A dream is the experienced event named in the account, while its message, speaker and significance must be established by the narrative. Matthew explicitly identifies an angel of the Lord speaking to Joseph in a dream about Mary and the child.
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Full entry for ὄναρ (G3677) · Open the biblical lexicon
A dream is the experienced event named in the account, while its message, speaker and significance must be established by the narrative. Matthew explicitly identifies an angel of the Lord speaking to Joseph in a dream about Mary and the child.
The BSB source-word alignment has 6 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include a dream (6).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 1:20. Its strongest book concentrations include Matthew (6).
This entry includes 1 verse guide that explain exact original-language forms in context.
A dream is the experienced event named in the account, while its message, speaker and significance must be established by the narrative. Matthew explicitly identifies an angel of the Lord speaking to Joseph in a dream about Mary and the child. Another angelic message directs him to take the child and mother away from Herod's threatened killing. Pilate's wife reports that she has suffered in a dream because of Jesus and asks her husband to have nothing to do with that innocent man.
These accounts do not give every dream the same sender or authority. Hear the words actually reported and the response the narrative records, preserving explicit revelation where Matthew identifies it and leaving unstated identities unstated. The ordinary noun supplies no universal interpretation code, private permission to control another person or guarantee that a vivid present dream is a divine command.
Joseph's expressly identified angelic messages, warnings about travel and Pilate's wife's reported suffering have distinct speakers and narrative roles. The dream noun names the event while the account establishes its actual message and authority.
But after he had pondered these things, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to embrace Mary as your wife, for the One conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.
Matthew explicitly identifies an angel of the Lord addressing Joseph about Mary and the child's conception, followed by the naming and saving-purpose statement; the source is narrated rather than inferred from vividness.
When the Magi had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up!” he said. “Take the Child and His mother and flee to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the Child to kill Him.”
The identified angel directs Joseph to take the child and mother to Egypt because Herod will seek to kill the child, and Joseph's next action follows the stated protective instruction.
While Pilate was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent him this message: “Have nothing to do with that innocent man, for I have suffered terribly in a dream today because of Him.”
Pilate's wife sends her own report of suffering in a dream and calls Jesus innocent; the verse does not name an angelic speaker or turn Pilate's later conduct into faithful obedience.
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Verse-level guides showing how this original-language form works in its specific context, including grammar, verse function, and guarded interpretation.
Greek word. Dream as divine communication medium; used in Matthew's infancy narrative for angelic revelations and warnings.
Dream as divine communication medium; used in Matthew's infancy narrative for angelic revelations and warnings.
indecl., used only in nom, and accusative sing. (the other cases are supplied by ὄνειρος), a dream: κατ᾽ ὄ. (in later writers only), in a dream, Mat.1:20 2:12-13, 19 2:22 27:19.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
6 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
a dream
Read versea dream
Read versea dream
Read versea dream
Read versea dream
Read versea dream
Read verseFull New Testament corpus: 260 chapters, 7,957 verses, 140,628 tokens. Data source: honza/textus-receptus (data only), with authority check against byztxt/greektext-textus-receptus.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
This word appears as a noun across 1 case and number pattern. The form changes show how the word functions in a sentence; they do not change the basic lexical meaning by themselves.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 2 selected witnesses from 6 lexical occurrence verses.
ὄναρ is of uncertain origin - no further derivation.
Matthew supplies the authority of Joseph's message directly: an angel of the Lord appears and speaks about Mary and the child. The later flight instruction likewise names the messenger, the danger from Herod and the people Joseph is to protect. Those details matter more than a general claim that dreams guide every choice. The Magi and Joseph also receive narrated warnings that change their routes, while Pilate's wife's dream is presented through her own sent message about Jesus' innocence.
A teacher must preserve both explicit revelation and attributed report without inventing an angel in every scene. Nor can an ordinary dream noun authorize another person's control of a household or predict an event the text has not named. The accounts demonstrate particular messages and responses within Jesus' story, not a method for assigning divine authority to every contemporary experience during sleep.
Matt.2.13
The Greek noun names a dream and occurs in Matthew's in-a-dream expression. The account supplies the messenger, report and content rather than the noun itself. An explicitly named angelic message and an attributed dream report must keep their different descriptions, without assigning the same sender or authority to every dream.
Genesis 40:6-8 records Joseph directing interpretation toward God when the prisoners report their dreams. Deuteronomy 13:1-3 warns against following a dreamer's appeal toward other gods even where a sign occurs. Those Hebrew settings retain their own instructions and supply no universal symbol code, current punishment procedure or automatic authentication of a private dream claim.