Michael S. Heiser's Blog, page 68

Naked Bible Podcast Episode 030: Introducing Word Level Study

It’s been several weeks since I’ve been able to do another podcast episode, so here we go.

In this episode, the series on taking Bible study seriously transitions to word level research by overviewing some directions we’ll take as we think about studying biblical words.

Technorati Tags: Bible, context, greek, hebrew, study, word

Biblical Theology, Poverty, and Social Justice: Part 1

I’ve decided to embark on an exploration of poverty and social justice with respect to the biblical text. “Social justice” is currently a hot-button issue and, in my view, is a term easily manipulated by politicians and theologians who want to wield political influence. In other words, this is an area where the Bible becomes prime political fodder. And that in turn means the biblical text gets routinely abused in the process.

Toward kick-starting the topic, I’m hoping readers will read the informative (and lengthy – 24 pp) overview of terms for the poor in the Old Testament from Anchor Bible Dictionary. I’ll follow it later with a survey of the terminology of the New Testament. In the next post I’ll offer some observations from this essay.

As you read these essays and future posts, I’d encourage you to entertain three questions / issues:

1. What does the terminology indicate about the status of the poor? That is, what kinds of poverty are described by the terminology?

2. What does the biblical text tell us about the circumstances of or occasions for the poverty situations described? In other words, why are the poor poverty stricken? Whose fault is it?

3. Who is responsible for a solution to the poverty described?

The last question is, in large part, where the “social justice” rubber meets the road. It has many nuances, as we’ll see. Answering this question will in many ways articulate a biblical theology of social justice.

Technorati Tags: Bible, biblical, hebrew, Israel, poor, poverty, social justice, theology

What is Exegesis Anyway?

Words like “exegesis” and “exegetical” are thrown around by biblical scholars all the time. Those not in the guild or who haven’t taken courses in biblical languages or hermeneutics might wonder what the terminology means. If that’s you, I recommend reading this short post by Jeff Krantz over at the Logos Bible Software blog. The post takes you through several steps that are pertinent to “doing exegesis” in a biblical passage. The sample is easy to follow (and make sure to watch the short video in the post as well), so I think it does a good job of introducing readers to some components of the exegetical task.

Technorati Tags: Bible, exegesis, exegetical, grammar, greek, interpretation, method, process, resources, software, tools

ETS-SBL Musings: Imprecatory Prayer

Just got back from the week of conferences. A tough trip getting there (15 hours due to flight delays and three flight legs . . . I have a history of hard travel experiences). But easy coming back, thankfully.

One of the papers I attended was on the theology of imprecatory prayers (specifically, it was a distillation of the speaker’s dissertation on imprecation in the psalms). It was excellent. I say this not just because the speaker and I agreed that imprecation is theologically important and relevant for modern Christians, but also because he had such interesting examples.

In case my view on this is unfamiliar, I’ll sketch it for everyone (I just did a search through this blog’s posts and came up empty – I can’t believe I’ve never blogged on this before).

In a nutshell, imprecatory prayer derives from the Abrahamic covenant (Gen 12:1-3), the passage where God himself tells Abraham that he will curse anyone who curses him and his descendants (God’s children). When the psalmist or anyone else prays for God to judge people (even killing them), the basis is that the person praying is, in effect, asking God to remember this covenantal promise. The one praying is asking God to settle scores and judge evil oppressors. In other words, rather than taking matters into his own hands, the one praying leaves it to God to remember his promise. Jesus would not have asked David or another psalmist to repent for such a prayer, since the basis was God’s own covenant promise to avenge those who sought the harm of His own children.

Since Christians are the inheritors of the Abrahamic covenant—which is explicitly stated in Galatians 3—it stands to reason we can ask God to judge our enemies as well. While we must avoid taking matters into our own hands, being willing to suffer, we can, at the same time, pray for God to judge our enemies and then let the matter rest in His hands. Who else would we ask? It is up to God as to how He will remove and judge those who oppress and curse his children. It may be something mild, or God may take the person’s life. Or God might say no. This is up to God and we cannot judge God’s decisions. We accept them either way.

Of course the way this is immediately abused is to presume (and, God forbid, pray) that God will remove anyone we don’t like, or who does things we don’t like, if we ask. That isn’t the point of even Old Testament imprecation. It’s about people who actively seek our harm (“curse” us) — taking such matters to God, telling Him how we feel, how we want justice, and then leaving it right there, in no way seeking that person’s demise on our own.

