Joseph the dream interpreter

The biblical dream interpreter; the model for interpretation within the tradition.

Joseph, the eleventh son of Jacob, is the best-known dream interpreter in the Bible. His story, in Genesis 37 to 50, begins with two dreams of his own: sheaves in the field bowing to his sheaf, and the sun, the moon and eleven stars bowing to him. His brothers become jealous and sell him as a slave to Egypt.

In Egypt Joseph ends up in prison, innocent. There he interprets the dreams of Pharaoh's cupbearer and baker: one gets his post back, the other is executed. Two years later Pharaoh himself dreams, of seven fat and seven lean cows and of seven full and seven thin ears of grain. No one can interpret it, until Joseph is fetched.

The decisive sentence is in Genesis 40 and 41: interpretation is not mine, it belongs to God. Joseph does not present himself as a dream expert, but as someone who depends on God. His interpretation is also practical: seven years of plenty, seven years of famine, and a plan to store grain. So he becomes viceroy of Egypt, and later saves his own family too.

In the Christian tradition Joseph is therefore the example of good dream interpretation: humble, bound to God, and focused on what to do now. The story also shows that dreams need time; his own boyhood dreams come true only years later and quite differently than he thought.

This story is also in the Quran, in the chapter Yusuf, and in Judaism Joseph is one of the great figures. For Dreamkin he is one of the few figures who forms a bridge between dreams and interpretation in three traditions.