Enypniazomai (ἐνυπνιάζομαι) means to dream — specifically to receive a vision during sleep. It derives from enypnion (H1798, a dream) and occurs in Acts 2:17 in the Pentecost sermon where Peter quotes Joel 2:28: 'your old men will dream dreams [enypniazomai].' It also appears in Jude 1:8 in a sharply contrasting context: false teachers who 'in the same way these dreamers [enypniazomai] pollute their own bodies, reject authority and heap abuse on celestial beings.'
The contrast in usage is striking: in Joel/Acts, dreams are vehicles for genuine divine revelation poured out by the Spirit; in Jude, the same dreaming faculty becomes a source of delusion and sin. This tension reflects the biblical principle that spiritual experience — even prophetic experience — must be tested. Not every dream comes from God. Joel's promise was about Spirit-empowered revelation marking the new age; Jude's warning was about those who mistake their own desires and fantasies for divine visions. Discernment between genuine enypniazomai (from the Spirit) and false ones (from the flesh) is a critical pastoral task.