This just popped into my In box. I apologize for being so behind the curve on this but, as I noted on my "About" page, I don't follow the NAR (New Apostolic Reformation) nor do I think its distinctive teachings are scriptural. But lots of movements have those sorts of...
Hebrew
Naked Bible Podcast Episode: Translating Genesis 1-11
In this episode Dr. Heiser talks to the men behind a new translation project, John Hobbins and Samuel Bray. The first volume of their effort is entitled Genesis 1-11: A New Old Translation for Readers, Scholars, and Translators. Our discussion focuses on the...
How Would a Biblical Writer Describe a UFO if He Saw One?
One of my most frequent points of irritation in the whole UFOs and religion arena is the idea that there are UFOs (as in flying spaceships) in the Bible (this is basically an Old Testament / Hebrew Bible issue, so that's my focus here). I want people to trust me when...
Naked Bible Podcast 031: Exegetical Fallacies
This episode continues the series on studying the Bible at the word level. The episode utilizes the audio of a short screen capture video that Dr. Heiser created to illustrate a range of exegetical fallacies that amateur researchers frequently commit when doing Greek...
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...
Is ‘adam “Adam”?
I've been thinking (still) about the historical Adam issue. It surprises me that I haven't seen anyone (yet -- perhaps one of you knows an exception) address the grammatical-syntactical issue as it relates to "Adam" in Genesis 1-5. I speak specifically of the fact...
Genesis 1:2 and the Verb HAYAH
Here is a [download] link to a short (13:00 or so) video I made searching for the structure of Genesis 1:2 and its verb, hayah ("to be") The video was prompted by a comment to an earlier post I made about the "gap theory." That theory of interpreting Genesis 1:1-3 in...
Genesis & Creation – Class 4 of 4
Editor's note: Replaced original link; here is the fourth/ final in the series of lectures on creation that Dr. Heiser gave at Grace Church Bellingham from September to October 2010: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=589NDmbH9nk
Genesis & Creation – Class 3 of 4
Editor's note: Original link replaced, and added the previous class of this series where Dr. Heiser spoke at Grace Church Bellingham on the creation of Genesis 1 in light of the ancient Near East. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOWTdhAFEh4...
Walton and Van Wolde: Hebrew Bara’ Does Not Mean “To Create”
John Hobbins has a helpful post offering links to the critiques of the thesis of Ellen Van Wolde that Hebrew bara' does not mean "create". John Walton's recent book The Lost World of Genesis 1, positively reviewed by me here and (soon) in print, has popularized this...
Biblical Anthropology, Part 4
I've posted prelimianry notes on both ruach and nephesh in the previous two posts. Now it's time to merge those files and observations. It's pretty interesting that the terms are used so often in the same ways and to describe the same things. Here's a list: 1. The...
Biblical Anthropology, Part 3
This one is like Part 2. I'm sharing my notes on nephesh now that I'm through all 50 pages of the PDF. Here are my notes on the range of meanings. My next step is to take my notes on ruach and nephesh and starting raising some questions and drawing some conclusions...
Recent Review of Robert Alter’s Translation of the Old Testament
I've had a number of people ask my opinion of Alter's new translation. I haven't read it. I also had several people send me the recent Wall Street Journal review by Blaire French. (Thanks to all of them!) I've reproduced it below. It's a good (and important)...
Graduating from Strong’s Word Study Tools for Better Word Study: Logos’s Reverse Interlinears
I decided this morning to do a quick screen capture video on reverse interlinears. This tool was pioneered in digital form by my employer, Logos Bible Software. I'm asked repeatedly about how to do word studies, so I created this as an answer to that question (I was...
Has Isaiah’s Signature Been Uncovered in Jerusalem?
Well, if you can read paleo-Hebrew that sure looks like: [לישׁעיה[ו] נבי[א as in: ל = "belonging to" [ישׁעיה[ו] נבי[א= Isaiah the prophet (with some letters missing) We'll see. I can hardly wait for the minimalist crowd to come up with another "what you see really...