OT291 The Jewish Trinity: How the Old Testament Reveals the Christian Godhead
Overview
In this revealing course, Dr. Michael Heiser illuminates the Old Testament basis for the Christian Godhead. Dr. Heiser, academic editor at Logos Bible Software, reveals how God was cast as more than one person in the Old Testament, and how New Testament writers applied those descriptions to Jesus. Dive into Old Testament theology and powerful descriptions of God, and discover foundational truths for apologetics and Jewish evangelism. Dr. Heiser holds a PhD in Hebrew Bible and Semitic languages, making him an excellent Old Testament guide.
Top Highlights
“One is monotheism. What does that term actually mean when it comes to the ot and its theology? We have sort of been mentally trained to think that monotheism means that only one God exists, as opposed to one God being completely and utterly and exhaustively incomparable.” (source)
“The only real answer to that is incomparability—that the phrases do not mean that only one god exists, but that Yahweh, the God of Israel, is utterly incomparable. He is, what I like to say, species unique. He is utterly different than anything else or anyone else.” (source)
“If you went into this thinking that monotheism was that only one god—one elohim—exists, and we see from the biblical text that that isn’t the case, it’s sort of a trick question to get you and your Jewish friend to thinking about what does the biblical text actually say about what goes on in the unseen world and who is there? Divine plurality is actually a first step toward helping your Jewish friend realize that the Shema may not mean that only one god exists, and that’s a stepping stone toward getting her to think about Jesus as God as well.” (source)
“He actually said in his book, ‘Daniel 7 describes a heavenly enthronement scene involving two divine manifestations, the Son of Man and the Ancient of Days. It may easily be describing two separate divine figures.’” (source)
“The second is the Shema itself. Now, the Shema is sort of the creed of Judaism—Deut 6:4, ‘The Lord our God is one.’” (source)
- Title: OT291 The Jewish Trinity: How the Old Testament Reveals the Christian Godhead
- Author: Michael S. Heiser
- Series: Logos Mobile Education
- Publisher: Lexham Press
- Print Publication Date: 2014
- Logos Release Date: 2014
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Courseware
- Subjects: Trinity › Biblical teaching; Monotheism; Education › Trinity--Biblical teaching
- Resource ID: LLS:OT291HEISER
- Resource Type: Courseware Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2022-02-12T04:58:05Z
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.