Dr. Michael Heiser

[Philip]

Dr. Michael Heiser, scholar of ancient Bible languages and cultures:

While I don't know if I am the one who introduced the forum to scholar Dr. Michael Heiser and his views, I occasionally reference him as an excellent resource on textual meanings and insights to the the ancient languages and cultural contexts of the Bible. He's also particularly good at separating out such things from the denominational biases and traditions of various churches, by stripping down things to the barebones meanings of the text, while illuminating them per their original, ancient Mesopotamian contexts. Oftentimes, people mistakenly and wrongly read the text through modern eyes and denominational traditions - which can sometimes produce significant errors. And so Mike is very good at revealing such mistakes and biases. Additionally, Heiser does scholarly reviews and research into all manner of asserted paranormal phenomena, be they ancient or present existence of aliens, demons, ghosts, UFOs, alien abductions - and rather uniquely, he does so from a conservative Christian scholar and academic's viewpoint, attempting to always separate the actual evidences from anecdotal experiences and assertions. He also prefers to stick with peer-reviewed information - to cut through the drivel mass of frequently trotted out pseudo facts and typical pop culture stuff. He takes a high view of Scripture, which is why he takes it very seriously.

Anyway, I thought it might be useful to post some links about his expertise, credentials, and what his views are on a variety of key, forum-relevant topics:

His Bio: https://www.logos.com/academic/bio/heiser

His CV: http://drmsh.com/wp-content/uploads/201 ... iserCV.pdf

His areas of interest and purposes of his activities and lectures: http://drmsh.com/about/

What his beliefs are on a range of topics: http://drmsh.com/frequently-asked-questions/

[B. W.]

Dr. Michael Heiser, scholar of ancient Bible languages and cultures:

While I don't know if I am the one who introduced the forum to scholar Dr. Michael Heiser and his views, I occasionally reference him as an excellent resource on textual meanings and insights to the the ancient languages and cultural contexts of the Bible. He's also particularly good at separating out such things from the denominational biases and traditions of various churches, by stripping down things to the barebones meanings of the text, while illuminating them per their original, ancient Mesopotamian contexts. Oftentimes, people mistakenly and wrongly read the text through modern eyes and denominational traditions - which can sometimes produce significant errors. And so Mike is very good at revealing such mistakes and biases. Additionally, Heiser does scholarly reviews and research into all manner of asserted paranormal phenomena, be they ancient or present existence of aliens, demons, ghosts, UFOs, alien abductions - and rather uniquely, he does so from a conservative Christian scholar and academic's viewpoint, attempting to always separate the actual evidences from anecdotal experiences and assertions. He also prefers to stick with peer-reviewed information - to cut through the drivel mass of frequently trotted out pseudo facts and typical pop culture stuff. He takes a high view of Scripture, which is why he takes it very seriously.

Anyway, I thought it might be useful to post some links about his expertise, credentials, and what his views are on a variety of key, forum-relevant topics:

His Bio: https://www.logos.com/academic/bio/heiser

His CV: http://drmsh.com/wp-content/uploads/201 ... iserCV.pdf

His areas of interest and purposes of his activities and lectures: http://drmsh.com/about/

What his beliefs are on a range of topics: http://drmsh.com/frequently-asked-questions/

He is excellent in his research and thorough.

-
-
-

[PaulSacramento]

One of my favorite scholars.
You don't find many out there that simply let the text say what it says.

[RickD]

One of my favorite scholars.
You don't find many out there that simply let the text say what it says.

Except for his angel/human hybrid beliefs, that he doesn't get from consistent exegesis of the text.

[Kurieuo]

Well, I think he's overrated. Each to their own I suppose.

[PaulSacramento]

One of my favorite scholars.
You don't find many out there that simply let the text say what it says.

Except for his angel/human hybrid beliefs, that he doesn't get from consistent exegesis of the text.

Have you read the Septuagint ?

[PaulSacramento]

Well, I think he's overrated. Each to their own I suppose.

Don't know of any popular scholar that isn't overrated to be honest.

[RickD]

One of my favorite scholars.
You don't find many out there that simply let the text say what it says.

Except for his angel/human hybrid beliefs, that he doesn't get from consistent exegesis of the text.

Have you read the Septuagint ?

Only the book of enoch, because B.W. says it's just as good as scripture.

[PaulSacramento]

Have you read any of the Unical Codices?

Codex Vaticanus, Codex Sinaiticus, Codex Alexandrinus, and Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus

They are pretty cool in that they show what books and letters the early Christians valued enough to make into Codices.

[RickD]

Have you read any of the Unical Codices?

Codex Vaticanus, Codex Sinaiticus, Codex Alexandrinus, and Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus

They are pretty cool in that they show what books and letters the early Christians valued enough to make into Codices.

That certainly sounds interesting, buuuut...

What does that have to do with angel/human hybrids NOT found in scripture?

[Philip]

Before one attacks Heiser's scholarship on the Nephilim, etc., you may be ignorant of deeper issues that the scholarship reveals.

Here, Heiser explains more about where he's coming from on this, and why:

https://blog.logos.com/2015/10/where-do ... come-from/

Heiser: The sons of God—angels in more familiar parlance—transgress the divinely-ordained boundary between heaven and earth by producing children with human women. Those children are referred to as Nephilim.

