The episode is now live! In Episode 139 of the Naked Bible Podcast, Dr. Michael Heiser responds to a range of listener-submitted theological questions that dive deep into biblical interpretation, supernatural worldview, and ancient context. This Q&A installment...
divine council
Five Differences Between Qur’anic (Sharia) Law and Old Testament Law
I'd recommend this interesting essay to readers. It was published by the Christian Research Institute. The essay has some deficiencies, in that there are other important differences (and nuances within the differences noted). For example, the OT law was also something...
Mike’s ETS Paper Now on Kindle
I posted my ETS paper ("The Divine Council in the Pentateuch") in PDF form a few days ago. It's now available in Kindle format.
Naked Bible Podcast Episode 134: ETS-SBL Interviews with Scholars: Part 6
During the recent annual meetings for biblical studies scholars held in San Antonio, Dr. Heiser interviewed a number of scholars about their recent work. In Part 6 of those interviews, we chat with Stephen Huebscher (PhD candidate at Clarks Summit University), David...
Naked Bible Podcast Episode 133: ETS-SBL – Live Q & A in San Antonio
This was our first live episode. Trey, myself and David Burnett got together with podcast listeners and a live Q & A broke out! Thank you to everyone who came and joined us in San Antonio! Ep. 133 drops the studio for a packed room at Rosella’s Coffee in San...
Mike Heiser’s ETS Paper: The Divine Council in the Pentateuch
A week ago I presented this invited paper in the ETS Pentateuch section: ets-2016-divine-council-in-the-pentateuch The paper isn't an academic work per se. It's more conversational. I took that route because of the time limitation. However, it does have some different...
The Function of the Divine Council in Heavenly Worship: Piety, not Mysticism: Part 5
For the previous post and links to earlier parts of this series by Stephen Huebscher, click here. -MSH SUMMARY OF TEXTS. After surveying the most common biblical and Second Temple texts (together with a few older ones from the ancient Near East), we can see that the...
The Function of the Divine Council in Heavenly Worship: Piety, not Mysticism: Part 4
[Note: This post continues where Part 3 left off. It includes the rest of the main biblical as well as non-biblical ancient Jewish texts.-- MSH] Psalm 97:7–9. “All worshipers of images are put to shame, who make their boast in worthless idols; worship him, all you...
The Function of the Divine Council in Heavenly Worship: Piety, not Mysticism Part 3
[This is Part 3 of Stephen Huebscher's series on the divine council and heavenly worship. See Part 1 and Part 2. -- MSH] We now move on to the second group of texts relating to our topic, the OT biblical texts. Over the next several posts, we are will look at nine...
The Function of the Divine Council in Heavenly Worship: Piety, not Mysticism: Part 2
Part 1 of this series can be found here. To introduce the topic and get things moving, there are two points to remember. First, the responsibilities of the divine council include (1) administrating Yahweh’s will to the nations, (2) administering justice, and...
The Function of the Divine Council in Heavenly Worship: Piety, not Mysticism: Part 1
Editor's Note: This is the first post in a series by my friend Stephen Huebscher. Stephen is a doctoral student in Hebrew Bible and is very acquainted with my work and the divine council in general. I hope you enjoy his contributions to the blog! -- MSH “Heavenly...
Naked Bible Podcast Episode 120: Fern and Audrey Update, and Introduction to Beth
UPDATE 3/7/2018: Fern and Audrey now have their own non-profit ministry. Please donate to Discovering MErcy! Fern and Audrey return with an update on their work with ritual abuse survivors, and introduce a colleague (“Beth”) who does the same work. Beth tells...
Parts 2 through 9 of Ben Witherington’s Review of The Unseen Realm
Yes, you read that correctly - 9 parts. I've been out of commission for about a week with grading, travel time, and now in an intensive teaching week with "Fern and Audrey" and a dozen other folks. So ... I fell behind keeping track of these. But here they are: Review...
Ben Witherington Review of The Unseen Realm, Part 1
I'm grateful that Dr. Ben Witherington has taken the time to not only read my book, The Unseen Realm, but also to blog about it. Here is the first installment of his review, which took the form of an interview/exchange with me. Ben is a well-known New Testament...
Does Believing in Plural Deities Make Any Difference?
This is the first post on Naked Bible by my friend Dr. Ronn Johnson. Ronn has extensive teaching experience in biblical studies (PhD, Dallas Seminary) and many years of pastoral experience. To get acquainted with him, listen to this episode of the Naked Bible Podcast....