Joseph’s Dream (adapted). Illustrators of the 1890 Holman Bible
Joseph and the Dreams of Many Colors
Understanding the practice of dream interpretation in the Joseph story by using the ANE interpretive traditions as background.
Published: December 20, 2016
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Last Updated: September 7, 2026
A good translation of the work is accessible online at http://www.attalus.org/translate/artemidorus.html.
Cited documents are drawn from Jack M. Sasson, From the Mari Archives: An Anthology of Old Babylonian Letters (Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 2015), where can be found documentation and bibliography. On pp. 271-293 will be found many letters that treat divination, prophecy, visions, dreams, natural phenomena, and ordeals.
Editor’s note: For more on extispicy and similar divination practices, see Uri Gabbay’s TABS essay, “The Practice of Divination in the Ancient Near East.”
Homer’s Penelope (Odyssey 19:562-67) distinguished between a deceitful dream (originating in the Gates of Ivory) and a truthful one (arising from the Gates of Horns).
The documents is translated at http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/etcsl.cgi?text=t.2.1.7#
In the section on dream interpretation in the 9th chapter of b. Berakhot, we read (57a):
הבא על אחותו בחלום יצפה לחכמה, שנאמר אמר לחכמה אחתי את.
He who dreams of having intercourse with his sister may hope for wisdom, as it is said, “Say to Wisdom, you are my sister” (Prov 7:4).
From Robert K. Rittner in The Context of Scripture (Leiden, 1997), I:50-52. The compendia from ancient Mesopotamia were much more elaborate and diverse; see A. Leo Oppenheim, The Interpretation of Dreams in the Ancient Near East (Philadelphia: The American Philosophical Society, 1956).
Editor’s note: For more on the Urim VeTumim and a survey of suggestions of what this may have been, see Yoel S, “The Urim VeTumim.” TheTorah.com (2014)
