Some readers have drawn my attention to this recent criticism of my understanding of the morphology of the word nephilim. I left some comments on that blog site, but thought it would be worth a post here. I'll try to be brief (stop laughing). First, it is true that...
Hebrew
Naked Bible Podcast Episode 033: Word Studies, Part 2
Episode 33 continues our series on Bible study at the word level. Last time we talked about word usage as it pertains to usage by a single biblical author within the scope of that author's writings. Our launching point then was the lemma behind "unmarried" in 1 Cor...
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...
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...
Dictionary of Classical Hebrew: A Unique, Indispensable Tool
I heard in the office today that the Dictionary of Classical Hebrew (DCH; 8 vols; ed. David J. A. Clines) is almost at the development threshold on pre-pub. It needs only a couple dozen more orders to become a digital reality. I don't often blog about Logos pre-pubs....
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...
Allegorical Interpretation of the Names in Genesis 5
I've had several readers over the past several months ask me to comment on a post authored by Chuck Missler entitled, "Meanings of the Names in Genesis 5." The essay puts forth the idea that the list of names in Genesis 5, stretching from Adam to Noah, can be read as...
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...
There's a Lot to Think About When Translating Genesis 1:1-3
Way back in September of 2010 I had posted a lecture I gave at church where I attempted to explain the real issue involved in translating Genesis 1:1-3. Rather than meanings of words like bara', the real issue is the relationship of the clauses (and the nature of...
All Commentaries are Not Created Equal, Part 3: Commentary Recommendations
In response to my two previous posts about commentaries, several readers have asked me for recommendations on commentaries. This is a little like asking me to recommend a Bible translation (see here for my thoughts on that), but this request actually calls for more...
Back to Blogging, and Important Books about Biblical Words
Well, I'm finally back from a week on the east coast. That means things will start to return to normal (although I find myself right in the middle of the annual whirlwind of preparing for the annual scholarly meetings I attend - ETS and SBL). I hope to resume looking...
All Commentaries are Not Created Equal, Part 1
In my experience, most students who venture beyond just reading the Bible have heard of Bible commentaries. But in case someone reading this hasn't heard the term before, I should explain. A Bible commentary is just what it sounds like -- a book that provides comments...
Dan McClellen's Response to Yours Truly, and My Rejoinder Points
Hope you all aren't getting bored with this. For those interested, Dan McClellan has posted a response on his blog to my thoughts on his SBL paper of last year. You can all go read it in full. I'm taking a few moments here to add "rejoinder thoughts" to his most...