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750 word Response to BI101 I originally started this course because of really loving Dr. Heiser’s content, I started with “The Unseen Realm” then fast forward about 4 more years I have read nearly everything by him and also read most of the things he has recommended, when I saw he had this introductory course I felt it be an easy yes to watch. In this course Dr. Heiser details points in biblical Interpretation that many believers are completely oblivious to, to be quite honest. Several concepts are foreign to laypeople, I am extremely happy with this course as it has taught me a lot and what to look out for in my studies of the bible. One of the things I learned within this course is about the obstacles regarding meaning. Meaning is not self-evident and there are several obstacles to getting to the biblical writer intent. Here is some of those obstacles Presuppositions -the assumptions that we have about certain things as we try to interpret the biblical text. They’re assumptions that are encoded in our brains just because of our background, our experience, the framework of our whole life. Author - we have this inherent obstacle of trying to figure out what the author himself was thinking when he wrote something down under inspiration in the text of Scripture Reader - Ourselves, our own thinking. They bring their own presuppositions, meaning. Thinking is interpretation. Medium - The mode of communication, it’s a written document. You miss voice inflection, facial expression, body language. Meaning - only one meaning? Literalism Translation - we want to penetrate past our English translation to the original languages of the biblical text. i.e., manuscript variances, different interpretations Precedent- We have whole bodies of tradition handed down to us through time by different groups that all took Scripture very seriously. Context- we must decide whether we are letting our own context or some foreign context to the biblical writer interpret we interpret what they wrote something that’s official and written down, and this issue is just wider. The right context for interpreting the Bible is the context of the writer—the context that produced the thing we’re trying to interpret. Everything else is foreign, and we need to be aware of that. Relevance-How what we are studying applies to our lives. Validation- how do we know we are right? In utilizing this course we begin to see how much we have to be aware of, there are several pitfalls that can make bible interpretation difficult, but not impossible in discerning. Later in the course Dr. Heiser discusses several tools that can be used in helping to determine the worldview context, here are some listed, Primary Sources - check out the ancient literature section in a passage guide Reference Works - dictionaries and encyclopedias Academic Monographs - books focused on a specific subject matter Bible Commentaries - Academic research, but a scarcity of specifics Devotional or Popular Commentaries - focused on application, not interpretation Expositional Commentaries verse by verse exposition, but not much in terms of original language study, what most Pastors will use Scholarly Commentaries - will engage with original languages and will assume the reader will have a working knowledge of the languages as well and will take the reader into the context of the writer Journal Articles - more specific than reference works, but not as lengthy as an academic monograph Digital Resources - blogs and Podcasts as long as they are subject matter experts Later Dr. Heiser details different fulfillment types, He describes them in the following way, sensus plenior is really about a fuller metaphorical—maybe if you want to use the word even “symbolic”—kind of fulfillment, but I like metaphor personally. Analogical is a step back from that, where a NT writer will see something happen with Jesus or will hear about something that happened with Jesus, and then he’s writing the account down later, and he will sort of sense an analogy with something in the OT. So there’s not as direct of a connection between what the nt writer is writing about and something specific in the ot. Even though the nt writer will quote an ot passage, it’s analogous thinking.1 1 Heiser, M. S. (2018). BI101 Introducing Biblical Interpretation: Contexts and Resources (Revised Edition). Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.   And finally, Typology is a foreshadowing of the future in a nonverbal way. Let me read Rom 5:14; this is where the term actually comes from. Paul writes, “Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.”1 1 Heiser, M. S. (2018). BI101 Introducing Biblical Interpretation: Contexts and Resources (Revised Edition). Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.   This course has helped shaped my understanding in bible interpretation, it has really helped to give a better sense of grasp what the biblical writers, I recommend this course to everyone who wants to get a little more in the bible study endeavors.