He explains these issues in far more detail in his book, "The Unseen World" - which is heavily footnoted with Biblical and other scholarship: https://www.amazon.com/Unseen-Realm-Rec ... op?ie=UTF8

Heiser says of his book: "There are hundreds of footnotes and (all) peer-reviewed sources in them. My personal bibliography for all the items covered in the book is currently at 4700 entries (240 pp). Naturally, I didn’t append all that in the book (!). For those who read the book, I’ve also given out a website URL with even more bibliography (drawn from the big one). We wanted to watch the page count, so that seemed like the best thing to do.

The above points to the “dirty little secret” of the book. Nothing in it is unique to me. Every conclusion about the worldview of the writers and providing the exegesis for those conclusions is supported by peer-reviewed scholarship. My role is synthesis of the mountain of material — putting it all into a readable (meta)narrative."

So, Heiser didn't just pull some weirdo Scriptural analysis out of his own mystical hat - which many seem to think.

Heiser responds to a criticism of his views on this:

http://drmsh.com/thoughts-nephilim-answering-criticism/

[B. W.]

One of my favorite scholars.
You don't find many out there that simply let the text say what it says.

Except for his angel/human hybrid beliefs, that he doesn't get from consistent exegesis of the text.

[PaulSacramento]

Have you read any of the Unical Codices?

Codex Vaticanus, Codex Sinaiticus, Codex Alexandrinus, and Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus

They are pretty cool in that they show what books and letters the early Christians valued enough to make into Codices.

That certainly sounds interesting, buuuut...

What does that have to do with angel/human hybrids NOT found in scripture?

Nothing, this thread isn't about that.
Just curious.

[PaulSacramento]

Before one attacks Heiser's scholarship on the Nephilim, etc., you may be ignorant of deeper issues that the scholarship reveals.

Here, Heiser explains more about where he's coming from on this, and why:

https://blog.logos.com/2015/10/where-do ... come-from/

Heiser: The sons of God—angels in more familiar parlance—transgress the divinely-ordained boundary between heaven and earth by producing children with human women. Those children are referred to as Nephilim.

He explains these issues in far more detail in his book, "The Unseen World" - which is heavily footnoted with Biblical and other scholarship: https://www.amazon.com/Unseen-Realm-Rec ... op?ie=UTF8

Heiser says of his book: "There are hundreds of footnotes and (all) peer-reviewed sources in them. My personal bibliography for all the items covered in the book is currently at 4700 entries (240 pp). Naturally, I didn’t append all that in the book (!). For those who read the book, I’ve also given out a website URL with even more bibliography (drawn from the big one). We wanted to watch the page count, so that seemed like the best thing to do.

The above points to the “dirty little secret” of the book. Nothing in it is unique to me. Every conclusion about the worldview of the writers and providing the exegesis for those conclusions is supported by peer-reviewed scholarship. My role is synthesis of the mountain of material — putting it all into a readable (meta)narrative."

So, Heiser didn't just pull some weirdo Scriptural analysis out of his own mystical hat - which many seem to think.

Heiser responds to a criticism of his views on this:

http://drmsh.com/thoughts-nephilim-answering-criticism/

I think Rick was just teasing, I don't think that he seriously thinks a scholar of Heiser's reputation would "make things up".

[RickD]

Before one attacks Heiser's scholarship on the Nephilim, etc., you may be ignorant of deeper issues that the scholarship reveals.

Here, Heiser explains more about where he's coming from on this, and why:

https://blog.logos.com/2015/10/where-do ... come-from/

Heiser: The sons of God—angels in more familiar parlance—transgress the divinely-ordained boundary between heaven and earth by producing children with human women. Those children are referred to as Nephilim.

He explains these issues in far more detail in his book, "The Unseen World" - which is heavily footnoted with Biblical and other scholarship: https://www.amazon.com/Unseen-Realm-Rec ... op?ie=UTF8

Heiser says of his book: "There are hundreds of footnotes and (all) peer-reviewed sources in them. My personal bibliography for all the items covered in the book is currently at 4700 entries (240 pp). Naturally, I didn’t append all that in the book (!). For those who read the book, I’ve also given out a website URL with even more bibliography (drawn from the big one). We wanted to watch the page count, so that seemed like the best thing to do.

The above points to the “dirty little secret” of the book. Nothing in it is unique to me. Every conclusion about the worldview of the writers and providing the exegesis for those conclusions is supported by peer-reviewed scholarship. My role is synthesis of the mountain of material — putting it all into a readable (meta)narrative."

So, Heiser didn't just pull some weirdo Scriptural analysis out of his own mystical hat - which many seem to think.

Heiser responds to a criticism of his views on this:

http://drmsh.com/thoughts-nephilim-answering-criticism/

I think Rick was just teasing, I don't think that he seriously thinks a scholar of Heiser's reputation would "make things up".

I never said he makes things up. I said he doesn't get his angels/human hybrid beliefs from consistent exegesis of scripture. If you look at the first link Philip posted, you'll see from where Mr. Heiser gets his beliefs. Legends and extra biblical writings, mixed with eisegesis of scripture.