In Matthew 16:19; 18:18 Jesus tells the disciples they have the authority to “bind” and “loose” in heaven and on earth. What does this language mean? What is being bound or loosed? In what way does the “binding” and “loosing” operate? Is “heaven” the afterlife residence of believers or something else? This episode of the podcast explores these passages with the help of parallels from the Bible and Second Temple Period Jewish literature and reaches a fascinating conclusion: Binding and Loosing refers to exorcism and authority over supernatural powers of darkness.
In Luke 24:36-43 the resurrected Jesus appears to the disciples. To help cure their disbelief, Jesus asks them if they have something to eat. The passage records how Jesus is given a piece of fish which he eats before their eyes to establish his resurrection is physical. Some English Bible translations of Luke 24:42 include “some honeycomb” with the fish. Others omit the detail. This episode of the podcast discusses why English translations differ and what the honeycomb detail telegraphs in terms of the theology of the resurrected Jesus.
Naked Bible 327: The Old Testament Afterlife and the Psalms of Korah
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The Psalms of (or to) the sons of Korah are a small subset of the Psalter. However, their content is significant to the matter of whether the Old Testament has a theology of a positive afterlife, where the righteous are present with the Lord. The sons of Korah were the descendants of the Levite named Korah who rebelled against Moses and Aaron (Numbers 16). When Korah was judged by being swallowed up by the earth into Sheol (the grave in the earth), Numbers 26:1 tells us specifically that the sons of Korah were spared from Sheol. In this episode we discuss how this tradition informs several psalms, which in turn inform us about the afterlife for the righteous.
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 podcast to tell us their stories. Join us as we listen to these people of diverse denominations and congregations talk about the impact of teaching biblical theology in its original context to their people.
