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Chapter 6 - Women and Divine Dreams in Jewish Texts of the Greco-Roman Era

from Part II - Status, Role, and Functions of Human Intermediaries

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 October 2023

By
Hanna Tervanotko
Edited by
Elsa Giovanna Simonetti  and
Claire Hall
Elsa Giovanna Simonetti
Affiliation:
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium
Claire Hall
Affiliation:
University of Durham
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Summary

This article analyzes women’s access to divine dreams in the Jewish texts of the Greco-Roman era: the Jubilees, the Liber antiquitatum biblicarum, the Jewish War, Jewish Antiquities, and Against Apion. By evaluating women’s dreams in light of anthropological understanding of divine dreams, that is, dreams that somehow claim to have a divine origin, this chapter aims to offer a new model for understanding women’s dreams in ancient Jewish texts. It is argued that while the preserved literature includes only a few dreams experienced by women, these examples nonetheless provide essential evidence of women being recipients of divine information in ancient Jewish texts.

Keywords

female figureswomengender rolesancient Jewish textsdreamsdivinationinterpretation
Type
Chapter
Information
Divination and Revelation in Later Antiquity , pp. 120 - 135
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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