On Dreams

Jacob's ladder, Joseph's sheaves and Pharaoh's cupbearer, read as messages from God, with a Roman governor's attack on the Sabbath breaking in.

by Philo of Alexandria178 passages held

English, a translation held here, and your language

Original title: De somniis I–II
Original language: Ancient Greek

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Overview

A Roman prefect of Egypt, a man of the highest rank whom Philo does not name, tried within recent memory to make the Jews of Alexandria give up the Sabbath. When they refused, he argued with them: if enemies invaded, or the Nile broke its banks, or fire or plague struck, would they still sit at home with their hands folded, or gather in their synagogues to read their sacred books and discuss the philosophy of their ancestors? Philo reports the speech in the second book of this treatise, as the living example of a man swollen with the vanity he finds in Joseph's dreams. It is one of the rare windows his commentaries open on the politics of his own city. The work is a study of dreams sent by God, sorted by how the mind receives them. Two books survive; the first opens by referring back to an earlier treatise on the first kind of dream, which is lost. The first surviving book takes the dreams in which the mind moves together with the divine: Jacob's ladder, set on earth and reaching to heaven, with angels going up and down, becomes the air filled with souls, and the place where Jacob lies down is read, in one of its senses, as God himself, who contains everything and is contained by nothing. The second takes dreams in which the mind, stirred by itself, foretells the future and needs an interpreter: Joseph's sheaves bowing to his and the sun, moon and stars doing him homage, the dreams of Pharaoh's cupbearer and baker, and Pharaoh's own. In these books Joseph, the model statesman of Philo's separate life of him, stands for empty glory.

Key concepts

What is a dream sent by God in On Dreams?

A dream whose source is divine rather than bodily, in which the sleeping mind learns something of the future. Philo sorts such dreams by how the mind receives them. In the kind the surviving first book treats, the mind moves together with the mind of the universe; in the kind the second book treats, the mind is stirred by itself and needs an interpreter. An earlier book on a first kind is lost.

What does Jacob's ladder mean in Philo's reading?

In one sense, the air between earth and heaven, filled with souls. The ladder is set on earth and reaches to heaven, and the angels going up and down it are souls and the words of God moving between the two. Philo reads the whole dream as a vision of the universe as a place where the divine and the human are joined, not separated.

Why is God called the place in On Dreams?

Because God contains everything and is contained by nothing. When Scripture says that Jacob came to a place and lay down there, Philo takes 'place' in several senses, and in one of them it is God himself. The point is that God has no location among other things; everything else is located in him, which is why he can be present to a sleeper anywhere.

What does Philo mean by empty opinion?

Glory that rests on how a person appears to others and not on what they are. Joseph the dreamer makes a sheaf of empty opinion as though it were his most valuable possession, and is known to the king by his dreams, not by deeds done in daylight. Empty opinion is the currency of vanity, and Philo sets it against wisdom, whose judgement of worldly honour is severe.

Themes of the book

What this book returns to, gathered into themes and ordered by how much of the text each one occupies.

Dreams God Sends, Sorted by How the Mind Receives Them

Can a person learn anything true while asleep? Philo thinks some dreams come from God, and that what they teach depends on how the sleeping mind takes them in.

The two surviving books sort God-sent dreams by the mind's part in them. In the first, the mind moves together with the mind of the universe and grasps something of the future: Jacob's ladder, set on earth and reaching to heaven, becomes the air filled with souls, and the place where Jacob lies down is read as God, who contains everything and is contained by nothing. In the second, the mind is stirred by itself and its visions need an interpreter, which is why Joseph's sheaves and stars and the dreams of Pharaoh's court come with a reading attached.

dreams
epistemology
knowledge
mind
sense perception
divine transcendence
angels
cosmology
allegorical interpretation

Enter a dialogue

Joseph the Dreamer as a Figure of Empty Glory

What does a person become when they live for being seen? Philo reads Joseph's dreams as the dreams of vanity, and finds the type alive in his own city.

In these books Joseph stands for empty glory. He makes a sheaf of empty opinion as though it were the most brilliant of possessions, and even his rise to be governor of all Egypt, second only to the king, is in the eye of wisdom more inglorious than defeat. Philo gives the type a living face: a Roman prefect of Egypt who tried to make Alexandria's Jews give up the Sabbath and, when they refused, asked whether they would sit at home with folded hands if enemies came, or the Nile flooded. A man swollen with office, Philo implies, takes himself for the measure of what others hold sacred.

vanity
pride
humility
passions
fortune
human nature

Enter a dialogue

Within this work

passages held: 178
distinct concepts: 270
by passages held, corpus-wide: #378

What this book thinks together

The wheel takes this book’s leading concepts and shows how often they come up together. The wider the band between two, the more of its passages speak of both. Among them, most often together: “allegory” and “virtue”.

Concept co-occurrence, strongest first 8 concepts, joined by 22 pairings. 86 pairings reach beyond these concepts and are not drawn.
Concept	Paired concept	Shared passages
allegory	virtue	13
reason	virtue	10
allegory	soul	8
scriptural interpretation	virtue	8
soul	virtue	6
allegory	reason	5
knowledge	virtue	4
allegory	cosmology	3
allegory	knowledge	3
cosmology	divine providence	3
divine providence	virtue	3
allegory	scriptural interpretation	2
cosmology	knowledge	2
cosmology	soul	2
reason	soul	2
allegory	divine providence	1
cosmology	reason	1
cosmology	scriptural interpretation	1
divine providence	scriptural interpretation	1
divine providence	soul	1
knowledge	reason	1
reason	scriptural interpretation	1

Works held

The author's work in order, this book marked in place. Your-language title first, the original beneath it where the two differ; side chips show which full texts are held.

