Hat tip to Terry the Censor for finding the Amar Annus article to which I alluded on the Conspirinormal podcast: Amar Annus, “On the Origin of Watchers: A Comparative Study of the Antediluvian Wisdom in Mesopotamian and Jewish Traditions,” Journal for the Study of the...
journal articles
Naked Bible 40: Q&A 1
Our first Question and Answer episode! Transcript 40 Q&A1 Here is the paper referenced in the show: GOD'S PLAN AND GOD'S POWER: ISAIAH 66 AND THE RESTRAINING FACTORS OF 2 THESS 2:6-7 Q&A Question Summaries with Timestamps 1. [00:55] – Acts 1:15 and the...
The Wife of Jesus Coptic Fragment: Another Update
The New York Times online science page published a short article today wherein scientists who have examined the Coptic fragment that has Jesus referring to his wife ("my wife") is more likely authentic than not. Sigh. The issue isn't really if the papyrus is ancient....
The Plural Elohim of Psalm 82: Gods or Men?
[Note: For other posts on Mike's work on the divine council, click here for the archive.] At last week's annual ETS (Evangelical Theological Society) meeting I read two papers. The first was entitled. "What Is / Are (an) Elohim?" It dealt with why the reality of...
Why the Moundbuilder Myth is Wrong
Readers interested in ancient North America (and who are data-driven, not conspiracy-driven or fans of bad biblical interpretation) would do well to read this old (2011) essay by Kenneth Feder, Bradley T. Lepper, Terry A. Barnhart, and Deborah A. Bolnick:...
Naked Bible Podcast Episode 195: Is Christmas a Pagan Holiday?
There is much discussion online at this time of year as to the presumed pagan origins of Christmas. December 25, we are told, was a date stolen from pagan worship, specifically from the festival of the “Birth of the Unconquered Sun” (Sol Invictus)? Should Christians...
More Kindle Academic Papers from Mike Available
A couple of weeks ago I posted three of my conference papers that have been converted to Kindle format. Here are four additional papers for Kindle: Michael S. Heiser, "Thinking Clearly about the Jesus Family Tomb: A Conference Paper" Michael S. Heiser,...
The Giant Clans and the Conquest
Those who have read The Unseen Realm know that I have an atypical perspective on the conquest -- specifically, the contention by many that the Israelite conquest was an indiscriminate genocide of the inhabitants of Canaan. My view is that it wasn't indiscriminate at...
Mike Interviewed on the Alexxcast
You can listen to the interview here. The planned subject was ancient astronaut material, but the interview wound up going in all sorts of directions. Toward the end I talk about the importance of peer-review in scholarly publishing. I mentioned Robert Bauval's Orion...
Naked Bible 57: Acts 22
Acts 22 In an earlier episode (#50), we asked whether Paul’s stoning at Lystra in Acts 14 was the backdrop for the heavenly visionary experience he described in 2 Corinthians 12. Did Paul in fact have an NDE? We concluded that the chronology Paul alluded to in 2...
Sacrifice, Defilement, Purity, Impurity
I'm currently reading an excellent book by Jonathan Klawans entitled, Impurity and Sin in Ancient Judaism. Klawans makes a simple, yet profound observation -- that ritual impurity and the defilement brought about by sin are not the same in OT law and ritual. They are...
Journal Article on Divine Plurality in the Hebrew Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls
My thanks are due to the generous policy of Tyndale Bulletin for allowing me to post a link to a scholarly article that appears in the most recent issue. The article is entitled: Monotheism and the Language of Divine Plurality in the Hebrew Bible and the Dead Sea...
The Alleged Alignment of the Giza Pyramids with the Constellation Orion
This past weekend I spent some time revisiting Stuart Robbins' excellent Exposing PseudoAstronomy podcast. On of his May 2012 episodes was on the alleged "Orion Correlation" promoted in print and online by Robert Bauval. The basic idea is that the three Giza pyramids...
Robert Ripley: A More Honest Showman Than Steven Greer
I just blogged this over at UFO Religions so I thought I'd reproduce this here. >> In the latest twist to the Steven Greer ET disclosure shell game (hat tip to BK), Greg Newkirk of the Who Forted? blog and Lee Spiegel of the Huffington Post (photo credit for the...
Another Giant Human Skeleton That Isn't
I've blogged before about giant human skeletons that aren't giant human skeletons. The first two examples I blogged about were hoaxes, created with image editing software (see here and here). The Remnant of the Giants blog recently had an interesting post about a...