Western Christian Beliefs & The Problems In Bible Translation
Tertullian, a lawyer from Carthage who later became a priest in Rome, wrote eight chapters in his major work called A Treatise On The Soul. These chapters were devoted to his study of dreams, and his views were prevalent in Christianity for over a thousand years until the views of Thomas Aquinas dominated Christian thinking.
Tertullian thought the idea that the soul leaves the body during sleep was ridiculous and claimed that dreaming simply proved that the soul was always active and immortal. He believed there were four sources for dreams. One was demons, another was God, a third source was generated by the soul, and the fourth source was a state of ecstasy. He did not believe that dreams were the result of somatic disturbances, like sounds or smells, from the external world.
Saint Jerome was a wealthy man who was well read in Greek and Latin texts. He loved both the Bible and the pagan texts and tried to find a way to reason the two opposing works. In a dream in which he was clearly converted to Christianity, he was encouraged quite drastically to discard his books by writers of pagan faiths and to only read the Bible. He did so and later became a great Bible scholar and interpreter. He was hired by the Pope in 382 A.D. to translate the Bible into Latin, the language of the Roman Empire at that time. His translation served as the authority on Biblical scripture until the 20th century.
Unfortunately, his translation had a negative effect on how dreams were viewed by western Christians for quite a long time, even to the present day. He mistranslated the Hebrew word for witchcraft as the word for “observing dreams.” Seven times he translated the word correctly in the Old Testament, banning the practice of witchcraft, but three times he mistranslated it to condemn dreams, rather than witchcraft. Thus, the scripture instructed that one should not observe dreams.
Since he translated it correctly seven times, it is speculated that he might have been forced to interpret it differently by order of church officials. He also may have had personal reasons for his change in translation. He did mention that he found it absurd to lie on sacrificed animal skins in order to incubate a dream. He also may have made the translation against dreams because he was at one point accused of heresy for not keeping the oath he made in his conversion dream to never engage in or read about pagan practices anymore.
The end result is that Saint Jerome’s mistranslations changed the course of Western Christian views toward dreams and their content. The Eastern Christian views were still favorable toward dreams for they were using the Greek translation of the Bible, which had not been altered.
Macrobius was a contemporary of Jerome and he was known for his book Commentary On The Dream Of Scipio. He reviewed the popular dream theories and created classification systems for dreams, which were similar to Artemidorus’ work, but he included two categories that Artemidorus did not: nightmares and another category for apparitions that appear right upon awakening. He generated much fear about this latter category. The Commentary became an influential book in medieval Europe. His work inspired paranoia about the connection between evil spirits and dreams.
Saint Thomas Aquinas shifted the views on dreams from Plato’s influence to Aristotle’s influence. He believed that sense experience of the physical body and rational thought were the only things that could be trusted. He believed that dreams were not sources of divine inspiration. They were only the result of somatic disturbances in physical, emotional or mental facilities. He refers to Deuteronomy 18:10, “Let there not be found among you him who observes dreams,” which was a direct mistranslation by Saint Jerome. Aquinas diminished the value of dreams. However, ironically, he did have first hand experiences of finding new skills in dictation after having a dream where the apostles Peter and Paul instructed him on how to deliver a difficult theological passage.
Interpreting symbols in Biblical era dream translation was a task of priests and wise people for understanding vision meaning. Biblical dreaming is surprisingly common and symbol interpretation can be learned from a dream dictionary.