Michael S. Heiser's Blog, page 11

Nephilim Question from Doctoral Colloquium

I recently participated in a doctoral colloquium where students were required to read my book The Unseen Realm. It was fun, and I’m grateful to all who took part and considered the book stimulating reading for the colloquium. One of the questions focused on an excerpt from a book recently co-authored by a friend of mine (Dr. Peter Gentry). The book is entitled Kingdom Through Covenant: A Biblical-Theological Understanding of the Covenants (which I recommend to readers). Here’s the question, along with the relevant excerpt:

Question: How would you respond to Discourse Grammar Analysis of Gen 6:4 as explained in Kingdom Through Covenant?

The analysis in question is found on pp. 150-151:

The relationship of Genesis 6:1–4 to the flood story, and the interpretation of these four verses, is extremely problematic. Only a brief comment is possible in the scope of this work. Two main issues are significant: (1) the identity of the “sons of God” who marry the daughters of the human race and have children by them (6:2, 4), and (2) interpretation of the temporal expressions “those days” and “afterwards” in 6:4. Three views predominate on the identity of the sons of God: (1) they represent the godly line of Seth (Gen. 4:25–5:32) intermarrying with the ungodly line of Cain (Gen. 4:17–24); (2) they represent powerful kings/tyrants ruling at the time; (3) they represent angels who married human women. The last view is a problem since one would then have to wonder if the flood was a judgement upon angelic rather than human corruption and violence. This view should be considered seriously, however, since the exact expression “sons of God” refers consistently and exclusively to angelic beings in the Old Testament (Job 1:6; 2:1; 38:7, cf. Ps. 29:1; Dan. 3:25) and is also supported by the New Testament in 2 Peter 2:4 and Jude 6–7. Peter and Jude seek to bolster the faith of their readers by reference to events well known from the Old Testament. Their comments are structured in such a way as to refer in particular to two texts in Genesis (Genesis 6–9 and 18–19). They speak of angels who sinned and were cast into a particular prison awaiting further judgement. According to Jude, both examples (i.e., angels and cities of the plain) involved gross immorality.

The temporal expressions “those days” and “afterwards” both occur in verse 4. For purposes of discussion, a literal translation of this verse is useful:

The Nephilim were on the earth in those days and also afterwards when the sons of God had relations with human women and they bore children for them. They were the heroes who were from the ancient past, men of reknown.

Two main possibilities exist for interpretation of the temporal expressions. If one interprets “those times” to be the times described in verses 1–3, then what is distinguished are the times before the flood from the times after the flood. The relative clause introduced by “afterwards” would seem to indicate that the cohabitation of angelic and human beings continued after the flood. One might conclude that the Nephilim were the product of such unions (cf. Num. 13:22, 28, 33).

Yet a different interpretation is possible. The expression “afterwards” (’aḥărê-kēn) usually occurs in the second of two verbal sentences: the first sentence says that event X did or will happen; the second says that subsequent to the event in the first sentence, event Y did or will happen. Here we must note that the expression ’aḥărê-kēn is modified by a relative sentence which refers specifically to the event in verse 2. Therefore one could assume that “those days” means before the cohabitation of divine and human beings. Verse 4 would then comment that the Nephilim were in the earth before the business of angelic and human beings cohabiting and also afterwards and therefore had nothing to do with these unions.

This latter interpretation is strengthened by considerations of discourse grammar. Verse 4 consists of two clauses or sentences, the first verbal, the second nominal. Both are marked by asyndeton (i.e., no conjunction or connector at the beginning of the clause/sentence). In the first, the verb is non-initial. This pattern marks a commentary or explanatory digression. The fact that the first sentence is subject-initial indicates a new topic. The relative sentence in verse 4 correlates this new topic with the events of verse 2. The nominal sentence is a further comment on the Nephilim. They were the heroes from the distant past. This may mean the distant past with reference to the writer, or it may indicate a period long past in reference to the event of 6:2. Therefore the writer would be demythologizing the Nephilim. These heroes of ancient times were there before and after the events of 6:2 and were not necessarily related to them at all. Thus, verse 1 describes an increase in female humans, verse 2 describes a cohabitation of angelic and human beings, verse 3 concludes that the result is still human and therefore under God’s judgement, and verse 4 states that all this has nothing to do with the well-known Nephilim. Since the word Nephilim is not otherwise explained, they must have been well known to the ancient (first) readers of this text.

