BI101 Introducing Biblical Interpretation: Contexts and Resources (Revised Edition)
Overview
The Bible is a vast, complex book, and while some of its contents can be understood by a child, much of it requires careful thought. How do we interpret the Bible correctly? Why do biblical scholars disagree on interpretation? Dr. Mike Heiser introduces students to the science and art of Bible interpretation. The Bible is a book written for us but not to us, so accurate interpretation needs to be informed by the ancient worldview of the biblical writers, their historical circumstances, cultural and religious beliefs of their day, literary genre, and the original languages of the Bible. Learn the necessary tools for accurate and meaningful biblical interpretation.
Top Highlights
“And those three are the worldview context, the literary context, and the linguistic context.” (source)
“Worldview context, or worldview competence, really deals with three areas. There is the historical, the cultural, and the religious. The historical context is really when something happens and what happens at any given point in time. Cultural context really deals with why something might have happened, something in the background that explains an event or what a person did or didn’t do. And religious does some of that as well—it explains the ‘why’ because there might be a religious motivation to doing or not doing a certain thing—but it also deals with what happened, things that actually happened.” (source)
“Reading is not seeing. What I mean by ‘seeing’ is focused attention and attention that is also oriented by the context of the biblical writers.” (source)
“Apocalyptic is about God revealing the future, His hidden plans for something down the road” (source)
“The first obstacle to biblical interpretation we want to talk about is our own presuppositions. These are assumptions that we bring to the Bible, to the text, as we read it and try to interpret it.” (source)
- Title: BI101 Introducing Biblical Interpretation: Contexts and Resources (Revised Edition)
- Author: Michael S. Heiser
- Edition: Revised Edition
- Series: Logos Mobile Education
- Publisher: Lexham Press
- Print Publication Date: 2018
- Logos Release Date: 2018
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Courseware
- Subjects: Bible › Hermeneutics; Bible › Study and teaching; Education › Bible--Hermeneutics; Education › Bible--Study and teaching
- Resource ID: LLS:BI101HEISERREV
- Resource Type: Courseware Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2019-06-20T18:24:28Z
Dr. Michael S. Heiser was a former Scholar-in-Residence for Faithlife Corporation, the makers of Logos Bible Software. He then served as the Executive Director of the Awakening School of Theology and Ministry. His varied academic background enabled him to operate in the realm of critical scholarship and the wider Christian community. His experience in teaching at the undergraduate level and writing for the layperson both directly contributed to Logos’ goal of adapting scholarly tools for nonspecialists.
Dr. Heiser earned his PhD in Hebrew Bible and Semitic languages and holds an MA in ancient history and Hebrew studies. He was the coeditor of Old Testament Greek Pseudepigrapha with Morphology and Semitic Inscriptions: Analyzed Texts and English Translations, and he was able to do translation work in roughly a dozen ancient languages, including Biblical Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic, Egyptian hieroglyphs, and Ugaritic cuneiform. He specialized 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 2007 he was named the Pacific Northwest Regional Scholar by the Society of Biblical Literature.