This is a review of the book The Unseen Realm – Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible by Michael Heiser. The book is published by Lexham Press (Hardcover 413 pages).
It is divided into 8 main parts with a total of 42 chapters:
Part 1: First Things
Part 2: The Households of God
Part 3: Divine Transgressions
Part 4: Yahweh and His Portion
Part 5: Conquest and failure
Part 6: Thus Says the Lord
Part 7: The Kingdom Already
Part 8: The Kingdom Not Yet
Each part ends with a Section Summary.
Michael Heiser is well credentialed with a Ph.D. in Hebrew Bible and Semitic Languages. His Ph.D. dissertation was on the Divine Council. He is also currently the Academic Editor for Logos Bible Software, maintains a website and blogs frequently.
I first learned of this new book via a video interview between Heiser and Darrell Bock. You can watch it at ThinkAplogetics.com. While I was acquainted with many of the concepts surrounding the “Divine Council”, there was enough new material and questions presented to tease me into buying the book. For example, why did Christ’s Transfiguration occur at a particular geographic location? Why would Naaman want two mule-loads of dirt from Israel (2 Kings 5:17)? What has all this to do with the Sacred Geography and Cosmic Conflict?
The Unseen Realm centers on what Heiser has called the Deuteronomy 32 OT Worldview of the Bible. The premise is that God sovereignly chooses to operate via a Divine Council comprised of heavenly beings (angelic hierarchies) which have a participatory role in His governance. Note the examples of 1 Kings 22:19-22 and Daniel 4:17. Psalm 82 (especially v 1) is also one of the major center pieces for this hypothesis.
In this scheme God chose Israel, which would be used as a light and an instrument of judgment to others nations. Eventually God would send His Son in the flesh, through Israel, to ultimately redeem humanity and the world. The book explores Heiser’s view of some of the hidden history behind this Cosmic Conflict, from the Garden in Genesis to it’s culmination in the Holy City of Jerusalem in Revelation.
The book is blessed by the likes of Darrell Bock and Tremper Longman etc. I found elements of it both interesting and helpful. For instance, Heiser’s section on Azazel “the goat” (pp 176-178) was useful in responding to the Seventh-day Adventist Investigative Judgment doctrine.
As stated above, I was familiar with the main premises of the book, and mostly comfortable with the main concept. However, there are red flags to be aware of if deciding to read Heiser’s materials. One gets the impression he likes to be innovative with some key passages. At times his interpretations seem biased by the assumptions presented in the book.
As one other reviewer observed, he has a tendency to read his Deuteronomy 32 OT Worldview theory into many texts. Readers should study Heiser’s back and forth interaction with James White and TurretinFan regarding Psalm 82 to get a feel as to how others interact with passages. See also this response by White which covers some related materials.
In many instances of plural expressions for God, it is assumed the Divine Council is present. Yet John Metzger (Discovering the Mystery of the Unity of God) has proposed informed arguments for the Trinity in place of the Heavenly Court in some of these cases. Metzger understands the Hebrew background and closely interacts with other scholars.
Heiser claims Christians read meanings which aren’t in some texts – hence, Gen 3:15 isn’t evidence for a suffering and dying Messiah, or His victory through the resurrection (pp 242-243). He cites Romans 16:20 as speaking of God crushing the serpent’s head via the church. Yet that may only be realized via Christ’s victory. Contrary to Heiser, scholars such as Walter Kaiser (The Messiah in the Old Testament) see this as the promise of Christ’s future work. John Sailhamer (The Meaning of the Pentateuch) who treats the verse as initially ambiguous, also understands this to be the protoevangelium.
Likewise Heiser denies that Genesis 22 – the account of Abraham offering up Isaac – pictures the crucifixion and resurrection. Heiser’s logic is that Isaac didn’t die in the incident. It’s difficult to see how he can avoid the obvious allusion to Christ’s sacrifice (Gen 22:14). And why would you?
His reasoning for a local flood (p 190) should be compared to just one of CMI’s rebuttals. This strongly hints at his overall approach to Genesis (see below). His biblical references suggested as support for a local flood should be checked against commentaries. I didn’t find the arguments compelling.
He holds that the meaning of Armageddon points to Jerusalem (Har-magedon) as the Mount of Assembly, which neatly supports his overarching theory. Robert L. Thomas (Revelation 8-22) addresses the different views and shows why one shouldn’t be dogmatic about its location.
On page 387 of his Epilogue he writes regarding conceptual metaphor:
Whether we like it or not, the biblical writers weren’t obsessed with literalism the way we seem to be. Frankly, I’ve come to believe that every seminary and graduate school program in biblical studies ought to require a course on the hermeneutical methods of the biblical writers and first-century Judaism….
Many seminary graduates undertake courses on hermeneutics. Yet we still find debates on interpretation. The charge of literalism is often applied to those who take select passages literally (for example in Genesis). Hermeneutics is important; however, it’s not the first time I’ve seen a comment where a scholar has declared that interpretation is sometimes best left for the trained. While it’s true that Christ opened the disciples’ minds to understand (Luke 24:45), He also expected them to have understood (vv 25-27). See also Acts 17:11. Theologians who take a more “literal” approach are well capable of defending Scripture via the understanding of the “hermeneutical methods of the biblical writers and first-century Judaism.”
The statement clues us up to where Heiser is at. You don’t see it play out so much in The Unseen Realm. However, it’s obvious in his blogs on Genesis and creation. For example, he proposes that Adam and Eve cannot be the first or only people because genetics appears to contradict it. One gets the impression he wants to rescue the Bible from science and fundamentalist literalism. It isn’t necessary and it is dangerous.
In conclusion, The Unseen Realm is an interesting book. But it is uneven in places and should be read critically. My concern is that its readers will want to read more of Heiser’s materials without being aware of his methodology and his views on the Old Testament, especially the Genesis creation account. Given all this, I hesitate to recommend it.
Further reading:
A review of Genesis Unbound by John Sailhamer
William Lane Craig’s intellectually dishonest attack on biblical creationists
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