May 10, 2001: The Watchers - Michael Heiser

The Watchers and benign extraterrestrialsHeiser explains his theological framework: he can embrace ETs if they are benign, but Genesis 6 'sons of God' and the Book of Enoch's watchers - who came down and bred with human women - are something else entirely, more interdimensional than extraterrestrial.

Sitchin's combustion-rocket Anunnaki problemHeiser challenges Zecharia Sitchin's reading that Nephilim means 'people of the fiery rockets' - asking whether deep space travel is really being accomplished by combustion rockets, calling the translation ridiculous.

Sitchin invented a Sumerian word that cannot existHeiser walks through Sitchin's Shem/Shamu/Shumu rocket-tower-of-Babel chain, then points out that Sitchin's translation 'that which is a mu' requires a relative pronoun - and Sumerian is one of the few languages that has no relative pronouns. Sitchin made the word up.

Why Elohim plural is not the TrinityHeiser explains that reading the plural Elohim as the Trinity actually destroys Trinitarian doctrine - Exodus 15:11 says 'Who is like you, Yahweh, among the gods,' which would mean the Son and Spirit are inferior to the Father. He calls himself an 'equal opportunity irritant.'

Bible Code phrases also appear in Moby DickHeiser cites mathematician Brendan McKay, who reproduced the Bible Code experiment on the Hebrew text of Moby Dick and found the same kinds of phrases - including, memorably, the phrase 'no Bible Code.'