Against Flaccus (In Flaccum)
Written as a demonstration of divine justice, this account of the Alexandrian riots of 38 CE and of the prefect Philo blamed for them stands with his historical and apologetic works.
EN
Allegorical Interpretation (Legum allegoriae I–III)
The first surviving treatise of the Allegorical Commentary, Philo's long verse-by-verse reading of Genesis, covering its second and third chapters in three books.
EN
Every Good Man Is Free (Quod omnis probus liber sit)
Written in the manner of the Greek schools rather than as commentary on Moses, it is, with On the Eternity of the World, one of Philo's philosophical treatises.
EN
On Abraham (De Abrahamo)
The first of Philo's lives of the patriarchs in the Exposition of the Law, following On the Creation of the World; its companions on Isaac and Jacob are lost, and On Joseph continues the set.
EN
On Cultivation (De agricultura)
Noah the farmer is a subject Philo splits across two treatises; this first one is built on the difference between near-synonyms, and On Planting continues it.
EN
On Dreams (De somniis I–II) you are here EN
On Drunkenness (De ebrietate)
Of the two books on drunkenness known in antiquity, this is the one that survives; it sits between On Planting and On Sobriety in the Allegorical Commentary's run on Noah and the vine.
EN
On Flight and Finding (De fuga et inventione)
Hagar's flight and the angel who finds her, Genesis 16:6–14, read within the Allegorical Commentary.
EN
On Joseph (De Josepho)
The life of the statesman in Philo's series of patriarch lives within the Exposition of the Law. It follows On Abraham; lives of Isaac and Jacob, now lost, once stood between them.
EN
On Mating with the Preliminary Studies (De congressu eruditionis gratia)
Philo's reading of Genesis 16 as a theory of education, set within the Allegorical Commentary; On Flight and Finding continues Hagar's story.
EN
On Planting (De plantatione)
The second of Philo's two treatises on Noah as farmer, turning from farming in general to the planting of the vineyard.
EN
On Rewards and Punishments (De praemiis et poenis et de exsecrationibus)
The closing treatise of the Exposition of the Law, on the rewards, punishments, blessings and curses the Law sets before its hearers.
EN
On Sobriety (De sobrietate)
A short sequel to On Drunkenness in the Allegorical Commentary, on Noah waking and pronouncing his blessings and curse. Its Greek title names exactly that: what Noah prayed for and cursed once sober.
EN
On the Change of Names (De mutatione nominum)
Genesis 17 and its renamings, from Abram and Sarai to Jacob and Joshua, read in the Allegorical Commentary; it also carries Philo's clearest statement that God has no proper name.
EN
On the Cherubim (De Cherubim)
Two short commentaries joined under one title: the cherubim at Eden's gate, then the birth of Cain. Within the Allegorical Commentary it picks up where the three books of Allegorical Interpretation stop.
EN
On the Confusion of Tongues (De confusione linguarum)
The Tower of Babel in the Allegorical Commentary, opening with a defence of Genesis against critics who likened it to Greek myth.
EN
On the Contemplative Life (De vita contemplativa)
A portrait of the Therapeutae, classed with Philo's historical and apologetic writings; it opens by referring back to his account of the Essenes, the active life to this contemplative one.
EN
On the Creation of the World (De opificio mundi)
The overture to Philo's Exposition of the Law, the series that goes on to lives of the patriarchs and a code of laws. It stands apart as his reading of the creation story in its literal order.
EN
On the Decalogue (De decalogo)
The hinge of the Exposition of the Law, turning from the lives of the patriarchs to the written law.
EN
On the Embassy to Gaius (Legatio ad Gaium)
The companion of Against Flaccus: an eyewitness history of the embassy Philo led to Gaius, and the fullest account he left of his own public life.
EN
On the Eternity of the World (De aeternitate mundi)
Among Philo's philosophical treatises, the one that names the Greek schools and their arguments most openly.
EN
On the Giants and On the Unchangeableness of God (De gigantibus; Quod Deus sit immutabilis)
Two treatises that editions usually separate but that read as one commentary, in the Allegorical Commentary, on the verses of Genesis leading up to the flood.
EN
On the Life of Moses (De vita Mosis I–II)
Philo's biography of Moses in two books, usually counted with the Exposition of the Law though it stands on its own.
EN
On the Migration of Abraham (De migratione Abrahami)
Abraham's call in Genesis 12, read as the soul's migration toward God; in the Allegorical Commentary it follows On the Confusion of Tongues in the order of Genesis.
EN
On the Posterity of Cain (De posteritate Caini)
The last of the Cain treatises in the Allegorical Commentary, following Cain from his exile through his descendants.
EN
On the Sacrifices of Abel and Cain (De sacrificiis Abelis et Caini)
One of the run of treatises on Cain and Abel in the Allegorical Commentary, taking up the brothers' offerings in Genesis 4.
EN
On the Special Laws (De specialibus legibus I–IV)
The largest work in the Exposition of the Law, in four books; it follows On the Decalogue and is followed by On the Virtues.
EN
On the Virtues (De virtutibus)
A pendant to On the Special Laws in the Exposition of the Law, gathering laws under the virtues they train rather than under the Ten Commandments.
EN
The Worse Attacks the Better (Quod deterius potiori insidiari soleat)
It follows On the Sacrifices of Abel and Cain in the Allegorical Commentary and carries the brothers' story on to the murder itself.
EN
Who Is the Heir of Divine Things? (Quis rerum divinarum heres sit)
Best known for its long passage on the Logos dividing the world into opposites, this reading of God's covenant with Abraham in Genesis 15 belongs to the Allegorical Commentary.
EN

— or open another of their works