October 2, 2015 By Ryan Nelson | 3 Comments

Isaiah 11: A Prophecy of Peace

From the remains of the Davidic dynasty, the Messiah would emerge. The Expositor’s Bible Commentary says of Isaiah 11:1, “The reduction of the Davidic dynasty to a mere stump is a true metaphor for its condition when Christ was born; for, though still in existence, it had been without royal power for nearly six hundred years. The reference to Jesse—who was, of course, never king—rather than to David, who was, may point to the total absence of royal dignity in the house of David when the Messiah would come; but there was still life in the house, for God’s purpose had not been set aside.”
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September 19, 2015 By Ryan Nelson | 12 Comments

5 Questions to Ask When You Encounter New Ideas in Bible Scholarship

Dr. Darrell Bock was recently asked about his endorsement of Dr. Michael Heiser’s new book, The Unseen Realm. His response offers insight into how he approaches new ideas in Bible scholarship. (You can read the entire exchange in Dr. Darrell Bock’s Faithlife Group).

Justin Daniel said that conversations with professors, teachers, pastors, and friends left him feeling conflicted about The Unseen Realm. He asked Dr. Bock how much of Dr. Heiser’s new book can be accepted as truth.

Bock says there are some core questions we need to ask when we encounter new ideas in biblical scholarship:

1. How careful is the writer in handling Scripture and addressing interpretive options?

2. Am I nervous simply because this is saying something different than what I have heard?

3. Is that nervousness justified given the biblical evidence the writer presents?

4. On this particular topic, is it possible that I’ve been exchanging part of the worldview Scripture presents for a more material, Western-modernist way of thinking?

5. Is there anything really problematic in the big scale of doctrinal truth that is at risk here?

“What these [five] questions are getting at,” Dr. Bock says, “is if, like a Berean, I am open to examining Scripture in the face of what might be church ‘tradition’ in a less than biblical sense.”

In Acts 17, Paul and Silas tell Jews living in Berea that Jesus was the Christ—the fulfillment of the Scriptures. The Bereans “received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so” (Acts 17:11). That’s how Dr. Bock suggests we wrestle with ideas or interpretations that are foreign to us.

He went on to say, “One of the reasons I reviewed [The Unseen Realm] positively is because I do think it met that mark especially on questions one and [four] above. At the least it is worth seriously exploring. The existential-emotional element you raised is what question two [and three] probes. It is all too easy to get in a defensive mode in reading Scripture and not be open to learning something fresh from what it teaches.”

We also have to consider who the new ideas are coming from. Is this person considered an expert in their field? How did they arrive at these new conclusions?

Dr. Bock says, “Mike is thoroughly trained in Semitic languages and the background that goes into Old Testament study. His dissertation was also in this area. I am certain he has spent more time in these texts than anyone you asked about it.”

It isn’t good enough to dismiss new scholarship because it does not align with what you are familiar with. Bock says, “If you have questions about it, ask yourself what biblical evidence would you raise against it, or what question worth pondering do I legitimately have . . .”

How do you approach new ideas in Bible scholarship? Tell us in the comments!

For more insights from Dr. Darrell Bock, join his Faithlife Group or watch his full interview with Michael Heiser!

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Want to know what everyone’s talking about? Get your copy of The Unseen Realm!

September 10, 2015 By Ryan Nelson | 4 Comments

The All-Knowing God in Psalm 139

The Bible is constantly revealing how big, how wise, how powerful, and how awesome God is. Psalm 139 is one of the many passages where God’s omniscience is put on display—but here, God’s omniscience is a powerful reminder that nothing can separate us from God’s love (Romans 8:38–39).

Here’s how Pastor Skip Heitzig puts it in the Faithlife Study Bible:

D.A. Carson on Interpreting Scripture

For a limited time, get James: Evangelical Exegetical Commentary for free when you subscribe to Bible Study Magazine!

