“Here Comes This Dreamer” (Genesis 37:19): Towards a Dreams/ Dreamers Typology in the Hebrew Bible

Do the roles that dreams play in the lives of Jacob, Joseph, Solomon, or Daniel have genuine roots in ancient Hebrew mentality or customs? Studies on some of these narratives have repeatedly pointed out their affiliation to their ancient Near Eastern milieu. Siegfried Hermann’s Konigsnovelle, which classified together the dreams and night visions of the prophet Nathan, King Solomon, and those of the Pharaohs Sesotris (Senusret) I, Thutmose III, and Thutmose IV under this genre definition, and the discussion of the celestial stairway (Hebrew סלם ) in Jacob’s dream in relation to ziggurat-type structures, the simmilat samāmi and other Mesopotamian parallels, are but two famous examples. But comparative studies need not (and at their best do not) blur the distinctive features of each individual culture.