What this digression shows, then, is that if one assumes that Genesis 6:1–4 is referring to a union of angelic and human beings, this may not be connected to the causes of the flood. In addition, according to 2 Peter 2:4 and Jude 6, the judgement of the angels was separate from the judgement of the flood.

My response is straightforward.

First, there’s nothing amiss with the analysis of the possibilities.  “May mean” is appropriately cautious. I don’t find the second possibility persuasive for the following reasons:

The second alternative is a reading that fails to cohere with the apkallu tradition from Mesopotamia, which Annus and others have conclusively demonstrated is the backdrop for Gen 6:1-4. Second Temple literature shows a clear awareness of that backdrop (e.g., Gilgamesh in the book of Giants; Gilgamesh was “lord of the apkallu per one cylinder seal, two-thirds divine and one-third human, and a giant).
 Second Temple Jewish texts don’t separate the items in Gen 6:1-4 as the alternative seeks to (i.e., they don’t follow the second discourse trajectory)
Peter and Jude are also aware of, and utilize, the Titan material (“sent to Tartarus”) which also doesn’t really follow this second trajectory.
Though the Old Testament doesn’t include the judgment of the “angels” of Gen 6:1-4, Second Temple texts and the New Testament do. That inclusion is completely in line with the original context for the Old Testament passage (i.e., the apkallu tradition, which was clearly inherited by Second Temple texts, Jewish and Greek).

There are of course more trajectories that could be brought to bear in terms of why the alternative idea fails and the first option makes the best sense. But in broad terms, of the two possible discourse perspectives, only one coheres with the apkallu context and the intended polemic, as well as with the Second Temple perspective of Gen 6:1-4. Consequently, I prefer a reading that aligns with ALL the contexts (not just a select possible linguistic context) and that works across the board interpretively when all the data are brought to bear.

I mention this because it’s a good illustration of how one could come across an argument (discourse grammar) and then opt for that alternative while paying no attention to other contexts. While there are two discourse options, one must ask which of those aligns with other contexts for the passage. There’s only one choice in that regard.

In fairness, the apkallu tradition wasn’t prominent in The Unseen Realm. It receives far more attention in Reversing Hermon and my forthcoming book, Demons: What the Bible Really Says About the Powers of Darkness.

 

The post Nephilim Question from Doctoral Colloquium appeared first on Dr. Michael Heiser.

Live Near Los Angeles? Mike Will Be Speaking at a MIQLAT Fundraiser in LA in January

I just wanted you to know about a fundraising event (for my non-profit MIQLAT.org) that is happening in your neck of the woods in January. 


In the last 1.5 years MIQLAT has not only split expenses for the FringePop321 YouTube Channel (subscriptions continue to climb), but we’ve also seen my book Supernatural translated into 20 languages! We have specific projects set up for 2019 that we hope to fund as well. I’ll be announcing one in particular in about a week.

 


If you could tell friends who might be interested in my content and what MIQLAT is doing, I’d appreciate it. Since this as a fundraiser, so registration (use the link above) is required.


 


Thanks!

The post Live Near Los Angeles? Mike Will Be Speaking at a MIQLAT Fundraiser in LA in January appeared first on Dr. Michael Heiser.

What Is Spiritual Warfare? Mike’s (Brief) Take

This question is asked of me so often that I’ve decided to post an *unedited* excerpt from my forthcoming Demons book (due out sometime in 2019 — it’s in editorial now). Here’s a brief take on the issue; part of a larger discussion:

What is spiritual warfare-from Heiser DEMONS MS unedited

I can honestly say that this book (Demons: What the Bible Really Says About The Powers of Darkness) is unique. There’s nothing else like it. This is due to two related factors: (1) It’s based on peer-reviewed scholarship on OT, 2nd Temple, and NT research; and (2) it approaches the subject in light of the neglected (omitted?) reality that the Bible frames supernatural evil in light of three ancient supernatural rebellions (Gen 3, Gen 6, Gen 11/Deut 32:8-9). Approaching things this way (which has heretofore not been done all in one work) allows us to see that 2nd temple and NT “demonology” and “Satanology” are not aberrations with respect to OT data.

