Hat tip to Lindsay Kennedy of My Digital Seminary for this link: The Relationship Between the Worship of Other Gods and the Worship of Idols within the Old Testament I obviously haven't read it yet, but it looks worthwhile. I searched for Benjamin Sommer's name in it...
journal articles
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...
Naked Bible 83: Leviticus 23-25
This episode discusses items in three chapters of Leviticus including how Leviticus 23 conceptualizes the Sabbath, how its description of Israelite feasts and festivals diverges with other passages in the Torah, the imagery of the “shewbread” (“bread of the...
The Origin of Sin in Irenaeus and Jewish Pseudepigrapha (Enoch, Jubilees, Etc.)
Readers of this blog know that several people who've commented in the past about my views on Romans 5:12 have thought that plain reading of the text out of step with traditional Christianity. Below is an article (not publicly accessible) that shows that Irenaeus wrote...
The Genealogies of Genesis 5, Mathematical Approaches, and Theological Messaging
Below is the best essay to date I've found on this fascinating topic: Lloyd Bailey, "Biblical Math as Heilgeschichte?" in Richard D. Weis and David M. Carr, eds., A Gift of God in Due Season: Essays on Scripture and Community in Honor of James A. Sanders (vol. 225;...
Naked Bible 76: Leviticus 16
This episode focuses on the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) ritual. Unlike many popular commentaries teach, this important Old Testament ritual was about “resetting” the tabernacle/temple sanctuary, its priesthood, and the Israelite people to the state of ritual purity...
Important Divine Council Article
I thought I'd share an article that I consider one of the best I've ever read for understanding the divine council in biblical theology. It's a book chapter. I've converted it to PDF from my digital edition of book (there's no copyright prohibition that I can see in...
Naked Bible 70: Q&A 6
Our 6th Question and Answer episode! papers referenced in the show:MAGIC-DPL-ArnoldMagical Papyri-DNTB-Arnold Transcript 70 QA6 Question Timestamps & Topics Timestamp Topic 00:00 Introduction 01:58 Genesis 6: Why would fallen sons of God be punished for having...
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 60: Acts 27 & 28
Acts 27 & 28 This episode wraps up our study of the book of Acts. These two chapters focus on Luke’s account of Paul’s hazardous journey by ship to Rome. Through the course of his narrative, Luke drops some cryptic references to the theological concept of a...
Naked Bible 59: Q&A 4
Our 4th Question and Answer episode! paper referenced in the show:Chiel-The-Mysterious-Book-of-Jasher Transcript 59 Q&A4 This Q&A session continues Mike Heiser’s practice of engaging directly with listener-submitted questions, particularly on theological,...
An Assyrian Origin for the Trinity?
Some readers may be aware of claims in this regard popularized on the internet. The idea is actually fairly old, but in recent years has gained steam via the work of a credentialed Assyriologist, Simo Parpola. A few years ago I had the role of soliciting papers for an...
Naked Bible 58: Acts 23-26
Acts 23-26 These chapters cover the trials and imprisonments of Paul before setting sail for Rome to appeal to Caesar. Rather than focusing on the trial scenes, this episode of the podcast for the most part focuses on several statements of theological importance...
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...
The Mysterious Book of Jasher
That's the title of this scholarly article by rabbi Arthur Chiel I recently found in an old issue of the journal Judaism: Chiel-The-Mysterious-Book-of-Jasher The article is a very good survey of the history of what some folks (even today) tout as a lost biblical book....