red bull.
Daniel 7:1
Hebrew Bible
1 In the first year of King Belshazzar of Babylon, Daniel had a dream filled with visions while he was lying on his bed. Then he wrote down the dream in summary fashion. 2 Daniel explained: “I was watching in my vision during the night as the four winds of the sky were stirring up the great sea. 3 Then four large beasts came up from the sea; they were different from one another. 4 “The first one was like a lion with eagles’ wings. As I watched, its wings were pulled off, and it was lifted up from the ground. It was made to stand on two feet like a human being, and a human mind was given to it.
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Notes and References
"... With respect to form and content, the generic and peculiar features of this text are evident from a comparison with the visions in Daniel 2, 7, 8, and 10–12. In common with the Danielic texts, 1 Enoch 85–90 is a pseudonymous dream vision (compare Daniel 2:1; 7:1–2, 7, 18; 8:1–2, 17–18), which recounts a sequence of historical events up to the eschaton (compare Dan 2:31–45; 7:1–27; 8:3, 26; 11:2–12:4), using animals to symbolize human beings or nations (cf. Daniel 7, 8) and viewing these events in the context of related events in heaven (Daniel 7:9–10, 13–14; 8:10–12; 10:20–21). For the Danielic and Enochic authors, the revelations that were channeled to ancient seers through symbolic dreams pertained to the eschaton, which was imminent in the real authors’ own time. Those authors used the genre of the pseudonymous dream vision as authority for their claim to understand the eschatological character of current events and to have insight into the hidden divine activity in the heavenly realm that was about to resolve injustice and eradicate evil on earth ..."
Nickelsburg, George W. E.
A Commentary on the Book of 1 Enoch Chapters 1-36, 81-108
(p. 357) Fortress Press, 2001
* 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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