God doesn’t send dreams, Aristotle argued. How did he know? If God were sending dreams, He would send them to a better sort of folk: “it is absurd to hold that it is God who sends such dreams, and yet that He sends them not to the best and wisest, but to any chance persons” and “there is no proof of this [that dreams are sent by God]: for quite common men have prescience and vivid dreams, which shows that these are not sent by God” (both from On Prophecy in Sleep ).
Sounds a bit like sour grapes.
In any case, this background perhaps throws into relief the Bible’s emphasis on the Spirit of prophecy poured out on “all flesh,” and Jesus’ promise that his fishermen disciples (just the kind of commoners that should not receive revelation from God) would hear and see what prophets and righteous men longed to see and hear, but didn’t.
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