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Topic

Trance

21 passages cited, from 4 classic reference works.

These works date from 1884–1915 and are in the public domain. They reflect the Protestant scholarship of their time: their history, archaeology and dates can be out of date, and where they interpret, other traditions read the text differently. The verses are shown in the King James Version, the wording these works were written against.

The verses

The passages the works cite, those cited by more of them first.

Acts 10:10Easton · Smith · ISBE · Nave Of Peter
And he became very hungry, and would have eaten: but while they made ready, he fell into a trance,
Acts 22:17Easton · Smith · ISBE · Nave Of Paul
And it came to pass, that, when I was come again to Jerusalem, even while I prayed in the temple, I was in a trance;
Numbers 24:4Smith · ISBE · Nave Of Balaam
He hath said, which heard the words of God, which saw the vision of the Almighty, falling into a trance, but having his eyes open:
Numbers 24:16Smith · ISBE · Nave Of Balaam
He hath said, which heard the words of God, and knew the knowledge of the most High, which saw the vision of the Almighty, falling into a trance, but having his eyes open:
Acts 11:5Easton · ISBE
I was in the city of Joppa praying: and in a trance I saw a vision, A certain vessel descend, as it had been a great sheet, let down from heaven by four corners; and it came even to me:
2 Corinthians 12:1–4Easton · Smith
It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one…
Genesis 15:12Smith
And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him.
1 Samuel 19:24Smith
And he stripped off his clothes also, and prophesied before Samuel in like manner, and lay down naked all that day and all that night. Wherefore they say, Is Saul also among the prophets?
Job 33:15ISBE
In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men, in slumberings upon the bed;
Jeremiah 29:26Smith
The LORD hath made thee priest in the stead of Jehoiada the priest, that ye should be officers in the house of the LORD, for every man that is mad, and maketh himself a prophet, that thou shouldest put him in prison, and in the stocks.
Ezekiel 3:15Smith
¶ Then I came to them of the captivity at Tel-abib, that dwelt by the river of Chebar, and I sat where they sat, and remained there astonished among them seven days.
Mark 5:42Easton
And straightway the damsel arose, and walked; for she was of the age of twelve years. And they were astonished with a great astonishment.

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In the reference works

Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897) · 8 references

(Gr. ekstasis, from which the word “ecstasy” is derived) denotes the state of one who is “out of himself.” Such were the trances of Peter and Paul, Acts 10:10; 11:5; 22:17, ecstasies, “a preternatural, absorbed state of mind preparing for the reception of the vision”, (comp. 2 Cor. 12:1-4). In Mark 5:42 and Luke 5:26 the Greek word is rendered “astonishment,” “amazement” (comp. Mark 16:8; Acts 3:10).

Smith's Bible Dictionary (1884) · 13 references

(1) In the only passage-- (Numbers 24:4,16) --in which this word occurs in the English of the Old Testament italics show no corresponding word in Hebrew. In the New Testament we meet with the word three times -- (Acts 10:10; 11:6; 22:17) The ekstasis (i.e. trance) is the state in which a man has passed out of the usual order of his life, beyond the usual limits of consciousness and volition, being rapt in causes of this state are to be traced commonly to strong religious impressions. Whatever explanation may be given of it, it is true of many, if not of most, of those who have left the stamp of their own character on the religious history of mankind, that they have been liable to pass at times into this abnormal state. The union of intense feeling, strong volition, long-continued thought (the conditions of all wide and lasting influence, aided in many cases by the withdrawal from the lower life of the support which is needed to maintain a healthy equilibrium, appears to have been more than the "earthen vessel" will bear. The words which speak of "an ecstasy of adoration" are often literally true. As in other things, so also here, the phenomena are common to higher and lower, to true and false systems. We may not point to trances and ecstasies as proofs of a true revelation but still less may we think of them as at all inconsistent with it. Thus though we have not the word, we have the thing in the "deep sleep" the "horror of great darkness," that fell on Abraham. (Genesis 15:12) Balaam, as if overcome by the constraining power of a Spirit mightier than his own, "sees the vision of God, falling, but with opened eyes." (Numbers 24:4) Saul, in like manner, when the wild chant of the prophets stirred the old depths of feeling, himself also "prophesied" and "fell down" --most, if not all, of his kingly clothing being thrown off in the ecstasy of the moment --"all that day and all that night." (1 Samuel 19:24) Something there was in Jeremiah that made men say of him that he was as one that" is mad and maketh himself a prophet." (Jeremiah 29:26) In Ezekiel the phenomena appear in more wonderful and awful forms. (Ezekiel 3:15) As other elements and forms of the prophetic work were revived in "the apostles and prophets" of the New Testament, so also was this. Though different in form, it belongs to the same class of phenomena as the gift of tongues, and is connected with "visions and revelations of the Lord" In some cases, indeed, it is the chosen channel for such revelations. (Acts 10:11; 22:17-21) Wisely for the most part did the apostle draw a veil over these more mysterious experiences. (2 Corinthians 12:1-4)

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915) · 9 references

trans (ekstasis): The condition expressed by this word is a mental state in which the person affected is partially or wholly unconscious of objective sensations, but intensely alive to subjective impressions which, however they may be originated, are felt as if they were revelations from without. They may take the form of visual or auditory sensations or else of impressions of taste, smell, heat or cold, and sometimes these conditions precede epileptic seizures constituting what is named the aura epileptica. The word occurs 5 times in the King James Version, twice in the story of Balaam (Nu 24:4,16), twice in the history of Peter (Ac 10:10; 11:5), and once in that of Paul (Ac 22:17). In the Balaam story the word is of the nature of a gloss rather than a translation, as the Hebrew naphal means simply "to fall down" and is translated accordingly in the Revised Version (British and American). Here Septuagint has en hupno, "in sleep" (see SLEEP, DEEP). In Peter's vision on the housetop at Joppa he saw the sail (othone) descending from heaven, and heard a voice. Paul's trance was also one of both sight and sound. The vision on the Damascus road (Ac 9:3-9) and that recorded in 2Co 12:2-4 were also cases of trance, as were the prophetic ecstasies of Saul, Daniel and Elisha, and the condition of John in which he says that he was "in the Spirit" (Re 1:10).

The border line between trance and dream is indefinite: the former occurs while one is, in a sense, awake; the latter takes place in the passage from sleep to wakefulness. The dream as well as the vision were supposed of old to be channels of revelation (Job 33:15). In Shakespearean English, "trance" means a dream (Taming of the Shrew, I, i, 182), or simply a bewilderment (Lucrece, 1595).

In the phenomena of hypnotic suggestion, sometimes affecting a number of persons simultaneously we have conditions closely allied to trance, and doubtless some of the well-authenticated phantom appearances are similar subjective projections from the mind affecting the visual and auditory centers of the brain.

Alex. Macalister

In the topical indexes

Nave's Topical Bible (1896) · 4 references, grouped by sub-topic

→ Of Balaam Nu 24:4,16
→ Of Peter Ac 10:10
→ Of Paul Ac 22:17

Texts: Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897); Smith's Bible Dictionary (1884); International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915); Nave's Topical Bible (1896), from the CrossWire SWORD modules (public domain). Verse references were parsed from the works' own markup and checked against the KJV verse list.

Trance

The verses

In the reference works

In the topical indexes

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