This week while reading in the Rambam’s Guide I came across the section dealing with prophecy. Having been raised in a Pentecostal environment, this was old stuff for me!:P No seriously, this is a very interesting treatment, I could write a very long post of all that struck the eye but will keep it short as there is one point which I personally found enlightening:
The Rambam starts by saying that prophecy is given either in a vision or in a dream based on the verse (Num. 12:6):
And he said, “Hear my words: If there is a prophet among you, I the L’rd make myself known to him in a vision; I speak with him in a dream.
He then delineates two degrees of prophecy:
1. Divine assistance which is given to a person and induces and encourages him to do something good and grand
This degree of divine influence is called “the spirit of the L’rd”; and of the person who is under that influence we say that the spirit of the L’rd came upon him, clothed him, or rested upon him, or the L’rd was with him, and the like. (II:241)
People who possessed this degree were:
- All the judges of Israel
- Moses
- David
The Rambam says:
This faculty did not cause any of the above-named persons to speak on a certain subject, for it only aims at encouraging the person who possesses it to action; (II:242)
2. A person feels as if something came upon him, and as if he had received a new power that encourages him to speak.
Among others, people who possessed this degree were:
- David
- Solomon
- Daniel
- Job
- Chronicler
- The Seventy Elders
- Every High-Priest
The Rambam says:
He treats of science, or composes hymns, exhorts his fellow-men, discusses political and theological problems; all this he does while awake, and in full possession of his senses. Such a person is said to speak by the holy spirit. (II:242)
The Rambam brings the following to the readers attention; a distinction is to be made between those that call their dreams prophecies and those that call claim their prophecies were received in a dream. You might think whats this nit-witting about word order but hear him out:
The passage, “G’d appeared to Solomon and Gibeon in a dream by night, and G’d said” (I Kings xlvi. 2), does not contain a real prophecy, such as is introduced by the words: “The word of the L’rd came to Abram in a vision, saying” (Gen. xv. 1); or, “And G’d said to Israel in the visions of the night” (ibid. xlvi. 2), or such as the prophecies of Isaiah and Jeremiah contain; in all these cases the prophets, though receiving the prophecy in a prophetic dream, are told that it is a prophecy, and that they have received prophetic inspiration. But in the case of Solomon, the account concludes, “And Solomon awoke, and behold it was a drem” (I Kings iii. 15); and in the account of the second divine appearance, it is said, “And G’d apeared to Solomon a second time, as he appeared to him at Gibeon” (ibid. ix. 2); it was evidently a dream. This kind of prophecy is a degree below that of which Scripture says: “In a dream I will speak to him” (Num. xii. 6). When prophets are inspired in a dream, they by no means call this a dream, although the prophecy reached them in a dream, but declare it decidedly to be a prophecy. Thus Jacob, our father, when awaking from a prophetic dream, did not say it was a dream, but declared “Surely there is the L’rd in this place,” etc. (Gen xxviii. 16); “G’d the Almighty appeared to me in Luz, the land of Canaan” (ibid. xlviii. 3) expressing thereby that it was a prophecy. But in reference to Solomon we read:-”And Solomon awoke, and behold it was a dream” (I Kings iii. 15). Similarly Daniel declares that he had a dream; although he sees an angel and hears his word, he speaks of the event as of a dream; even when he had received the information [concerning the dreams of Nebukadnezzar], he speaks of it in the following matter-”Then was the secret revealed to Daniel in a night vision” (Dan. ii. 19). On other occasions it is said, “He wrote down the dream”; “I saw in the visions by night,” etc… There is no doubt that this is one degree below that form of prophecy to which the words, “In a dream I will speak to him,” are applied. For this reason the nation desired to place the book of Daniel among the Hagiographa, and not among the Prophets. I have, therefore, pointed out to you, that the prophecy revealed to Daniel and Solomon, although they saw an angel in the dream, was not considered by them as a a perfect prophecy, but as a dream containing correct information. They belonged to the class of men, that spoke, inspired by the ruah ha-kodesh, “the holy spirit”. (II:243)
So according to the Rambam the reason Daniel is in the Ketuvim is the fact that “he speaks of the event as a dream” instead of a prophecy, even though the dream contained prophetic insights, and in this distinguishes himself from those that receive prophecy in a dream and declare it to be a prophecy.
I find this to be a very nice explanation, not only for the fact that it makes sense but also because I felt my namesake was treated unfairly by being excluded from the Nevi’im 
Daniel,
Very interesting remarks from Maimonides. Another reason often cited for Daniel being a part of the writings and not the prophets is based on the Hebrew word for prophet (navi). “Navi” is derived from “niv s’feta’yim” which means “speech” or “fruit of the lips” (Isaiah 57:19), because a prophet proclaims and causes the nation to hear the words of HaShem. Therefore “navi” refers to an individual’s role as the transmitter of a Divine message. Because Daniel recorded his vision but did not preach or proclaim it to the people he is not in a technical sense a “navi”. Daniel is considered a “chozeh”, or one who receives a “chazon” or “vision”, but he was not a “navi” or preacher to the nation.
I wonder if Maimonides touches on the case of Abimelech in Genesis 20? According to the above comments, Abimelech received the superior form of prophecy directly from G-d for he did not refer to this prophecy as a dream when relating it to Abraham.
Hi Paula,
In the section on prophecy the Rambam does not touch upon Abimelech specifically but I found a passage in which he talks about him, quite a long quote but I find it difficult to summarize him as his writing is so dense and when I would summarize it would certainly not convey his whole message as every word has been thoroughly pondered by the Rambam when writing this treatise.
Daniel,
Thank you for the informative reference. Indeed a word search of the Tanakh brings up Genesis 20:3 and 31:24 as the only two occurrences of the phrase “G-d came to . . .in a dream by night” (Elohim, el-. . . bachalom halay’lah). This obviously sets apart the dreams of both Abimelech and Laban as unique from other dreams in the Tanakh, and regarding prophecies in general (as pointed out above).
According to “The Stone Chumash”, both Ramban and Radak consider the dreams of Abimelech and Laban as being prophetic. Radak’s comments cited in Parashas Vayeira (p. 91-92) explain this to be “an astounding phenomenon” due to the rabbinic understanding that prophecy is given only to people of the highest spiritual caliber. Ultimately, the dreams of both Abimelech and Laban are understood as prophecy given to heathens in order to benefit and honor those who are righteous (i.e. Abraham and Jacob).