Stupid question? To anyone thinking clearly it is. There are, naturally, exceptions. It's just unfortunate that you can find them in Christian ministries. Readers may recall that I have posted several items about the grammar and syntax of Genesis 1:1-3. One such post...
Biblical Theology
Were New Testament Writers Hermeneutical Hacks?
For those of you who read comments what follows will be familiar. I've been chatting back-and-forth with someone named John Loftus, who is an atheist and has a blog called debunking Christianity. One of the issues upon which John focused was what he perceives as...
Hallowing God's Name
That's a take on the title of a recent post by John Hobbins over on Ancient Hebrew Poetry. The context is a discussion about what constitutes a good Bible translation. I have to agree with John. The parts must be contextualized to produce a contextualized whole....
Genesis 1:2 and the “Gap Theory”
Blogging has been a bit tough lately. This post (like everything else I'm working on presently) is overdue. Some have asked for some comments about the validity of the gap theory - the idea that Genesis 1:1 speaks of the initial creation, while Genesis 1:2 describes...
Genesis & Creation – Class 1 of 4
Editor's note: Original broken link replaced. Here is the first in a series of four lectures about Genesis and creation that Dr. Heiser gave at Grace Church Bellingham in September to October 2010. In this lecture, Dr. Michael Heiser tackles one of the most debated...
On John Walton’s Understanding of Hebrew Bara’
Some of you have asked for a summary of where I disagree with Walton on bara'. What follows below is an exchange between John Hobbins (another friend of mine and Hebrew scholar) and Walton. My reservations are essentially those that are expressed by Hobbins. Hobbins...
God as Creator of All Things — Including the Material Already Present at Genesis 1:1
For this post (and the next one) to make sense, you need to recall the initial post on Genesis 1. The conclusion of that post (and the powerpoint video) was that, according to the Hebrew syntax of Genesis 1:1-3, Genesis 1:1 ("when God began to create...") was NOT the...
Genesis 1 as a Polemic Against Ancient Near Eastern Religious Cosmologies
We might as well jump into this. As a way to get everyone into the conversation, here is an article to read. It's by Gerhard Hasel and entitled, "The Significance of the Cosmology in Genesis 1 in Relation to ANE Parallels."
Genesis 1 and Creationism, Part 2
In this post I want to hit on what is known as the "literary framework" view of Genesis 1. Basically, this view suggests that what happens on each of the creation days makes no scientific sense -- but makes very good sense in terms of a deliberate literary design to...
Focus on Fornication
I'll admit up front that I never thought I'd post on this subject, but it was brought to mind recently by a request I had via email to comment on the meaning of "fornication" (Greek: porneia). The question was put in the context of how some Christians have gotten the...
The Almah of Isaiah 7:14
What follows is the text (pre-edit) of an article I've written for Logos' print magazine, Bible Study Magazine. I thought it was worth a post at this time of year. --------------- The Almah of Isaiah 7:14Virgin or Not? The prophecy of Isaiah 7:14 is among the most...
A Brief Note on Contextualizing the Bible (Especially OT)
One of the responders accuse me of being extrabiblical in my approach to Romans 5:12. Actually, I'm being explicitly biblical, since I refuse to de-contextualize the Bible in favor of rendering interpretations that are comfortable, or that are European, American, or...
Did Jesus Endorse the Idea of Reincarnation?
I just saw that my old published journal article on this subject is no longer accessible online (it appeared in a peer-reviewed e-journal back in the day). Here is the citation, along with the PDF. Heiser, Michael. "Did Jesus Allow for Reincarnation? Assessing the...
Thoughts on Signs and Wonders: Part 1: Deuteronomy 13:1-5
A short time ago I blogged about my ministry going forward and mentioned Deuteronomy 13. More specifically, I wrote about how, due to the nature of what I often write about (the supernatural worldview of the Bible), there was potential for my work to be cherry-picked...
Genesis 1-3, the Sin of Achan, and Acts 5 (Ananias and Sapphira)
The most recent Naked Bible podcast featured some discussion of the point of the punishment of Ananias and Sapphira. I made the comment that Luke wanted readers to see a patterning contrast between others who sold something and "laid the money at the apostles' feet"...