The September-October issue of Bible Study Magazine features D.A. Carson, one of the most respected New Testament scholars in the world. He touches on important topics like training pastors, making disciples, healthy prayer life, and interpreting Scripture.

With your time in the Word comes your interpretation of its meanings. The basis of theology is Scripture interpretation, and as Carson says below, “We sometimes read the Bible to answer our own questions. We all come with a matrix of presuppositions, so it’s relatively easy to misinterpret Scripture.” This makes the way in which we approach Scripture incredibly important. In this excerpt from the latest issue of BSM, Carson discusses the importance of correct biblical interpretation.

In 1996, Carson published Exegetical Fallacies, a book dedicated to uncovering common interpretation errors. The book has become popular in biblical studies courses and with pastors. Speaking about the importance of correct biblical interpretation, Carson says, “We are finite and limited in our understanding. Worse, we’re sinful, and we sometimes make mistakes to justify our own biases. We sometimes read the Bible to answer our own questions. We all come with a matrix of presuppositions, so it’s relatively easy to misinterpret Scripture.”

The big picture of the Bible is straightforward. The trouble is, it’s a big book, written in several languages, with different layers and subtleties. It has different genres and literary forms. It’s easy for Bible readers—from young, immature readers to the greatest scholars—to have blind spots and be wrong. But if the Bible really is the Word of God, then there is nothing more important than handling it well. If the authority we Christians ascribe to the Bible is vested in a misinterpretation of what Scripture says, then we’re assigning the weight of biblical authority to our own opinions, which could be extremely damaging. Good biblical interpretation is bound up in the importance of hearing the voice of God and letting him set the agenda, rather than dictating our biases to God.”

Of course, even careful, devout reading of Scripture can lead to two interpretations. “At that point, we don’t simply ask which interpretation we prefer, but ‘Are they both mandated in the biblical text?’ If so, then these two differing interpretations must complement each other in some way.”

“Although it is true that the Bible rejoices in certain kinds of diversity—for example, around the throne on the last day there will be men and women from every town and tribe and nation—yet we mustn’t forget the importance of unity. Ten times in the little book of Philippians, Paul tells people to think the same thing. You don’t build church unity by ignoring differences, but by doing the hard work of bringing things back to the test of Scripture over and over again.”

“Some parts of Scripture can be pretty straightforward in terms of what they mean, yet complex in terms of the various ways in which they might be applied. A proverb tends to fall into that category. It can be worked out in quite a variety of different contexts. In that case, it’s not so much a matter of different interpretations as of different applications. The best applications are those that are heavily, carefully grounded in the Bible’s whole storyline.”

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Get the full interview (and much more!) when you subscribe to Bible Study Magazine. Plus, right now you’ll also get EEC: James—normally $33—for free. Get it today!

August 7, 2015 By Ryan Nelson | 5 Comments

See the Cultural Context of Acts with a Free Book!

All through August, get a free commentary on the Book of Acts!

The Book of Acts shows modern day Christians how the church took shape in the wake of Jesus’ death and resurrection, and how the Holy Spirit changed everything. In your Bible, it’s the first book to follow the four gospels, and it’s a road map for navigating church today. For Christians and churches to get the most out of Acts today, we need to have a full grasp of the context Acts took shape within, and how that affects its message to believers.

In Paideia Commentaries on the New Testament: Acts, leading biblical scholar Mikeal Parsons gleans fresh theological insight into Acts by attending carefully to the cultural and educational context from which it emerges. Parsons see Acts as a charter document explaining and legitimating Christian identity for a general audience of early Christians living in the ancient Mediterranean world.

Dr. Joseph Tyson of Southern Methodist University says,

Parsons draws on his extensive studies of Greco-Roman literature and ancient concepts of physiognomy to provide a useful and illuminating commentary.

John A. Darr, associate professor of theology at Boston College, calls it, “a masterful exposition both of the myriad strategies whereby the author of Acts attempted to persuade his original audience, and of the ways in which this ancient book continues to speak powerfully to Christian faith in our own day.” He goes on to say, “Readers will find here a treasure trove of insights into Hellenistic rhetorical conventions and their usage in Acts.”

