Michael S. Heiser's Blog, page 57

Naked Bible Podcast Episode 113: Ezekiel 2-3

The episode is now live.

PEERANORMAL Episode 3: EVP – Electronic Voice Phenomena

The episode is now live. It’s an important discussion of not only the topic, but spiritual / theological implications.

New Motion Graphic Video: Gods of the Bible, Part 2

Thanks to Shaun for producing this second installment:

 

Part 1 can be viewed here:

Three New Items by Mike for Amazon Kindle

I’ve begun to move some of my academic papers to Kindle format. To this point, I’ve been selling them as PDF files. I’m going to phase those out and move what I can (by publishing permission) to Kindle.

If you go to this link on the Kindle store, you’ll see the three new titles (each $1.99). They are:

Michael S. Heiser, “Does Divine Plurality in the Hebrew Bible Demonstrate an Evolution From Polytheism to Monotheism in Israelite Religion? A Conference Paper“

Michael S. Heiser, “The Old Testament Response to Pagan Divination: A Conference Paper“

Michael S. Heiser, “Panspermia: What It Is and Why It Matters: An Introductory Essay“

Please let others know about the papers. More will follow.

 

 

New Naked Bible Blog

This will be the last post on this blog site. Please visit my new homepage and bookmark the blog’s new home. I plan to take down this site sometime after July 4.

Changes in the Look of the Naked Bible and My Homepage

Those of you who have gone to my homepage in the last day or two have already noticed the changes, but I need to make an official announcement.

For the past year a professional designer has taken my site on as a gratis project (Joseph Fioramonti of POSTMORTAL Design). He’s streamlined the site and blogs on the back end, put together some original art work, and made the blogs look like they belong to the homepage. I like the look and

What does this mean for readers? For now, you can still get to this blog (and the others) from the new homepage, or use the redirect I’ve had for several years: nakedbibleblog.com. But there will be changed to that …

Over the next week:

I’ll be posting a note on my old homepage directing people to the new one
I’ll be populating all the posts on this blog to their new homes on the new blog site that lives within the new homepage. Most of that is already done, but I have a couple months of copying and pasting to do. That means that, right now, the new blog sites will NOT have the most recent posts (I think they have up through this past January).  I’ll announce something when the copying is done.
Once the copying is done, I will put a sign on the front of this blog (a “last post”) directing people to the new blog location.

Longer Term:

I will cease looking at or interacting with this old blog page.  I may just take it down after several months. Not sure. Same with the old homepage.

Have a look at the new site and its pages — especially the blogs. Let me know if something is missing, or you can’t find something. The layout is different, but we’ll all get used to it.

Dan Wallace on the Great Commission

Noted Greek grammarian and textual criticism scholar (and all-around nice guy) Dan Wallace recently posted a three-part treatment of the Great Commission. This is what pastors should be doing on any given Sunday. No, pastors don’t need to be Greek scholars. They just need to get serious about studying for sermons. Everything you’ll read in here is available in reference grammars and serious commentaries (i.e., commentaries that engage the original language instead of summarizing the English). Enjoy!

Part 1: The Great Commission or the Great Suggestion?

The Great Commission, Part 2: Historical Setting

The Great Commission, Part 3: Application

Technorati Tags: commission, great, greek, New Testament, wallace

New Open Access Resource: Journal of Inductive Biblical Studies

I just came across this new journal. It’s rationale is as follows:

The Journal of Inductive Biblical Studies intends to promote the hermeneutical approach to the study of the Scriptures generally known as Inductive Biblical Studies. By Inductive Biblical Study (IBS) we mean the hermeneutical movement initiated by William Rainey Harper and Wilbert Webster White that was embodied in the curriculum of The Biblical Seminary in New York founded in 1900. This approach had precursors in the history of interpretation and has since the beginning of the twentieth-century enjoyed widespread dissemination, being taught at such institutions as Princeton Theological Seminary, Columbia Theological Seminary, Union Theological Seminary in Virginia, Fuller Theological Seminary, Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminaries, Azusa Pacific University, and Asbury Theological Seminary, as well as hundreds of other institutions and organizations around the world. For more detailed description of IBS, see Bauer and Traina, Inductive Bible Study: A Comprehensive Guide to the Practice of Hermeneutics (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2011) and the IBS website.

I know a couple of the scholars on the editorial board. I’ve also read Robert Traina’s book and wold recommend it. Anything that gets people into the text is a good idea!

Technorati Tags: access, bible, free, journal, open, study

Math and Genesis 5′s Genealogies

In view of the recent post on the antediluvian genealogies, I thought some readers might be interested in mathematical attempts to decipher them.

Here is a summary of the numbers in the genealogies in Genesis 5, excerpted from the Word Biblical Commentary (vol 1) by Gordon Wenham. The excerpt references a couple of studies. One attempt that appeared after the WBC was published is that of Donald Etz. It’s interesting, but I don’t find it persuasive. As the WBC notes, there’s no completely satisfactory mathematical cipher.

 

Technorati Tags: genealogies, Genesis, mathematical

Denis Lamoureux on Biblical Genealogies

Over at the Patheos blog, Pete Enns has been posting about this short video series by Denis Lamoureux. You’ll recall that Dr. Lamoureux was one of the contributors to the 4 Views on the historical Adam book. His position was “no historical Adam.” He’s an evolutionary creationist.

I think many of you will find this series of interest. I’ve watched the first four videos, but have posted the entire series of six here. None of them are very long and they’re pretty clear. He does a good job showing some of the artificiality of the genealogies without getting too technical. I say “artificial” in the sense that biblical genealogies were not constructed for the same reasons that we construct genealogies. There’s often some sort of theological messaging to them. The videos do a good job of highlighting some of the features that make this evident.

Part 1: Introduction: The Bible and Genealogies

Part 2: Genealogies of Jesus (handout that accompanies the video)

Part 3: Background to Genealogies of Genesis (handout that accompanies the video)

Part 4: Genealogies of Hebrew Patriarchs: Gen 5 and 11 (handout that accompanies the video)

Part 5: Adam and the Biblical Genealogies

Part 6: Conclusion: The Bible and Genealogies

Technorati Tags: bible, genealogies, Jesus, kings, Old Testament, patriarchs, Sumerian, video