MY REPONSE TO BI101, THE ENTIRE COURSE AS WHOLE HELPED OPEN MY EYES EVEN WORD AND DO A BETTER JOB READING GODS WORD. HAS HELP ME TAKE HIS WORD AND GETT MORE MEANING BY APPROACH IT AS AS TRYING TO FIND THE CCONTEXT OF IT AS A WHOLE. THE THREE STEPS OF BIBLICAL INTERPERTATION MICHAEL HEISER PRESENTED, WHAT DOES IT SAY? WHAT DOES IT MEAN? HOW DOES IT APPLY TO ME? JUST APPLYING DOES THREE STEPS TO GODS WPRD WEATHER ITS IN BIBLE STUDY WITH A GROUP OR MY OWN DEVOTIONAL TIME HAS HELP BRING IT TO A BRIGHTER LIGHT AND HAS LIT A FIRE IN MY HEART THAT I HAVENT HAD IN A WHILE. WHEN YOU UNDERSTAND GODS WORD AND INTERPERATED IT NAD STUDY IT DEEPER JUST HELPS BRING AN UNDERSTANG AND CONFIDENCE IN THEN TURNS TO BEING ABLE TO SHARE IT WITH OTHER MORE COMFORTABLY AND BE ABLE TO GUIDE THEM THE SAME WAY MICHAEL HEISER HAS TAUGHT AND GUIDED US. HWNE MICHAEL STATED FROM “SCRIPTURE IS TO BE USED FOR TEACHING IN RIGHTOUSNESS, SO THAT TH MAN OF GOD MAY BE THOUGHTLY EQUIPPED FOR EVERY GODS WORK” JUST THROUGH ME BACK IN MY CHAIR AT MY DESK. JUST WORD RIGHTOUSNESS REMAINED ME THE RESPONSABLITY THAT COMES WITH GODS WORD. IF NOT USED CORRECTLY AND FOR GODS PURPOSES THEN WHY YOU WANT TO USE IT AT ALL. ALL THE GLORY GOES TO THE GOD IN ALL THINGS THAT WE DO. HIS WORD IS PERFECT JUST THE WAY IT IS AND DOES NEED US TO CORRECT IN ANY WAY. JUST HAVE TO DO OUR BEST TO UNDER STAND IT AND USE IT FOR THE PURPOSE OF BUILDING HIS KINGDOM. THERE ARE STILL TIMES I FIND MY SELF TRYING TO REINVENT THE WHEEL AND HAVE TO TAKE A STEP BACK AND HUMBLE MY SELF. ONE OF THE GOOD THINGS ABOUT THE MOMENT OF TIME WE LIVE IS TECHNOLOGY. WE ALL NO THERE IS PLENTY EVIL OR BAD THING THAT CAN DRIVE US DOWN A RABBIT HOLE OF WE LET IT. BUT USED PROPERLY IT CAN BE AND AND AMAZING SORE OF SPREADING GODS WORD OR FINDING RESOURSE TO HELP US WITH DEEPER DIVES IN HIS WORD. LOGOS ALONE HAS SHOWED US MAIN RESOURSES WE HAVE AT THE CLICK OF A BUTTON. PLUS THE UNLIMTED AMOUNT OF COMMENTARIES AND SERMONS AND DEVOTIONAL THAT SCHOLARS FROM AROUND THE WORLD HAVE DONE. HAS BEEN A HELP WHEN I GET STUCK. LIKE MICHAEL HEISER STATED DON'T GO AT IT ALONE, AND LOOK UP ANYTHING THAT WE DONT FULLY UNDERSTAND. I KNOW I USE TO COME ACROSS SOMETHING THAT I FELT CONFUSED OR COULDNT QUITE GET WHAT WAS THE MEANING IF A TEXT AD WOULD JUST MOVE, AND TELL MYSELF THE BIGGEST LIE THE WORLD OF ILL COME BACK TO IT. NOW I TAKE THE TIME AND HIS PAUSE AND NOT LET MY PRIDE GET THE BEST OF ME AND SURRENDER. I START PULLING OLD SERMONS FORM RIGHTOUS PASTORS, DIVE DEEPER INTO MY GROWING SELECTIONS OF BOOKS AFTER RELIZING YOU CANT HAVE TO MANY BOOK ON HOW TO INTERPET SCRIPTURE. MAKE TAKE THIRTY MINUTES OR A COUPLE HOURS BUT I MAKE SURE I FULLY UNDERSTAND WHAT IS BEING SAID TO THE BEST OF MY ABILITIES. I HAVE ALSO SAT WITH MY MENTOR AND PASTOR AND GONE OVER SCRIPTURE TO MAKE I AM UNDERSTANING IT PROPELY. STUDYING ALONG WITH THOSE THAT HAVE WENT THROUGH THE PROCESS HAS HELP A LOT AND JUST SHOWED ME ITS OK TO ASK FOR HELP AND GO LOOK AT THER THE SOURCES INSTEAD OF STARING AT THE BIBLE OR INTO SPACE THING THE ANSWER IT GOT HIT ME OUT OF NO WERE WITHOUT PUTTING FORTH ANY EFFORT OF MY OWN. JUST VERY THANKFUL TO LOGOS FOR PROVIDING JUST A GREAT PLATFORM TO BE ABLE TO STUDY AT YOUR OWN AND MICHAEL HEISER FOR BREAKING DOWN A HERMENEUTICS AND THE SCIENCE OF IT ALL. A WORD I NVER HEARD OF COULDN'T PRONOUCE BEFORE THIS EVEN IF I TRIED MY HARDEST. JUST THE WAY HE MADE THE COURSE FEEL SO SIMPLE, DETAIL BUT AS WELL KEEPING YOUR ATTENTION AN MAKING ME WANT TO LEARN MORE. JUST SHOWING US AS WELL THAT READING IS NOT SEEING AND BEING ABLE TO SEE AND UNDERSTAND THE CONTEXT OF THE WORD THAT HAS BEEN THE ALL ALONG. NOW I CAN SAY I A BETTER EQUPPIED MAN OF GOD. I AM FOREVER GRATEFUL TO MICHAEL HEISER AND LOGOS FOR THEIR TIME AND TOOLS THEY HAVE PROVIDED FOR US. AND WILL ALWAYS REMEMBER “CONTEXT IS KING” GOD BLESS - GUADALUPE SANCHEZ

