Our first speaker and topic profile for this summer's inaugural Naked Bible Conference focused on Dr. Bill Arnold. Our second speaker and topic profile takes a look at Dr. Archie Wright. Dr. Wright will be familiar to some who follow the podcast and follow me on...
Second Temple Judaism
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...
Heavenly Worship in Second Temple Judaism, Early Christianity, and Gnostic Sects: Part 2
By guest blogger Stephen L. Huebscher STEP THREE: LOOKING AT THE THREE GROUPS INDIVIDUALLY CONCEPTIONS OF HEAVENLY WORSHIP IN SECOND TEMPLE JUDAISM The variety of groups and beliefs at this time was reflected in the variety of sacred texts used. It was common to...
The Function of the Divine Council in Heavenly Worship: Piety, not Mysticism: Part 5
For the previous post and links to earlier parts of this series by Stephen Huebscher, click here. -MSH SUMMARY OF TEXTS. After surveying the most common biblical and Second Temple texts (together with a few older ones from the ancient Near East), we can see that the...
Naked Bible Conference Speaker and Topic Profile #5
The first four profiles and topics for the upcoming Naked Bible Conference (Dallas, August 18) were: Dr. Bill Arnold: "Israel in, among, or against Its Neighbors? A Singular Israel in a Pluralistic World" Dr. Archie Wright: "The Reception of the Satan Tradition in...
Paul’s Use of Genesis 15:5 in Romans 4:18 in Light of Early Jewish Deification Traditions: Part 4: Becoming as the Stars and Inheritance of the Nations, Continued
This is Part 4 of David Burnett's guest blogging series Philo’s Spec. Law 4.187, 2 Baruch 21:4; 48:8, and Romans 4:17: Misconstrual and a Missing Link? This passage is frequently cited by commentators on Rom 4:17, rightly recognizing the parallel language regarding...
Paul’s Use of Genesis 15:5 in Romans 4:18 in Light of Early Jewish Deification Traditions: Part 2: Early Jewish Qualitative Interpretation of Genesis 15:5 and Related Texts
This is Part 2 of a series of guest pots by David Burnett. Part 1 is located here. - MSH PART 2 – Early Jewish Qualitative Interpretation of Genesis 15:5 and Related Texts Philo of Alexandria and the Saying “So Shall Your Seed Be” In commenting on Genesis 15:5 in Who...
Reversing Hermon: “A Fantastic Follow-Up to Unseen Realm”
That's the opinion of early reviewers. Reversing Hermon isn't my planned sequel to The Unseen Realm, but it does continue the conversation. I'll take it! Hope you'll read it!
Heavenly Worship in Second Temple Judaism, Early Christianity, and Gnostic Sects: Part 1
By guest blogger, Stephen L. Huebscher This series was originally written as an academic paper for presentation at a conference. At the time, we were doing research on the divine council for what ended up in Mike’s book The Unseen Realm. I had told Mike I was...
Online Database of Angels, Demons, and Ghosts in Rabbinic Texts
For real. The site is called Elyonim veTachtonim. Here's the description from the site: Elyonim veTachtonim project web site. As of today the first version of the database is finally available on-line and: covers the Babylonian Talmud [BT]; bases on the Soncino...
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...
Divine Plurality in the Dead Sea Scrolls
UPDATE: I have revised this paper and it has been published in the scholarly journal, Tyndale Bulletin.] [Note: For other posts on Mike's work on the divine council, click here for the archive.] I'm currently at Gonzaga University in Spokane, WA for the Pacific...
New Inscription and the Jewish Roots of Christianity: The “Aaargghh! Award”
My thanks to OJA, Debra, and TH (from elsewhere) for sending me the link to the NYT article entitled, "Ancient Tablet Ignites Debate on Messiah and Resurrection." This article is especially noteworthy in that I have decided to keep tabs on hyped media stories from now...
Mike’s New Commentary on the Book of Enoch is Now Shipping
Subscribers to my newsletter know that I have been working on the first of a planned three-volume Reader's Commentary on the Book of Enoch. That first volume is now shipping on Amazon: A Companion to the Book of Enoch: A Reader's Commentary, Vol I: The Book of the...
Naked Bible Podcast Episode 168: Melchizedek, Part 2: Second Temple Jewish Literature
In the previous two episodes on Melchizedek (1a, 1b) we covered the Old Testament data on this enigmatic figure. Jewish writers and readers in the Second Temple Period (ca. 500 BC – 70 AD) naturally had ideas on who Melchizedek was and how to understand him as a...