Let the cultural context of the Book of Acts help shape your understanding of church.

Get your free commentary on Acts today! You can also add a commentary on Ephesians and Colossians for $1.99!

June 25, 2015 By Jonathan J. Watson | 4 Comments

Is Esther a Book about Practical Atheism?

This month, get a free commentary on Esther and a bonus commentary on 1, 2, & 3 John for only $0.99 more.

The book of Esther is a classic story: the peasant who becomes a Queen and saves her people. But what was the author’s theological intent behind the book? Is there a single overarching theme or message for today’s readers to walk away with?

Commentators are divided. Some, such as Adele Berlin see the book as entirely secular—the exiles live completely without God. Others, such as the New American Commentary’s author see faithful service to God throughout.

But what if there were a third option? One which acknowledges some of the difficulties of both points? What follows is my struggle to reconcile two separate viewpoints.

I want to explore the idea that the book of Esther is a treatise on God’s loving response to practical atheism—that is, God’s people living as if he doesn’t exist.

Tomasino’s observations on Esther and Mordecai

In this month’s free commentary, Tomasino notes several concerning elements:

“The name Mordecai almost certain derives from Marduk, who was a storm god and chief god of the Babylonian pantheon.”

Furthermore,

“Mordecai ordered Esther to conceal her Jewishness, to blend into the world around her. It is a counsel that will contribute later to her success and the Jews’ triumph over their enemies. But is concealment a righteous response to a potentially hostile environment?”

Also,

“It is apparent from this verse that unlike Daniel, Esther does not request a kosher diet: to do so would make it impossible for her to conceal her Jewish identity, as she is said to do in the very next verse.”

Another striking element is that God is not named once throughout the entire book.

Here are two more reasons for the argument that the story of Esther presents God’s loving response to practical atheism:

Mordecai’s refusal to bow down

Many commentators have seen Mordecai’s refusal to bow down to Haman as a religious observance: refusal to to worship anyone other than YHWH.

However, the text provides a different answer:

“After these things King Ahasuerus promoted Haman the Agagite” (Esther 3:1).

Thanks to the power of Logos Bible Software, I can search for every time the term “Agagite” is used in Scripture and I see it recurs throughout Esther, every time that Haman is introduced. Why would the author try and continually remind us of Haman’s ethnicity?

Most interpreters through the ages have understood the text to mean that Haman was a descendant of Agag, king of the Amalekites (a summary of these sources can be found in Moore 1971, 35). Given the apparent connection of Mordecai with the line of Saul, the connection between Haman and the line of Agag seems poetic and darkly foreboding.

Another Logos search on the root “Agag” shows me that the primary story around Agag comes from 1 Samuel 15. Here, Agag, king of the Amalekites, dies as Samuel hacks him to pieces in front of Saul.

Looking at the family tree of Saul, we see that he too is a descendant of Kish. Mordecai, you may remember, was introduced in Esther 2:5 as a “son of Kish, a Benjaminite.” It is reasonable then to conclude that by refusing, Mordecai was simply defending a long-standing ethnic animosity, rather than a religious conviction.

The lack of reference to Passover

In Esther 3:13, we read: “Letters were sent by couriers to all the king’s provinces with instruction to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate all Jews, young and old, women and children, in one day, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar, and to plunder their goods.”

But as Tomasino notes: “The thirteenth day of the first month, the month of Nisan, would be the day before the Jews were to celebrate Passover.” Rabbis for generations since have made the clear connection between Purim and Passover. But it is striking that there is no explicit reference to the Jewish holiday. However, if these exiles were living a life without consideration for God, it makes sense to ignore the holiday.

Modern implications for Christians

In the face of all these considerations, it seems possible that these Jewish exiles, living in the shadow of their captor’s palace, are brought back to YHWH by the imminent threat of death.