750 WORD RESPONSE My response focuses on the linguistic context section of the course with particular attention given to interpreting the Bible at the word level.  Prior to the course, I assumed that a good Bible dictionary and/or lexicon could reliably help me determine the meaning of a word.  The course then revealed a long list of obstacles confronting me in my task of interpreting the Bible with confidence.  One of the main issues is the way language changes over time.  Societies find new uses and applications for words and a common word such as ‘gay’ takes on an entirely different meaning within the space of fifty or so years.  This explains, in part, why there are so many different Bible translations.  The word ‘bowels’ in the King James Version is translated as ‘affection’ in the NIV and ‘tender compassion’ in the New Living Translation.  A single word has the power to shift the entire meaning of a text.  Therefore, if I do not understand a word in its historical and cultural context, then my understanding of a passage may be incomplete or wrong.   The course introduced me to a variety of contexts in which to view a text, genre being one of the most important.  The main genres of the Bible include historical narrative, wisdom literature, poetry, prophecy and letters.  Poetry is known for painting word pictures and prophecy for its vivid metaphorical imagery.  Some passage are intended to be interpreted literally while others metaphorical or figuratively.  Jesus used hyperbole for emphasis and exaggeration and parables to keep his messages hidden form his audience.  In each case, unless the reader first understands the rules that govern the genre, then the full sense of the meaning may not be understood.  One of the readings discussed the study of collations which look at the family or group of words relating to the word being studied.  For instance, if the word was used in a battle scene or sacrificial system, then the meaning would be determined depending on that context.   While the course lectures covered the main themes, it was the recommended readings went ito more detail on certain topics relating to the interpreting of words.  One reading mentioned how Etymological studies, which is the study of a word’s historical origins, was once the primary method of determining the meaning of a word.  The discussion then highlighted problems with relying on this approach alone.  ‘Semantic anachronism’ refers to the mistake of treating words as if their ‘meanings never change over time from culture to culture’.  I refer to my earlier examples of ‘gay’ and ‘bowels’.  The reader needs to understand the purpose of these words at the time of their writing.  Contextual studies attempt to overcome many of these issues by taking into account the historical, anthropological, cultural, social, cognitive, literary and textual factors.  All these factors shape the changing role of language from culture to culture and are therefore, necessary for accurate interpretation.     Considering the multifaceted task of word analysis, how should I go about my own study of words in the Bible without knowing Greek and Hebrew?  The course made reference to a number of excellent tools within the Logos Bible software.  The Bible sense lexicon helps determine the semantic range of a word, or all the possible meanings of a word.  The reverse interlinear enables me to quickly find out whether a word is a subject, verb or object.  The exegetical guide provides primary source information on the original language.  I currently make good use of the Bible sense lexicon for quickly finding where else a word is used in the Bible and for finding other closely related words.    The course has raised many questions with no quick easy answers.  Firstly, should I only read translations that translate word for word or should I also be making use of modern paraphrase versions which translate ideas instead of words, presenting them in contemporary language?  Then there is the question of when to limit my study to just the Bible and when to access tools outside of the Bible such as commentaries, dictionaries and lexicons.  As stated at the start of the course, Bible interpretation is difficult.  I am trying to understand a text written thousands of years ago in a different time and culture.  The difficulties reveal the need, beyond all else, to seek God’s help.  I therefore, depend on Him to reveal the truth that He wishes for me to see, understand and then apply.