 

The post What Is Spiritual Warfare? Mike’s (Brief) Take appeared first on Dr. Michael Heiser.

Amazing Black Friday Logos Sale

I just got notice of this sale. Note that the sale items are LOGOS products (books and video courses – Mobile Ed courses in the Logos Bible Software format), NOT physical books or DVDs.

All of the items have a significant discount, but some are just crazy (up to 90% off).

To access the sale use this link.

To see a PDF of the list of items for sale, you can view this PDF:

Black Friday Products

The sale lasts from November 16 until Sunday November 25 at 11:59 PM PST.

 

The post Amazing Black Friday Logos Sale appeared first on Dr. Michael Heiser.

Ancient Astronaut Theory and Racism

I’ve blogged before about how the theory of ancient aliens being responsible for the monumental building of ancient Egypt and other contemporaneous civilizations is inherently racist. The idea is basically that the humans of Egypt and these other cultures were simply too inept to achieve what they achieved without alien help. They needed aliens or the white-skinned descendants of Atlantis who, according to pseudo-history of the type spun by theosophist Madame Blavatsky, were spawned by aliens anyway.

When the perspective changes to Meso-America, assumption that native populations of the ancient Americas were also too primitive and backward. Some would not go as far as aliens being responsible for the technological achievements of the Mayans and other native groups, choosing instead that “lost” white men from a destroyed Atlantis migrated to the new world and built great structures. A Christianized version of this myth is that nephilim did the building, despite the fact that no biblical text describes the nephilim as building anything or migrating anywhere.

Here’s an excellent article that briefly lays out the racist bent of the ancient astronauts idea. The links are excellent — so good that I’ve pulled some of them and listed them below so you don’t miss them. (Thanks to JW for this).

Sarah Bond, “Pseudoarchaeology and the Racism Behind Ancient Aliens”

Important Links:

Julien Benoit, “Racism is behind outlandish theories about Africa’s ancient architecture“

Jamie Seidel, “Why did two German ‘hobbyists’ deface a cartouche of Khufu inside the Great Pyramid and what does it have to do with Atlantis?”

Christopher Heaney, “The Racism Behind Alien Mummy Hoaxes: Pre-Columbian bodies are once again being used as evidence for extraterrestrial life“

Sarah Baires, “White Settlers Buried the Truth About the Midwest’s Mysterious Mound Cities“

The last article in the list is timely for me, as not long ago I read the excellent book, Jungle of Stone: The Extraordinary Journey of John L. Stephens and Frederick Catherwood, and the Discovery of the Lost Civilization of the Maya. It’s the story of the discovery of the Mayan ruins in the early 20th century. A major focus is explaining the significance of the find and the work. In a nutshell, the recording and drawings (think Napoleon’s expedition to Egypt in 1798-1801 for a parallel) overturned the dominant paradigm for understanding the Mayans. Previously, it was thought that white-skinned peoples from the Old World (or Atlantis in the craziest version) had come to the New World and given the stupid dark-skinned indigenous populations the know-how to build cities on a scale of the greatest cities of Europe.

In other words, these backward inferiors just could not have done this by themselves.

 

 

The post Ancient Astronaut Theory and Racism appeared first on Dr. Michael Heiser.

Elohim, Divine Council, Psalm 82, OT Monotheism Archive

I get a lot of email about my views on Yahweh and divine plurality. You’d think people would find my material via Google or my divine council website, but I guess not. I’m making this page for you all, of course, but also to provide myself a convenient one-stop link to send people.

Mike’s “lay level” work on the divine council and the nature of Israelite monotheism (the basic essays)

These live on my divine council site; the items selected here can also be found in the Faithlife Study Bible (FSB), the Lexham Bible Dictionary (LBD) and a volume of the InterVarsity Press OT Reference series (IVP). They are short distillations of the topics:

The Divine Council (LBD)
Elohim as “Gods” in the Old Testament (FSB)
Deuteronomy 32:8–9 and the Old Testament Worldview (FSB)
Old Testament Godhead Language (FSB)
Understanding Israelite Monotheism (FSB)
DIVINE COUNCIL-DOTWPW (IVP)
I should also mention that these issues feature prominently (among many other points of biblical theology) in my best-selling book, The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible (Lexham Press, 2015), and its “person-in-the-pew” distillation, Supernatural: What the Bible Says About the Unseen World and Why It Matters (Lexham Press, 2015).

