In her 2003 The Graven Image, Zainab Bahrani wrote the following about the “tangibility” of dreams in the Ancient Near East. It sheds some light on the nature of prophetic dreams by figures like Lehi in the Book of Mormon, as well as the reception thereof:
From the Assyrian Dream Book, as well as other references to dream
from earlier periods, we know that vision is used in relation to dreams in the
Akkadian language as it is in contemporary Semitic languages. One does not
have a dream. One sees a dream. The dream comes. The dream is described
as entering and leaving the dreamer’s presence. It is an apparition that will
double into a destiny. If the dream predicts an undesirable fare, rituals
are followed that can change the course of events. Tablets I, X, and XI of the
Assyrian Dream Book contain such rituals or incantations against the destiny or
consequence of the dream. There are also references attesting to the existence
of other such texts. In Aššur, textbooks were written that Barû priests were
made to study during their apprenticeship. Among the rituals recorded was a
series titled “MAš.GE.HUL.SIG.GA”
(“to make evil dreams pleasant”). Form the Neo-Babylonian period a tablet from
Sippar lists a catalog of conjurations for dreams, “Against the seeing of dead
people,” “To remember what has been forgotten,” “Against evil signs” (Leo A. Oppenheim,
The Interpretation of Dreams in the Ancient Near East. Transactions of
the American Philosophical Society. Vol. 46. Philadelphia: American Philosophical
Society [1956]:295-307). Among the ritual listed in the Assyrian Dream Book
tablets is a prayer addressing the god Nasku as dispenser of dreams:
In front of the Lamp he shall . . .a bundle of reeds. The hem of
the right side of his (garment) he shall cut off and hold it in front of the
Lamp. He shall say as follows: “You are the judge, judge (now) my case: This
dream which during the first or the middle or the last watch of the night was
brought to me and which you know but I do not know—if (if its content predict
something) pleasant, may its pleasantness not escape me—if its contents
(predict something) evil, may its evil not catch me—(but) verily (this dream)
be not mine! Like this reed is plucked (from the bundle) [and] will not return to
its (original) place and this hem will not return to [my] garment after it has
been cut off, this dream which [was brought] to me in the first or the middle
or the last watch of the night shall verily be not mine!” In front of . . . he
shall break the reed in two [ ]”
(Oppenheim 1956:298)
This ritual incantation is for one who does not remember a dream.
If the dream is forgotten, then the destiny predicted by it remains unknown,
and the correct conjuration against such a destiny, in the case that it might
be unfavorable, might not be followed. The incantation also states that if the
fate is favourable, then may that pleasant destiny indeed not escape the
dreamer. Other rituals to Nusku against evil dreams are also known, and they
are also related to destiny through oneiromancy (1956). Since the inscription
on the altar of Tukulti-Ninurta includes an entreaty for such an auspicious
destiny of power for the king, and interpretation of the prayer and the
pedestal as a whole as a dedication to Nusku as dream god seems appropriate.
Other aspects of the pedestal and its imagery may be explained as befitting a
magical-religious object associated with oneiromancy. (Zainab Bahrani, The
Graven Image: Representation in Babylonia and Assyria [Philadelphia:
University Pennsylvania Press, 2003], 195-96, emphasis in bold added)
