The Bible must be interpreted in context to be accurately read and understood. “Context” does not mean any interpretive framework of our time, or any time that came after the era of the biblical writers. Only when we interpret the Bible in light of the context of its original writers and readers can we tap into the originally intended messaging. These three courses situate important themes, concepts, and passages in their original context with the aim of helping students see the importance of original context and how Scripture interprets Scripture.
Dr. Heiser earned his PhD in Hebrew Bible and Semitic languages and holds and MA in ancient history and Hebrew studies. He is the coeditor of Old Testament Greek Pseudepigrapha with Morphology and Semitic Inscriptions: Analyzed Texts and English Translations, and can do translation work in roughly a dozen ancient languages, including Biblical Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic, Egyptian hieroglyphs, and Ugaritic cuneiform. He also specializes in Israelite religion (especially Israel’s divine council), contextualizing biblical theology with Israelite and ancient Near Eastern religion, Jewish binitarianism, biblical languages, ancient Semitic languages, textual criticism, comparative philology, and Second Temple period Jewish literature. In addition, he was named the 2007 Pacific Northwest Regional Scholar by the Society of Biblical Literature.
The cosmic mountain is an important metaphor in the Old Testament. People in the ancient Near East thought of mountains as the home of the gods and the place from which the gods issued decrees. The biblical writers shared this worldview but had the cosmos run by the lone, incomparable God of Israel and had human beings, the terrestrial children of God, involved in that activity. Learn how Eden, Sinai, the Tabernacle, the Temple, Zion, and the Church are interconnected by conceptual threads that derive from the cosmic mountain idea.
Learning Objectives
Believers are children of God—a phrase that presumes family. The “children of God” are also called “holy ones” (“saints” in most translations). But these familiar New Testament terms have an Old Testament context that is largely overlooked—the spiritual world of God and his supernatural children. In the Old Testament, “sons of God” and “holy ones” refers to supernatural beings whose Father is God and who work with God to carry out his will. Learn where the metaphor of being in God’s family comes from in the Old Testament and how that informs our sense of identity and mission as believers.
Learning Objectives
Most Bible students presume that the evil and depravity of our world is to be explained exclusively by the Fall in Genesis 3. An Old Testament Israelite or Jew of Jesus’ day would not share that perspective. They would affirm the Fall as one of three reasons why the world is permeated by evil and sin. Learn about the three divine rebellions of the Old Testament and how a person from the ancient biblical world would understand their impact on the human condition, the work of the messiah, and the struggle of the kingdom of God against the powers of darkness.
Learning Objectives
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Robert Hill
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Jesse Blevins
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Father Seamus
10/1/2019
Michael Witt
5/10/2019