Response to BI101 Let me first start by saying that Michael Heiser is a really good teacher. The way he arranged this course was very good and the flow of the course was well thought out. Though I’ve already heard a lot of it earlier in other contexts, his segments were so dense that I felt I got the most relevant information in a very short time. First of all his 10 obstacles were a good starting point. Though no obstacle came as a surprise, it is very good to hear Michael’s thoughts on them and to hear them all put together. I almost wish every Christian should learn about them. As Michael put it: “To think is to interpret”, and it is my opinion that we today think a lot when we read the Bible. I think the Bible too often is treated simply as something you can do whatever you want with. Sometimes I wish Christians, and especially Christian leaders, should think more of the Bible as something that requires deep study to fully understand. I’m not against the Bible meaning something personal to someone reading the text. (I often find God speaking to me personally through Scripture and it edifies me in my walk with Jesus, though I don’t make any theological claims from my personal words.) Too often, however, Christians don’t stay there but make bigger assumptions and interpret the text theologically and claim that they have “figured out” what the text really means. I find this to be especially true concerning prophetic texts from the Old Testament or the Book of Revelation. Coming from Europe I’m not a part of North American culture so I don’t know how people in the USA and Canada think in general about these things, but I’m almost overwhelmed by all the “prophetic” people from North America I see on Youtube claiming to know what the prophetic parts of the Bible “really” mean. I wish they all would at least have some humility and realize that the prophetic parts of the Bible were written in a different time, by people from a different culture having a different worldview. Michael’s segments on “Interpreting Prophetic Literature” really addressed this issue and that’s also something I wish every Christian should hear. I know Michael is doing a big job trying to address this issue (interpreting Bible prophecy in an arbitrary way) and for that he is to be thanked. I have worked with the prophecies in the Bible from both a futurist perspective and a preterist perspective and I know it’s not always easy to tell how to interpret Bible prophecy. Therefore I really enjoyed Michael’s distinction between prophetic and apocalyptic texts. I have never seen such an easy-to-understand chart with them both lined up next to each other. Normally people mix up the prophetic with the apocalyptic (moving all the prophetic parts in to the far future), or people mix up the apocalyptic with the prophetic (moving all the apocalyptic parts into the destruction of the temple either by the Babylonians 587 BC or by the Romans 70 AD). The tools Michael provides will help people interpret the prophetic and apocalyptic parts of the Bible better, and hopefully will end all crazy interpretations circulating in the Body of Christ. As Michael brilliantly shows by comparing Amos 9 and Acts 15, interpreting biblical prophecy is even harder than we normally think because sometimes the text is not to be taken literal (as we think of “literal”) or with a single intent. The prophecy of David’s booth being raised up shows us that the apostles interpreted OT prophecies with nuance and complexity. The sensus plenior, analogical fulfillment, and typological fulfillment were as important when they interpreted prophecies as were the “literal” fulfillment. How I wish that more Christians would realize this. My last words will be on the 3 contexts Michael introduced. It’s not something new he talks about but once he again he talks with clarity and simplicity. All three contexts must be combined and studied, not just one of them. I think the average Christian often ends up studying one context. You might be interested in the background of the Bible, studying the worldview context. Or you might be interested in the linguistic context and study how words are used in the Bible. How important to study all three of these contexts, and I’m especially glad Michael spent so much time on the literary context since this is often neglected by me personally. I will now move on to other courses about biblical interpretation, and this course laid a very good foundation for me.   Kind regards / Henrik

