Saturday, November 30, 2019

Hanna Tervanotko on Revelations Via Dreams in the Hebrew Bible



For behold, it came to pass that the Lord spake unto my father, yea, even in a dream, and said unto him: Blessed art thou Lehi, because of the things which thou hast done; and because thou hast been faithful and declared unto this people the things which I commanded thee, behold, they seek to take away thy life. (1 Nephi 2:1)

Scripture, both biblical and uniquely LDS, contains many instances of prophets receiving divine revelation via dreams. Commenting on this phenomenon in the Hebrew Bible (which can shed light on such in the Book of Mormon), Hanna Tervanotko wrote:

Speaking in Dreams in the Hebrew Bible

Divine messages are often communicated in dreams in the Hebrew Bible. Many dreams appear in the patriarchal narratives, where the heads of the families receive divine messages while sleeping. Abraham is sleeping when God speaks to him (Gen 15:12). God also appears to and addresses Isaac and Jacob during the night (26:24; 28:12–15). At least one of the messages to Jacob is explicitly delivered in a dream (28:16). Apart from the earlier patriarchs, Joseph is also known to have dreams in Genesis. Unlike these heads of households who receive divine dreams at their adult age, Joseph has dreams already as a young boy (37:7, 9), which are later fulfilled. Joseph differs from the patriarchs because he not only has dreams, but he also interprets them. During his stay in Egypt his role changes from dreamer into interpreter of other people’s dreams (40:8, 12–13, 18–19; 41:25–36). While Joseph interprets dreams, it is specified that he does not do it autonomously. Rather the text states explicitly that the interpretation of dreams comes from God (40:8; 41:16). Hence Joseph, who delivers explanations of dreams, receives his understanding from God. Joseph’s dreams and his function as a dream interpreter witness that it was not only the patriarchs (i.e., the heads of the households) who accessed communication with God. Other prominent characters could also receive divine information.

Interestingly, the Genesis dreams appear to be related to a particular family, as the dreams connected to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph show. These are the only characters in Genesis who receive divine messages in dreams, but they are not the only figures who receive messages from God. Although the Pentateuch rarely attests to the divine plans revealed to women, it does sometimes happen. An angel appears to Hagar in 16:7–12 while she is escaping and reveals to her the future of her child and his relevance in the divine plan. In 25:23 God tells Rebekah that she will give birth to rival twins. The means of communication is not explicitly described. The passage simply states that Rebekah inquired of God. While these narratives can be interpreted as divine communication with women with promises for the future, they do not contain the particular features of the dreams that are connected to the patriarchs. The divine dreams of Genesis are notably revealed only to the male members of the families.

Despite their direct communication with God, however, the patriarchs and Joseph are usually not described as prophets. The Former and Latter Prophets contain a more detailed picture of dreams in relation to prophecy. Various passages that deal with prophetic communication with the Divine in the books of prophets mention that these acts were connected to seeing. For instance, 1 Sam 9:9 states that at an early period of Israel’s history a prophet was called a seer. This implies that many prophets were known to access divine knowledge visually, that is, in a dream. Furthermore, when Saul does not receive a message from God, he is distressed and complains that God does not answer him either by prophets or dreams (1 Sam 28:6, 15). This confirms the earlier notion regarding the patriarchs and other prominent people that prophets were not the only people who could communicate with the Divine in dreams.

Other people who were in contact with God could have divine dreams too. Not all of the dreams received by the prophets were received without difficulty. A true prophetic dream was understood as something more than just falling asleep and dreaming. Several Hebrew Bible texts reflect criticism against certain dreamers and their dreams, which are condemned as false (Deut 12:32b–13:5; Jer 23:25–28; 27:9; Zech 10:2). This “false prophecy” vis-à-vis “true prophecy” suggests that dreaming per se was not always a divine experience. Polemics against false prophecy questioned the provenance of the dreams, asking which dreams came from God and which prophecies were false.

These examples demonstrate that divine messages were received in dreams throughout the Hebrew Bible. Most of the people that communicate with God through dreams are called prophets in the Hebrew Bible. Some other people have divine dreams too (e.g., the patriarchs and Joseph). They can be characterized as distinguished (“selected”) people, who might communicate also without their visions. Importantly, when the dreams preserved in the Hebrew Bible are compared with those of the ancient Near East it appears that they are limited to a more restricted group of people. The dreamers are mostly men who are known as prophets or who have otherwise prominent positions, while the Hebrew Bible does not attest to the dreams of those women who are called prophets.(נביאה) This does not necessarily mean that women did not access this type of communication, as dreaming was probably not restricted to a particular group of people, but that it is not preserved in the Hebrew Bible. (Hanna Tervanotko, "Speaking in Dreams: The Figure of Miriam and Prophecy" in Jonathan Stökl and Corrine L. Carvalho, eds. Prophets Male and Female: Gender and Prophecy in the Hebrew Bible, the Eastern Mediterranean, and the Ancient Near East [Ancient Israel and its Literature 15; Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2013], 147-67, here, pp. 150-52)