Mike’s relevant scholarly publications

Some of these live on my divine council site as well. Others cannot be posted here due to the wishes of the academic journal that published the content (if you subscribe to my newsletter you can access articles not linked here via a protected folder). These articles tend to be technical, save for the one critiquing Mormonism’s use of Psalm 82.

My Bibliotheca Sacra article (published by Dallas Seminary): “Deuteronomy 32:8 and the Sons of God”

Obviously, Dallas Seminary isn’t a liberal institution. This article provides a text-critical analysis of why “sons of Israel” (Masoretic Text) is thoroughly contradicted by ancient manuscript data and logic. It contains a bare-bones discussion of the divine council to demonstrate that “sons of God” is not a reading that leads to polytheism.


My first Bulletin for Biblical Research article (published by IBR, an evangelical scholarly society): “Monotheism, Polytheism, Monolatry, or Henotheism? Toward an Assessment of Divine Plurality in the Hebrew Bible“
My Journal for the Evangelical Study of the Old Testament article: “Does Divine Plurality in the Hebrew Bible Demonstrate an Evolution from Polytheism to Monotheism in Israelite Religion?” This article was originally read as an invited paper at the Evangelical Theological Society annual meeting.
My Tyndale Journal article: “Monotheism and the Language of Divine Plurality in the Hebrew Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls.”
My first Bible Translator (vol 59, no. 137) article : “Does Deut 32:17 Assume or Deny the Reality of Other Elohim?” (2008)

This article demonstrates why the ESV (virtually alone among major translations) is incorrect in translation  ʾeloah as a plural (“gods”0, creating an internal contradiction within the verse, within Deut 32, and with other passages in the Hebrew Bible.


My second Bible Translator (vol 61, no 123): article:  “Should Elohim with Plural Predication Be Translated ‘Gods’?” (2010)

This article addresses the pseudo-defense of elohim as men offered by evangelicals fearful of divine plurality due to misunderstanding it as pointing to polytheism. Specifically, Exodus 18 gets attention, as do Exod 22:7-9 (Hebrew text = Exod 22:6-8) and Exod 21:2-6. Those passages cannot coherently be used to defend the idea that the elohim of Psalm 82 and other passages are men.


My second Bulletin for Biblical Research article: “Co-regency in Ancient Israel’s Divine Council as the Conceptual Backdrop to Ancient Jewish Binitarian Monotheism” (vol 26, no 2, 2015).

The essay suggests that Judaism’s two powers theology had its roots in an ancient Israelite co-regency notion that departed from the ancient Canaanite / Ugaritic divine council co-regency, in that it presumed an invisible, transcendent YHWH and a second, visible YHWH figure occupying both roles of the co-regency. This conception in turn was one means of framing later (2nd Temple period) Jewish binitarian monotheistic thought.


My article published in Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (a Mormon journal; vol 19, no 1, 2007) critiquing Mormonism’s understanding of Psalm 82: “You’ve Seen One Elohim, You’ve Seen Them All? A Critique of Mormonism’s Use of Psalm 82”

For all those out there that think letting Psalm 82 say what it says is Mormonism: The Mormons know I’m not a Mormon. Time to get with the program.


My UW-Madison dissertation: “The Divine Council in Late Canonical and Non-Canonical Second Temple Jewish Literature“

Other content on Yahweh:

The ideas that Yahweh is found in Ugaritic texts, or that Yahweh is really Qos, the national deity of Edom, or that Yahweh can be found in Akkadian texts are on shaky ground. Few scholars (within evangelicalism or not) take such positions. Why? Because they know such ideas over-reach the available data and require too much speculation.

The DDD (Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible) entry QÔS קושׁ (see section III in particular)
The DDD entry on  YAHWEH יהוה (see Section II in particular)
My blog post: “Joseph Farrell’s 150-Year Learning Curve on Yahweh and Cuneiform Texts“
My blog post on the pronunciation of the Divine Name (YHWH)

The post Elohim, Divine Council, Psalm 82, OT Monotheism Archive appeared first on Dr. Michael Heiser.

