He also takes some unconventional views that do not always seem to relate to his main thesis. While I agree with Heiser’s initial thesis and the belief that the divine council is in the background of many texts, some of Heiser’s interpretations are a stretch. This is partly because Heiser seeks to find the divine council in every nook and cranny of Scripture-which is one of my chief criticisms of this book. In short, it must be said that no one will agree with all of Heiser’s conclusions. The presence of these giants helps explain why the Israelites were so fearful of the people in the land.Īt 387 pages, The Unseen Realm is too long for this review to engage all of the author’s interpretations. Either way, Heiser connects the Nephilim with the Rephaim and the giants in the land of Canaan, which the Israelites were commanded to wipe out (pp. However, he does offer the alternative explanation that intermarriage of the sons of God with humans happened again. Unfortunately, Heiser seems to favor the explanation that the Genesis flood was merely local and not worldwide. He even takes up the problem of the Nephilim being mentioned again after the flood in Numbers 13 (pp. This is probably the best part of the book, as Heiser has some interesting material on the Nephilim (pp. He then links Genesis 6 with 2 Peter 2:1-10 and Jude 5-7. Heiser shows the implausibility of the view that the “sons of God” were the Sethite line who married the daughters of Cain (pp. Many in pre-Christian Judaism, as well as the church fathers up until Augustine, took this view of “the sons of God.” As odd as this sounds, Heiser’s view is not novel. There Heiser argues that the “sons of God” were members of the divine council who came to earth and mated with human women, producing giants known as the Nephilim. No doubt some will be skeptical of his application of the divine council to other parts of Scripture, particularly of his interpretation of Genesis 6:1-4. The above Scripture passages form the foundation of Heiser’s thesis. But Yahweh has conquered these “sons of God” through the work of Christ on the cross and has regained authority over the nations. Thus the nations were placed under the authority of members of the divine council. In regards to interpretation, it makes no sense to say that God divided the nations of the earth “according to the number of the sons of Israel” when Israel as a nation did not exist at that time (p. The Hebrew Masoretic Text has “sons of Israel,” but this is a weak reading both on textual and interpretive grounds. This translation from the ESV adopts the reading “sons of God ” from both the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Septuagint. But the LORD’s portion is his people, Jacob his allotted heritage. When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he divided mankind, he fixed the borders of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God. Heiser argues for what he calls “the Deuteronomy 32 worldview.” This is because he not only argues that there is a divine council, but he also argues that the fallen spirit beings ruled over the nations in the Old Testament. (See also Psalm 8:5.) This divine council is seen in other texts, such as 1 Kings 22:19-22. He is simply arguing that the Bible refers to members of the divine council as elohim. Of course, Heiser is not advocating polytheism. Thus elsewhere when the Bible speaks of “other gods,” it is often referring to the spiritual beings of the divine council. Heiser argues that the Hebrew elohim, which can be translated “God” or “gods,” refers to the divine council in Psalm 82. I said, “You are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you nevertheless, like men you shall die, and fall like any prince” (vv.
God has taken his place in the divine council in the midst of the gods he holds judgment (v.
The main text from which he derives this is Psalm 82: Heiser’s thesis in the book is that Scripture teaches that God has a “divine council” made up of spiritual beings (which includes angels), some of whom rebelled against God. Hence the subtitle of the book, Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible. This book challenges conventional interpretations of Scripture and provokes the reader to consider a more supernatural view of the world than he likely holds. Michael Heiser’s The Unseen Realm is a book that every serious student of the Bible should take up.
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