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)