I don’t know of any coherent objections. Common ones include:

1. “God was different in the Old Testament.” This of course ignores how the divine (violent) warrior imagery of the Old Testament is applied to Jesus in the NT (Revelation and some places in Ephesians). He isn’t coming back blowing kisses – there will be a day of the Lord where evil is punished.

2. Another option was a sub-focus of the ETS paper I heard — that the command to love one’s enemies and/or forgive them nullifies imprecation. The first issue, the command to love one’s enemies (e.g., Matt 5:43-44), is actually drawn from the Old Testament (Lev 19:18), and the curses of the Abrahamic covenant are certainly in play there. That means that this idea is no argument for rendering imprecation null and void, but must in some way work alongside imprecation. Then you have the wars for conquest, kingship, various wars in the monarchy (some of which were defensive and endorsed by God Himself), etc. The appeal to the “love your enemies” then just doesn’t work as an objection.

The paper I heard dealt with how, in certain circumstances, forgiveness is either a misunderstood concept, or needs to be defined in certain ways. I’ve asked the presenter for a copy of the paper and for permission to post it here. Hopefully he will agree so I can share it with you. But in a nutshell, I’ll share two brief examples.

First, is it really our RIGHT to forgive enemies who are unrepentant? For example, let’s say that someone does personal harm to you, a child of God, an inheritor of the Abrahamic covenant, or your church. You (or your church) forgive him. But in the ensuing weeks, that person encounters severe hardship through a set of circumstances that can easily be viewed as providential judgment. Here’s the rub: You forgave, but God punished — were you more gracious than God? If God desired to punish evil, do you have any right to insist (or quote Matt 5:43) to God that He ought not punish His enemies (our enemies are His enemies in the context of the Abrahamic covenant)? Who are you to assume you are more righteous than your God? Good luck with that one.

Second, what about a passage like Rev 6:9-10

9 When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. 10 They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?”

In this passage, we see believer-martyrs cry out to God for justice — that their enemies be punished. The response is not a rebuke from God (“didn’t you people read Matt 5:43?”) but the return of Christ in the climactic day of the Lord event. This passage seems quite in line with my view of imprecation, and quite at odds with objections.

At any rate, the paper offered other interesting examples and observations. Hopefully I’ll be able to share those with you soon.

Technorati Tags: Abraham, covenant, curse, Galatians 3, imprecation, imprecatory, inherit, judgment, justice, prayers, Psalms

ETS-SBL Musings, Part 1: Imprecatory Prayer

Just got back from the week of conferences. A tough trip getting there (15 hours due to flight delays and three flight legs . . . I have a history of hard travel experiences). But easy coming back, thankfully.

One of the papers I attended was on the theology of imprecatory prayers (specifically, it was a distillation of the speaker’s dissertation on imprecation in the psalms). It was excellent. I say this not just because the speaker and I agreed that imprecation is theologically important and relevant for modern Christians, but also because he had such interesting examples.

In case my view on this is unfamiliar, I’ll sketch it for everyone (I just did a search through this blog’s posts and came up empty – I can’t believe I’ve never blogged on this before).

In a nutshell, imprecatory prayer derives from the Abrahamic covenant (Gen 12:1-3), the passage where God himself tells Abraham that he will curse anyone who curses him and his descendants (God’s children). When the psalmist or anyone else prays for God to judge people (even killing them), the basis is that the person praying is, in effect, asking God to remember this covenantal promise. The one praying is asking God to settle scores and judge evil oppressors. In other words, rather than taking matters into his own hands, the one praying leaves it to God to remember his promise. Jesus would not have asked David or another psalmist to repent for such a prayer, since the basis was God’s own covenant promise to avenge those who sought the harm of His own children.

Since Christians are the inheritors of the Abrahamic covenant—which is explicitly stated in Galatians 3—it stands to reason we can ask God to judge our enemies as well. While we must avoid taking matters into our own hands, being willing to suffer, we can, at the same time, pray for God to judge our enemies and then let the matter rest in His hands. Who else would we ask? It is up to God as to how He will remove and judge those who oppress and curse his children. It may be something mild, or God may take the person’s life. Or God might say no. This is up to God and we cannot judge God’s decisions. We accept them either way.

Of course the way this is immediately abused is to presume (and, God forbid, pray) that God will remove anyone we don’t like, or who does things we don’t like, if we ask. That isn’t the point of even Old Testament imprecation. It’s about people who actively seek our harm (“curse” us) — taking such matters to God, telling Him how we feel, how we want justice, and then leaving it right there, in no way seeking that person’s demise on our own.

