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GODSTONES & DREAMSTONES

When Jacob had his famous dream of angels going up and down a ladder to heaven, was he sleeping on a stone in or near a ruined temple or ziggurat? Probably not. But maybe he was dreaming of God living in, and speaking to him from, a stone, a betyl or "god stone," and also a "dream stone."

Responding to my article on "Jacob's Ladder", ApilIshtar notes that "The name "Bethel" means "house of God," an obvious reference to a temple, or even a ziggurat, which may have stood on the site quite early in Canaanite times." (Citing Azimov's Guide to the Bible, pg. 94). But, she wonders, "whose temple would it have been in that area? And why would it be the house of "God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac"?"

Good questions! But remember, here we are dealing with the dream life, the kingdom of the spirit, not the world of real ruins or archeology. And the religious dreamers who wrote and recorded their religious history in the Bible, though they may have had tribal memories and stories of Abraham's journey from his birthplace in Ur, needed no actual ziggurat ruins at Beth-El to inspire them. As a matter of fact, they, like most ancient peoples, believed God's house could be, and often was, not a temple but just a stone -- though to be sure, a wonderful stone. Such "numinous" or sacred stones are numerous throughout the Middle East and beyond, and the archeological name for them is "betyl," which is the Greek form of "beth-El."

Note also how Jacob comes by his dream: " He took of the stones of that place, and put them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep." (KJV ch 28, verse 11)
Official dream-interpreters ("oneirologists") in the ancient Near East had, as part of their equipment, a special "dream stone" which when slept on would give them dream visions in which gods and spirits (angels, e.g. as in Jacob's Dream at Beth-El) would appear and speak to them. Note too that the Bible does not say that God spoke to Jacob from above the ladder, or even, like the angels going up and down the ladder, descended the ladder to speak to Jacob -- only that God stood beside him. So there's a hint here that maybe God emerged from, or spoke out from, the stone that Jacob slept on. And it was that stone that Jacob then set up as a stele, or boundary stone, to mark and sanctify the place as "Beth-El," i.e. the "House of God."

Finally, when you dream, even if you're sleeping out in the middle of a desert full of nothing but rocks, within your dream you can be anywhere in the world, or out of it, and anywhere in time, too. So Jacob, dreaming in the desert, can be in Ur, the birthplace and home of his ancestor Abraham, and at the base of the ruined ziggurat there.

Moreover, Jacob himself may be more a persona than a real historical figure; he may be a persona of one or more ancient writers who vaguely remember or maybe imagine him, just as they vaguely remember or imagine Abraham, and so they can imagine him anywhere, including a setting that may vaguely recall to them their ancestors' stories of the ziggurat(s) in the land they came from.

There is a wonderful article on this topic by Diantha Livius, with quotations from the Gilgamesh epic and "The Dream of Dumuzi," that was featured in our Acta Diurna, vol. III, No 2, Nov 2003. To read it, click here: "Sumerian Dreams"

GODSTONES & DREAMSTONES