What would this mean for today’s Christians? In today’s climate, it’s easy to be a so-called “cultural Christians.” People who claim to believe, but do not truly seek to serve the one true God.

Let’s take a lesson from Esther and Mordecai and daily ensure that our actions are not on our own behalf, but rather are intentionally in the service of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Study Esther for yourself! Get Esther from the Evangelical Exegetical Commentary Series absolutely free!

June 23, 2015 By Ryan Nelson | 45 Comments

Why You Should Read the Bible Every Day

I was talking with a friend recently about how I’d been spending a lot of time reading books about the Bible, but less time reading the Bible itself. The spaces between my personal reflections on Scripture were growing wider. I still felt like I was growing and learning, but deep down I knew I was missing something.

Our conversation turned to my parents, who have been incredible, faithful examples of what it means to follow Jesus all my life—but they rarely read the Bible. For my parents, years of task-oriented, check-the-box dedication to Bible study left them with a bitter taste in their mouths. Reading the Bible and memorizing its verses had been impressed upon them so strongly that they could no longer read the Bible without also recalling the negative reinforcement and guilt that often accompanies regimented Bible-reading groups. Both of my parents have preferred to learn and grow by reading someone else’s reflections on Scripture rather than diving into it themselves.

They were spiritually scarred by their perspective of Bible study.

I grew up thinking, “But that’s still no excuse.” Yet, as I found myself encountering similar methodologies for Bible study, I couldn’t help but wonder, “Is this going to wear me out too?” My parents were once just as enthusiastic about Bible study as I was.

The church has more Bible study plans, methods, groups, and techniques than we know what to do with. But here’s the thing: these methods help you create discipline to do something you should want to do. If you don’t see the purpose behind the methods, you’ll burn out. On their own, Bible reading plans and verse memorization techniques are overwhelming—they take time and effort, and can leave you feeling guilty for missing a day, a week, or a meeting.

What’s the point of Bible study plans?

Starting a Bible reading plan is like starting a new diet.

Changing your diet takes discipline. Even if it’s something you really want for yourself, it’s easy to slip up and forget about it. If you let bad habits keep footholds in your life, you’ll fail before you start, and you’ll never create the healthy new habits you want.

The Bible is one of our greatest sources of spiritual food. But sometimes we still fill up on junk food. Blogs, social media, news, TV shows, books, and games. These things aren’t bad in themselves, but when they’re the only sources of perspective, information, and insight you consume, something is missing.

When you have a sodium deficiency, your body craves salty foods. You might not even notice that you’re craving salty foods in particular, but your body is reacting to that deficiency by creating a desire for something that restores it.

Many non-Christians have no desire to read the Bible. They want nothing to do with it. But that doesn’t mean that as God’s creation they don’t, on some level, crave his truth, his wisdom, his love, or his perspective. I see non-Christians all the time who have no idea how closely their innermost desires parallel God’s desires for them.

A Christian, though, is much more likely to notice the source of this spiritual deficiency—we’ve already been exposed to the source of God’s wisdom, truth, and perspective. God’s Word is meant to permeate every aspect of our lives. Our knowledge of him is supposed to transform us into “the aroma of Christ” (2 Corinthians 2:15), but something smells fishy.

The more the spaces grow between my daily readings, the more I find myself saying things like, “That reminds me of a verse in [book of the Bible],” or, “That sounds kind of like the passage where . . .” Before I know it, I’m not just paraphrasing Scripture anymore—I’m making vague references to it, or letting other sources have a greater impact on my understanding of God’s character.

In those moments, losing sight of the value of daily Bible study is more like cutting caffeine from my diet. I’ve never been a coffee drinker, but I have energy drinks all the time because they help me stay alert and focused when I need to be. Caffeine is something I’ve made a part of my regular diet for a purpose—and when I stop having it, I feel it. I don’t have the energy I used to throughout the day. I can’t focus as long. Or, worse, I get headaches.

Without your daily dose of Scripture, it’s tough to be at your best all day.