From January 13, 2020 to June 4, 2020 I had the honor of doing the revised edition of BI101 Introducing Bible Interpretation. Frankly, BI101 the Logos 5 edition was one of the very first courses I obtained back in 2013 and I have completed it many times. The revised version stripped out the Logos Pro Screencasts of which I absolutely love and adore because it has helped me tremendously complete tasks with Logos Bible Software. I would give Dr. Heiser’s education and job at this point but I did that for another course so I will not do it here. I had read Dr. Heiser is now a Children’s minister working in a church in Florida. In all the courses I have seen from Dr. Heiser to include BI101 he starts with Obstacles to Interpretation and says we need to be aware of all these obstacles when we study. They are presuppositions, author, reader, medium, meaning, translation, precedent, context, relevance, and validation. He will explain what all these mean in the course so I am not going to explain them here since I have a limit on the amount of words I may use. In one of our readings from Grasping God’s Word the author’s touched on the topic of Covenant and that is a topic I am currently revising myself by reading Kingdom Through Covenant. I used to be dispensational but after college I disbanded that belief and started investigating the topic of Covenant for my own edification and for my own theology I would say is right in the middle of dispensational and covenant theology. Dr. Heiser next turned to Context. Throughout the entire course he reminded us that Context is King. But he says context is competency and everything the biblical authors wrote contribute to what they are trying to communicate. Heiser talked about Historical, Cultural, and Religious contexts. Dr. Heiser turned to worldview, literary, and linguistic context and that takes us to the end of the course where he talked about application and gave his conclusion. However, in the worldview context he gave us tools that are helpful for context. Primary Sources, Reference Works, Academic Monographs, Bible Commentaries, Journals Articles, and Digital Resources. With commentaries he talked about Devotional, Expositional, and Scholarly Commentaries. For literary context he talked about genres of the bible in the Old and New Testaments to include the difference between prophecy and apocalyptic. For linguistic context he talked about word level and working at it with word-level analysis. In the Logos 5 edition of BI101 there are screencasts from the Logos Pros. These screencasts have been stripped from the revised edition. But over time I have enjoyed the Logos Pro screencasts and was disappointed to see them taken out in the revised edition. Those screencasts are practical and extremely helpful and frankly I have used them to learn about Logos Bible Software things I would never have learned in any other way. I search the pros name to find the training from Mobile Education they have done and do those segments over and over until I am a master of the information and how to do things with the software. It is very unfortunate when a Mobile Ed course does not have those training videos from the Logos Pros. I highly recommend Faithlife produce Logos training videos from the Logos Pros for every Mobile Education course. If I remember correctly, Todd Bishop did the training videos in the Logos 5 edition. The training videos were in line with the course segments. Things Dr. Heiser talked about Todd showed a great way to collect and investigate those things. In the revised edition users will now need to figure those things out themselves. It is my experience Logos Bible Software has a learning curve, and the Logos Pro videos are immensely helpful to take away that curve. Dr. Heiser said his task was to alert us to various obstacles that we will run into as interpreter’s. He said that seeing the biblical text is more than just reading it. I read the bible every day of every year. But then I study a book using the techniques Dr. Heiser teaches and consider all the obstacles and contexts he mentions. I am grateful for Logos Bible Software to help with that task. I could do the same task with print resources, but it would be terribly slow and tedious. Logos Bible Software has revolutionized bible study for the church. And for that I am grateful.