The Naked Bible Podcast

This episode continues our series on John’s use of the Old Testament in the book of Revelation. We resume with material in Rev 1:4 not covered in the previous episode and move the discussion into verses 5-6. What is the relationship of the seven churches to the seven spirits before God’s throne? How do they relate to the seven lampstands and stars in verses 12-16? What passages from the Old Testam...

Our series on the Old Testament in the book of Revelation opens with Rev 1:4a, where we find the phrase “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” The phrase is repeated in Rev 1:8 where parts of it are defined in an important way. Scholars are in general agreement that John gets the phrase from the Septuagint (LXX) Exod 3:14, but that verse accounts for only one-third of John’s wordin...

This episode launches our new series on the use of the Old Testament in the book of Revelation. The series will not examine end times theories or systems. It will also not propose a new system for interpreting the book of Revelation for discerning what God is doing now or in the future. Rather, we focus on how the author of Revelation frequently dipped into the Old Testament to create the book of...

In earlier episodes ( 322 , 334 ) we chatted with Professor Louis Markos about how the cosmologies of The Lord of the Rings and Milton’s Paradise Lost compare and contrast with the biblical worldview described by Dr. Heiser in The Unseen Realm. In this episode we welcome Professor Michael Jahosky to discuss his book The Good News of the Return of the King: The Gospel in Middle Earth. Professor Jah...

One of the more important Hebrew words familiar to Christians is ḥesed, usually translated “lovingkindness” or “steadfast love” in English Bibles. The term certainly conveys those ideas, but those translation options don’t convey the basis of God’s lovingkindness. In like manner, when the term is used of how people are expected to respond to God such translations don’t convey how believers are to...

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Relevance Theory and Biblical Interpretation with John Hilber Christians talk a lot about interpreting the Bible in context, but that goal is fraught with difficulties, some which are preventable, and others that are self-imposed. One of the most obvious obstacles is the disconnection between the worldview of the biblical writers and their original audience and modern Bible students. Despite the t...

The story of Jonah being swallowed by a “great fish” (misunderstood as a whale) is familiar to Bible readers and those in the wider culture who have never read the Bible. Given the flexibility of the Hebrew phrase behind “great fish” (dag gadol), scholars have wondered whether Jonah connects back to biblical Leviathan, the well-know chaos serpent of Canaanite literature. In this episode we explore...

It’s common for scholars and critics of New Testament presentations of the birth of Jesus to suggest that the idea of a divine Israelite messiah goes beyond what the Old Testament envisions. The most Jews would expect, so this thinking goes, is a military deliverer who was descended from the line of David, a mere human whom God adopts as his son. This episode provides a glimpse into the data that...

Ezekiel and John 15, the Vine and the Branches Jesus’ allegory about the vine and the branches, ultimately about himself (the vine) and those who would claim to be his disciples (the branches) is quite familiar to Bible readers. Far less familiar is the fact that the content of Jesus’ teaching draws on the Old Testament. Scholars, aware of this fact, nevertheless disagree as to which Old Testament...

Gentile inclusion is a familiar theme in the salvation plan of God. Bible students are generally aware that the idea is found in the Old Testament, typically in places like Gen 12:3. But the psalms are another fruitful (and even surprising) source for this trajectory in biblical theology. In today’s episode we take a look at the Zion Hymns in the Psalms and what it means for how we should think ab...

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In our last episode we saw how the Gospel of John repurposed parts of Ezekiel (chs. 34, 37:15-28) to describe Jesus as the Good Shepherd who would fulfill the role of God and King David as the rightful shepherd(s) of Israel. As we’ll see in this episode, John uses Ezekiel elsewhere, specifically the prophecy of the dry bones being restored to life (Ezek 37:1-4). While we think of this passage as s...

John 10 is one of the more familiar passages in the Gospel bearing that name. The chapter presents Jesus in bold ways. Listeners have already heard Dr. Heiser’s thoughts on the latter item (John 10:30-38), where Jesus quotes Psalm 82 in defense of his deity-oneness with the Father. In this episode of the podcast we take a closer look at John 10 and its treatment of Jesus as the Good Shepherd, spec...

Hebrews 12:1 opens with a familiar exhortation: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. . . .” Most discussion in church and Bible studies focuses on the struggle with sin, with the “cloud of witnesses” is usually interpreted as the believ...

We’ve noted many times how the New Testament draws on the Old Testament for its content. Some books stand out in that regard. The Gospel of Matthew is one of them. Long regarded as the most Jewish gospel due to its numerous hooks into the Old Testament, Matthew was especially fond of the book of Exodus. In this episode, we’ll take a trip through Matthew to see how frequently Matthew utilizes Exodu...

Recently Dr. Heiser reached out to his audience asking whether pastors who follow the podcast had tried teaching the content of his book, The Unseen Realm, to their congregations. The response was amazing, with close to 150 responses. The interest in sharing the experience of teaching the meta-narrative of Scripture to congregations stimulated the idea to have guest pastors and teachers on the pod...

Dr. Heiser answers your questions. PLEASE SUPPORT OUR SHOW HERE OR HERE

In Matt 1:20 the gospel writer describes Mary’s pregnancy to Joseph this way: “do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.” The wording is unusual for several reasons, most notably that the Greek verb translated “conceived” in the ESV means “fathered” or “begotten,” something the Old Testament never has the Spirit doing elsewhere and only rare...

In John 20:11-16 is a famous scene after the resurrection that takes place at the garden tomb. To our surprise we learn that Mary Magdalene failed to recognize the risen Jesus, instead “supposing him to be the gardener” (John 20:15). In this episode of the podcast, we discover that John’s intent in this scene was not to have his readers question Mary’s ignorance or judgment. Rather, the scene draw...

Dr. Louis Markos returns to the podcast (first appearance, episode 322), this time to talk about the influence of Paradise Lost, the classic work by John Milton, and its influence on Christian thought about Satan and demons. Dr. Markos is Professor of English at Houston Baptist University. He is an authority on C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien and also teaches courses on mythology, Classical Liter...

Listeners to this podcast know that the New Testament’s use of the Old Testament is crucial to being an intelligent reader of the New Testament. Usually this takes the form of a New Testament writer citing a specific Old Testament passage and either interpreting it or applying it. Sometimes the relationship between the testaments is much broader, where New Testament writers presume an entire backd...

Recently Dr. Heiser reached out to his audience asking whether pastors who follow the podcast had tried teaching the content of his book, The Unseen Realm, to their congregations. The response was amazing, with close to 150 responses. The interest in sharing the experience of teaching the meta-narrative of Scripture to congregations stimulated the idea to have guest pastors and teachers on the pod...

Dr. Heiser answers your questions. PLEASE SUPPORT OUR SHOW HERE OR HERE

Few passages in the Bible are as familiar to Bible readers as John 3, the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus. John 3 of course gives us memorable lines, such as “you must be born from above” (more popularly, “you must be born again”) and of course John 3:16. The chapter has also produced famous interpretive headaches, like “unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot see the kingdom...