But reading your Bible isn’t just something you need to do to stay spiritually healthy. It’s not a pill you have to swallow or a chalky vitamin you have to chew. Reading the Bible is something you should do because you want to.

What if I don’t want to read the Bible?

Imagine that your parents wrote a book for you—it’s the history of your family, their marriage, your childhood, how you’ve become the person you are today, and their hopes and dreams for your future. Woven throughout the book is a clear, underlying theme: they love you very much. Maybe, just maybe, you pick up on another theme as well: you haven’t always known what was best for you, and they usually know what they’re talking about.

How do you think they would feel if you told them, “Look, at least I read a chapter today”?

How much you read and how frequently you read is not the point.

Part of my job at Faithlife lets me write reflections on Scripture or dig into biblical topics. To do that well, I need to dig into the Bible daily. But whenever I read the Bible for work, I’m reading with an agenda—I’m hunting for a verse or prowling through a passage. For Scripture to penetrate my heart and permeate my life, I have to read it just to read it, too.

Reading the Bible exposes you to the history of the creator’s relationship to creation—that includes you. If you want to know who God is, he had 40 people write a whole book about him over the course of about 1,500 years. Now all you have to do is pick a Bible up off the shelf, read the Bible online, or download the Bible on your phone.

However you read the Bible, you’re going to get the most out of it if you do it because you want to.

Don’t do it because someone is making you.

Don’t do it to show off how much you read.

Don’t memorize verses to get a cookie, a prize, or acknowledgement.

Those can all be useful motivators to help you get on the right track and create healthy spiritual habits you want to have. But don’t let those be the reasons you read the Bible.

Read the Bible because it excites you.

Read the Bible because you want to know God.

Read the Bible because it’s living and active (Hebrews 4:12).

Read the Bible because it can speak powerful truth into your life right now.

Read the Bible so that your life reveals more of Christ (2 Corinthians 3:3).

Those are reasons to open your Bible every day.

So why bother with Bible reading plans?

I lead a small group of high school freshmen boys. Every two weeks this year we’ve read a chapter of Mark and talked about it together.

Every time we meet, at least half of them say, “I didn’t have time to read it.”

One chapter. Two weeks.

Without discipline, you’ll never read the Bible regularly—no matter how badly you want to.

Daily Bible reading plans, Bible study techniques, and external incentives are all tools designed to help you develop discipline and make Bible study part of your regular routine.

My wife started a diet because she wanted to. At first, she knew that she wouldn’t always be able to resist the unhealthy foods she used to have whenever she felt like. A group of her coworkers started dieting too, and together, they held each other accountable. Sometimes my wife would decline cookies because she knew she would have to tell her coworkers she’d cheated on the diet. But she didn’t start the diet because of her coworkers. She started because she wanted to eat healthier. After eating healthier for a few months, the reasons why she started were enough to keep her going. She didn’t need reminders or accountability.

In the same way, those external factors that help us read the Bible regularly are not the reason why we read. But they are, hopefully, tools we can use until we’ve created healthier habits and made Bible study part of our daily lives. These tools, coupled with meaningful, personal reasons to read the Bible will help you have a far richer spiritual life.

My church recently went through a series called, “Room for Cream.” The premise was that if we want to have room for God in our lives, we couldn’t “fill our cup” until there’s no room for the good stuff. If you don’t have time to read your Bible, what do you need to remove to make time?

The conclusion was profoundly simple:

If you want room for cream in your life, put the cream in first.

If you’re trying to make Bible study a habit, start your day with it. Don’t wait until you’ve filled your day with everything else. Don’t wait until you’re too tired.

You could even read the Bible right now.

Learn how to read the Bible for yourself

Want help getting started? We have a free 10 day Bible study course that can teach you some of the same strategies veteran Bible readers use all the time. See how easy it is to draw fresh insights from the Bible, and start applying it directly to your own life.

So what are you waiting for? Sign up below, and we’ll send you daily videos with lessons taught by professional Bible readers (seriously, they do this for a living).

