A week or so ago I saw something on Twitter that made me shake my head. An apparently well meaning Hebrew enthusiast gleefully reported that, after searching through hundreds of manuscripts, he’d found thousands of places where the divine name (YHWH) was...
divine name
Heavenly Worship in Second Temple Judaism, Early Christianity, and Gnostic Sects: Part 3
Guest blogger, Stephen Huebscher This is the third of five posts in this series. B. CONCEPTIONS OF HEAVENLY WORSHIP IN EARLY CHRISTIANITY Early Christian conceptions of heavenly worship drew heavily on the OT and, not surprisingly, show a similarity, though with some...
Naked Bible Podcast Episode 150: Ezekiel 35-36
These two chapters seems intrusive. The oracles against the nations ended in Ezekiel 32, followed by the announcement of Jerusalem’s fall (ch. 33) and a transition to the future hope of Israel (ch. 34). Chapters 35-36 are an oracle against Edom (“Mount Seir”) followed...
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...
What Was the Hebrew Name of Jesus?
I get questions about the divine name periodically, or about how Jesus is a pagan name for Zeus (or similar nonsense). For those items, click here, here, and here, respectively. But more often than not, I get questions about how the Hebrew name of Jesus was...
Naked Bible Podcast Episode 97 – Q & A Number 12
The episode is now live. This brisk Q&A tackles a stack of listener questions across Heiser’s core themes. He begins with the perennial “Is there sex in heaven?”—distinguishing earthly procreative embodiment from glorified life and noting that Genesis 6 (Watcher...
Naked Bible 85: Q&A 9
Our 9th Question and Answer episode! Also find out what topics are next for the podcast. Harvey book on the term Jew: Graham Harvey, The True Israel: Uses of the Names Jew, Hebrew, and Israel in Ancient Jewish and Early Christian Literature (Brill, 2001) Transcript 85...
YHWH and the Septuagint
Larry Hurtado has some interesting remarks on a recent study by Septuagint scholar John Wevers on the translation of the divine name (YHWH) in the Septuagint. Hurtado summarizes parts of Wevers’ essay, drawing out some fascinating patterns in the LXX. Readers...
Joseph Farrell’s 150-Year Learning Curve on Yahweh and Cuneiform Texts
A few days ago I exchanged emails with Cris Putnam who blogs at Logos Apologia. The conversation was in regard to how Dr. Joseph Farrell had published certain ideas about the name Yahweh in cuneiform texts that people who are actually in this field (ancient Semitic...
Anti-Semitic Bible Study
I often get asked about the "true pronunciation of the divine name" or "the authentic meaning of YHWH, the Tetragrammaton." I've often wondered why people care -- why is it that they can't be content with the scholarly convention of "Yahweh" in this regard, especially...
Naked Bible Podcast Episode 20
I've talked in previous episodes about how the best way to understood the original context of the biblical writers is to immerse yourself in the worldview of the civilizations with which the biblical writers had regular contact. Weve already spent several episodes...
Update on the Talpiot B Tomb Inscription
For those of you interested in epigraphy, especially that of the Talpiot B “disciples’ tomb,” here are two follow-up posts in response to the recent offering of Richard Bauckham. One of the major points of contention in the inscription is whether or...
Richard Bauckham on the Talpiot B Inscription
I just read the lengthy essay by Richard Bauckham entitled, “The Four Line Ossuary Inscription from Talpiyot Tomb B: An Interpretation” posted on the ASOR blog today. It’s fascinating, and exactly what I was hoping would follow the Rollston article....
Mosaic Authorship of the Torah: Problems with the Documentary Hypothesis (JEDP), Part 3
I’m thinking this will be my next-to-last post on JEDP. The topic has not generated much discussion, so I’m going to move on. Can’t say I’m surprised. I’m not all that interested in composition of the Pentateuch myself. Toward the end...
Mosaic Authorship of the Torah: Problems with the Documentary Hypothesis (JEDP), Part 2
I am presuming that most of you have given Friedman’s Chapter 2 (from Who Wrote the Bible?) a read-through by now. I wanted to post a couple quick thoughts on why his description, though accurately describing the theory, actually makes me suspicious of the...