I’m not even sure I can articulate it very well, and don’t feel like any of the descriptions I read online do a thorough job either. I feel like a person just needs to read it. I’ll give it a try, however.
IIUC, per Heiser, much of our understanding of the Bible is filtered through the lens of our traditions, presumptions, creeds, confessions, denominational preferences, and training to think that the history of Christianity is the true context of the Bible. Heiser asserts that “the proper context for interpreting the Bible is the context of the biblical writers.” In other words, the author’s goal is to help readers understand how biblical writers thought, as men who lived in the ancient Near East and Mediterranean between the second millennium BC and the first century AD— a supernatural worldview.
In the book, he tackles those weird, difficult to understand passages that we tend to brush aside. The book starts out, as did Heiser’s watershed moment, with an examination of Psalm 82 [in Hebrew]. In the book, he discusses God’s disinheritance of the nations and allotment of the nations to these fallen elohim, how evil proliferated on the earth, the hierarchy and jurisdictions of the elohim. Israel’s as God’s own portion. I could go on.
I’m really tired, and it’s getting late. Basically viewing the Bible through the culture and times of the biblical writers. The book is so packed full of peer reviewed research, and Heiser’s 15 years of compiling the data.
I’d be happy to gift you with a copy, Tim, if you’d like to read it. I think everyone should read it. If not, there are podcasts online as well. The author is right, that readers should come away with viewing scripture through an ancient mindset.
It’s hard to summarize a nearly 400 page book that is so packed full. It is a fascinating read. I’d love to have a book discussion about the book with others.