June 19, 2015 By Ryan Nelson | 7 Comments

Outsiders: Reading the Bible Out of Context

The Bible was written thousands of years ago. The languages it was written in bear little resemblance to English. The people who wrote it saw the world differently than we do. The culture the Bible emerged from was radically different than the cultural context we read it in today.

When it comes to reading the Bible, Dr. John Walton says, “The message transcends the culture, but the form is culture bound.”

Take your place in the Bible’s audience

Being separated by culture or language barriers doesn’t mean that the Bible has no meaning for us today. It means we need to read it through a different lens to grasp it’s meaning.

Walton says, “If we are going to get the full focus of God’s revelation to us and get the full force of its authority, we have to try to take our place in that audience, and try to hear as that audience would have heard it.”

The Word of God is living and active (Hebrews 4:12). We don’t study the Bible’s to dissect it like an entomologist examines a dead bug. We study the Bible to apply it to our lives—today. The more we know about what the Bible was saying to its original audience, the more clearly we can understand what it is saying to us.

Read the Old Testament in context

Dr. Walton is a firm believer that our understanding of Near Eastern literature and cultural context can transform the way we understand and interpret the Bible—ultimately leaving us with a clearer picture of what God says today. That’s why he teaches a course on Old Testament genres—to provide a strong interpretive framework for his students to grapple with the Old Testament. To see how Scripture fits together, Dr. Walton encourages its readers to ask broader questions about the overall purpose of the Old Testament and God’s revelations through it.

Watch more videos

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June 16, 2015 By Cody Stacy | 2 Comments

4 Key Scriptures for Dads

As a father, you have immense influence on the legacy you leave. Thankfully, God doesn’t leave you to figure everything out on your own. Scripture is full of powerful insights into the duties and joys of godly fatherhood.

Here are four Scriptures to equip you for fatherhood:

1 Corinthians 8:6

“Yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist” (ESV).

God has set the ultimate example for what it means to be a father. The more we look to him and learn about him, the better fathers we become.

Genisis 17:7

“I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God” (ESV).

God should be the guide of your life. As Richard Longenecker points out in Patterns of Discipleship in the New Testament “there is thus no disciple without a teacher.” Hand off the proverbial torch and teach your children how to carry it. This is your influence. Likewise, that should be His influence. He should be your teacher, being where you draw your influence from. Just as you are a teacher and guide in your child’s life.

Deuteronomy 11:18-21

“You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land that the LORD swore to your fathers to give them, as long as the heavens are above the earth” (ESV).

As a father, you have the privilege to disciple your children. Be a good steward of what he has given you. You are a leader in the faith. Bill Hull, author of Jesus Christ, Disciplemaker writes, “Regardless of what I do from now on, my legacy will be disciple making.” Build your legacy by being a disciplemaker.

Proverbs 22:6

“Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it” (ESV).

Dennis Rainey writes in Pastoral Leadership for Manhood and Womanhood, “Today our nation suffers from a sickness of the soul because our families are weak.” Build your family into a strong, everlasting light for Christ.

It’s not easy to be a good father. In fact, it can be very challenging at times. But the good news for you is you’re not alone. God is the perfect father for all of us, imperfect fathers. As we lean into who he is as a father, we discover what good fatherhood looks like.

“It’s a Herculean task to lead a family, but if you respond to the call of Christ to become the point man, He will buttress you, bolster you, and empower you in His limitless, unfailing strength.” —Steve Farrar, Point Man: How a Man Can Lead His Family

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To have a lasting spiritual impact on your family, you need to be equipped. This Father’s Day, check out resources that will help you be the dad you want to be.

Be the dad they need. Be the dad you want to be.

Get equipped for fatherhood.

June 5, 2015 By Ryan Nelson | 4 Comments

Ghosts, Demons, and Evil Spirits in the Bible

Recently on an episode of Faithlife Today, Dr. Michael Heiser shared some unique insights into what the Bible says about ghosts.