I don’t know of any coherent objections. Common ones include:

1. “God was different in the Old Testament.” This of course ignores how the divine (violent) warrior imagery of the Old Testament is applied to Jesus in the NT (Revelation and some places in Ephesians). He isn’t coming back blowing kisses – there will be a day of the Lord where evil is punished.

2. Another option was a sub-focus of the ETS paper I heard — that the command to love one’s enemies and/or forgive them nullifies imprecation. The first issue, the command to love one’s enemies (e.g., Matt 5:43-44), is actually drawn from the Old Testament (Lev 19:18), and the curses of the Abrahamic covenant are certainly in play there. That means that this idea is no argument for rendering imprecation null and void, but must in some way work alongside imprecation. Then you have the wars for conquest, kingship, various wars in the monarchy (some of which were defensive and endorsed by God Himself), etc. The appeal to the “love your enemies” then just doesn’t work as an objection.

The paper I heard dealt with how, in certain circumstances, forgiveness is either a misunderstood concept, or needs to be defined in certain ways. I’ve asked the presenter for a copy of the paper and for permission to post it here. Hopefully he will agree so I can share it with you. But in a nutshell, I’ll share two brief examples.

First, is it really our RIGHT to forgive enemies who are unrepentant? For example, let’s say that someone does personal harm to you, a child of God, an inheritor of the Abrahamic covenant, or your church. You (or your church) forgive him. But in the ensuing weeks, that person encounters severe hardship through a set of circumstances that can easily be viewed as providential judgment. Here’s the rub: You forgave, but God punished — were you more gracious than God? If God desired to punish evil, do you have any right to insist (or quote Matt 5:43) to God that He ought not punish His enemies (our enemies are His enemies in the context of the Abrahamic covenant)? Who are you to assume you are more righteous than your God? Good luck with that one.

Second, what about a passage like Rev 6:9-10

9 When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. 10 They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?”

In this passage, we see believer-martyrs cry out to God for justice — that their enemies be punished. The response is not a rebuke from God (“didn’t you people read Matt 5:43?”) but the return of Christ in the climactic day of the Lord event. This passage seems quite in line with my view of imprecation, and quite at odds with objections.

At any rate, the paper offered other interesting examples and observations. Hopefully I’ll be able to share those with you soon.

Technorati Tags: Abraham, covenant, curse, Galatians 3, imprecation, imprecatory, inherit, judgment, justice, prayers, Psalms

Free Online Access to SAGE Journals

Through the month of November SAGE is granting free access to its Theology and Biblical Studies Journals — take advantage of it. SAGE is a gateway service to a number of the most respected academic journals in these fields. Create an account, browse, and download some excellent content!

And while we’re at it, you should check out the Ancient World Online’s list of open access academic journals for studying the ancient world.

Blogging and Podcasting

Sorry there hasn’t been more of both. November is always the worst month of the year for anything personal. That’s typically derivative of prep for the upcoming academic conferences, which all piggy-back the week before Thanksgiving (this year, Nov 13-20 in Milwaukee and Chicago): ETS, AAR, SBL, ASOR, IBR, NEAS. I’m going to try and collect some audio this year from scholars for the blog and perhaps the podcast. If anyone has any specific questions for anyone in particular, let me know. I may bump into that person.

Another Site Upgrade: Search Field

I just added a search field to the blog. The theme didn’t come with one. Hopefully I’ve picked a good one. It’s near the top of the left-hand column.

Some Upgrades at the Naked Bible

I squeezed in some blog site work today. Here’s the list of what’s new or slightly changed:

There’s now a place for most popular posts (RH sidebar).
You should now be able to check a box to be notified when people comment on one of your comments.
I have updated recommended links and added explanations to them when you hover over the link.
I’ve installed a new sharing widget on posts and on pages so you can easily share them by more means than before.
I expanded my “Categories” to show the hierarchy and ditch the pull-down menu (which many readers likely missed).
You can now subscribe to the blog and get post notifications in email (RH sidebar).

Hope these items will make the blog a more pleasant experience. If you have other suggestions, let me know!

Logos 5 Is Shipping – Check Out the New Clause Search

Logos 5 has finally launched! It’s been three years since we launched an upgrade. Check out what’s new. One of the best features in my mind is the new clause search (video below). When we start work on Learn To Use Greek and Hebrew 2.0, this will surely be a part of that project.

Technorati Tags: clause search, Logos 5