Ancient Aliens Logic Lesson: Dirt Isn’t “Civilization”

I’ve had some folks send me the link to this recent article: “Data From a Dead Satellite Reveals Lost Continents Under Antarctica.” This is followed by the breathless proclamation: “These gravity images are revolutionizing our ability to study the least understood continent on Earth—Antarctica.”

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz …

As I wrote to one person who sent me the link (which I appreciated):

Well, under all that ice there’s … land. Who’d have thought? This was obviously already known. Antarctica is a continent (or continents depending on how we want to apportion the land area).  They’re only “lost” because they’ve been covered with ice. These images just help to see the shape of the land mass(es) under the ice.

In other words, this isn’t about the discovery of lost civilizations (though I’ll expect an Ancient Aliens episode to tell that to the world in short order). Dirt and civilization are two quite different things.

And I do indeed expect all sort of “see, we told you so” posts online from ancient astronaut theorists. After all, this sort of illogic is the foundation of their work. I also expect some Christian “researchers” to tell us this validates the Americas being Atlantis, or the migration of nephilim, or some such “biblically based” nonsense. That will make me cringe, prompting me to pray that few people will be duped into marrying the gospel to modern hokum about the ancient world. The former just makes me laugh.

The timing of this is, dare I say, providential. The YouTube Fringepop321 Channel just uploaded our epsiode on the Piri Reis map — the one that ancient aliens believers say shows the Antarctic when not covered by ice, proof positive that aliens gave someone photos of the area from their space craft (or some other means of bestowing their advanced knowledge). Too bad the map itself tells us what the land mass on it is. Watch and discover below:

The post Ancient Aliens Logic Lesson: Dirt Isn’t “Civilization” appeared first on Dr. Michael Heiser.

Graduating from Strong’s Word Study Tools for Better Word Study: Logos’s Reverse Interlinears

I decided this morning to do a quick screen capture video on reverse interlinears. This tool was pioneered in digital form by my employer, Logos Bible Software. I’m asked repeatedly about how to do word studies, so I created this as an answer to that question (I was again this morning, hence this post and the video). A large part of the answer is: have the right tools. It’s time to graduate from your hard copy Strong’s Concordance and Vine’s Dictionary. Really. It’s the 21st century.

What’s a reverse interlinear? In a nutshell, a tool that allows you to search for Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek words by means of an ENGLISH Bible. Sound crazy? Impossible? Nope. Watch below. It’s 7 minutes. I could fill an hour with what you could do with one, but these are the basics — and would be the most-used search techniques.

 

Here’s another video, not created by me — and even shorter — of how to search via reverse interlinears in a different way:

The post Graduating from Strong’s Word Study Tools for Better Word Study: Logos’s Reverse Interlinears appeared first on Dr. Michael Heiser.

Apkallu in the News

I couldn’t resist posting this — hat tip to Matthew for it!

“Record-Setting Sale Of An Ancient Assyrian Stone Relief Sparks Looting Fears In Iraq”

$28 million for a seven-foot carved relief of an apkallu. Readers will recall that apkallu are either depicted with wings (wings denote a divine nature) or fish (which denotes their origin / domicile in the abyss). This auctioned piece is of the winged variety. The description and its “meaning” leave a good bit to be desired, but I thought you’d be interested.

 

The post Apkallu in the News appeared first on Dr. Michael Heiser.

MEMRA 2019 First Module Open for Registration

I’ve decided to open another MEMRA module. Registration for the first 2019 module will remain open until December 31, 2018. After registration closes those who are registered will receive instructions by email for accessing the courses, which begin on January 7, 2019.

Courses offered will be:

Beginning Biblical Hebrew
Beginning Biblical Greek
Beginning Biblical Aramaic

MEMRA courses are delivered on video and are self-paced. There is no calendar. They are designed for 52 weeks, but students will not be locked out of the course after 52 weeks. They follow a grammar that must be purchased separately on Amazon (or some other site/place). Click on the registration link to register for the course and navigate the site for more information!

The post MEMRA 2019 First Module Open for Registration appeared first on Dr. Michael Heiser.