“A lot of people think that the Bible really has nothing to say at all about ghosts, but that’s actually mistaken.”

Watch the video (Heiser starts at 2:53):

Elohim—God, gods, and more

Heiser digs into 1 Samuel 28, where Saul summons the spirit of Samuel through a medium. He says, “I have to talk to a man who has died . . . will you call up his spirit for me?” (1 Samuel 28:8, NLT). After he tells her to “call up Samuel,” the medium tells Saul, “I see a god coming up out of the earth.”

To dig into this passage, let’s head to the Faithlife Study Bible, where Heiser wrote an article called “Elohim as ‘Gods’ in the Old Testament”(find it in the study notes here).

The Hebrew word translated as “a god” in 1 Samuel 28:8 is elohim—a word which Heiser says is used to refer to capital “G” God (Yahweh), the heavenly council (Psalm 82), foreign gods (1 Kings 11:33), demons (see note on Deuteronomy 32:17), spirits of the dead (1 Samuel 28:13), and angels (see note on Genesis 35:7).

Heiser explains the diversity of this word:

This variety demonstrates that the word should not be identified with one particular set of attributes: elohim is not a synonym for God. We reserve the English “g-o-d” for the God of Israel and His attributes. Despite their usage of elohim, the biblical writers do not qualitatively equate Yahweh with demons, angels, the human disembodied dead, the gods of the nations, or Yahweh’s own council members. Yahweh is unique and above these entities—yet the same term can be used to refer to all of them.

Ghosts, demons, and evil spirits

The first layer of notes in the Faithlife Study Bible comments on verse 13: “No longer constrained by his human body, Samuel looks like a divine being.” Saul recognizes Samuel, but he no longer looks the same.

In the video, Heiser says, “the passage illustrates that there is a concept in the Hebrew Bible about the disembodied human dead.”

The Bible forbids communicating with “the disembodied human dead,” and Heiser makes sure to point out that he is not at all justifying the medium’s actions, but it is interesting to note that Heiser says that another Hebrew word used in other passages, ʾiṭṭîm (parallel to the Akkadian word for ghost, etemmu), is distinct from this usage of elohim—indicating that what we would call a “ghost” is not necessarily the same thing as what the Bible refers to as an evil spirit or demon.

So why are so many spiritual beings referred to as elohim?

Let’s see what Dr. Heiser says:

All beings called elohim in the Hebrew Bible share a certain characteristic: they all inhabit the non-human realm. By nature, elohim are not part of the world of humankind, the world of ordinary embodiment. Elohim—as a term—indicates residence, not a set of attributes; it identifies the proper domain of the entity it describes. Yahweh, the lesser gods of His council, angels, demons, and the disembodied dead all inhabit the spiritual world. They may cross over into the human world—as the Bible informs us—and certain humans may be transported to the non-human realm (e.g., prophets; Enoch). But the proper domains of each are two separate and distinct places.

Within the spiritual world, as in the human world, entities are differentiated by rank and power. Yahweh is an elohim, but no other elohim is Yahweh. This is what an orthodox Israelite believed about Yahweh. He was not one among equals; He was unique. The belief that Yahweh is utterly and eternally unique—that there is none like Him—is not contradicted by plural elohim in the Old Testament.

All squares are rectangles, but not all rectangles are squares. Numerous beings are called “elohim” in the Bible, but only one of those beings is also called God.

In English translations, we typically miss these associations.

Dr. Heiser says, “modern English translations often obscure the Hebrew text’s references to plural elohim. For example, the NASB renders the second elohim in Psa 82:1 as ‘rulers.’ Other translations—more faithful to the original Hebrew—opt for ‘gods’ or ‘divine beings.'”

If you want to start digging into ancient Greek and Hebrew yourself, consider taking Dr. Heiser’s Mobile Ed course, Learn to Use Biblical Greek and Hebrew with Logos 6.

Preorder the course today for over 50% off the regular price!

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