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Title: Reversing Hermon: Enoch, the Watchers, and the Forgotten Mission of Jesus Christ
Author: Dr. Michael S. Heiser
Copyright Date: 2017, Defender Publishing
Recording Date: 2020
Narrated by: Michael Duty
Audio length: 8 hours, 44 minutes
Footnotes: drmsh.com/rhfootnotes
About this listen
This is an academic work describing how the New Testament writers re-purpose Genesis 6:1-5 in their presentation of Jesus as messiah. Though every topic addressed in Reversing Hermon can be found in scholarly academic literature, Reversing Hermon is the first book to gather this information and make it accessible to Bible students everywhere. The book also includes lengthy appendices on the ancient debate on the inspiration of the book of 1 Enoch, New Testament allusions to the book, and academic resources for studying 1 Enoch and the Book of Giants from the Dead Sea Scrolls.
My Review
Reversing Hermon was not something I had really planned to pick up and read. I have already reviewed two other Dr. Heiser books, The Unseen Realm, and Demons, and did not really have an appetite for another scholarly deep dive into the ancient Near East. However, new stuff has come to light. More precisely, Mt. Hermon – of all places – became a big world news story recently. When that happened, I remembered this title, and decided to become better informed. Note the following two headlines (click the hyperlinks if you want to read the stories.)
IDF says cross on Syrian Mount Hermon fixed, after troops damaged it on purpose
This was primarily a major story because of antagonistic quotes taken from the IDF soldiers and due to the fact that it occurred five days before Christmas. A major concern by Christians around the world, with respect to the fall of Syria’s prior government, was that it would lead to the persecution of Christians in the country. This event seemed to confirm those concerns.
So this was a big story in a lot of the world. But you might wonder why there was a cross atop Mt. Hermon, in Muslim majority Syria, in the first place and that is where this book comes in. It provides not only an explanation, but in so doing, it also provides an expanded view of the mission and ministry of Jesus Christ. Heiser’s book here explains that Jesus came not only to provide a solution for “The Fall of Man” but also the problems created by the events immediately preceding the Great Flood (and a third calamity with the construction of the Tower of Babel.) This book focuses on the Genesis 6 event preceding the Flood.
In Genesis, we read that the “Sons of God” (ben Elohim) took human wives and from these unions came the Nephilim. Genesis provides very little detail, however, many other Jewish texts from the Second Temple period expand on the story. The identity of the sons of God, or the ben Elohim, is widely debated, as is the meaning of “nephilim.” Heiser goes through the various interpretations of this text, before making a clear convincing case that the supernatural interpretation was the intended one by the Bible’s authors, namely that divine beings created hybrid offspring with human women, and that those offspring become the “giants” described in the Bible. From that view, we get a subtle but clear story presented throughout Old Testament. God becomes highly concerned with wiping out these unnatural offspring. We see that with the Flood. But that doesn’t entirely solve the issue. We subsequently see eradication of the giants when Abraham wages a war (against giant clans, among others) to retrieve Lot from captivity. Moses and Joshua both engage in this eradication. So, too, does David. What does that have to do with Jesus?
The ancient belief regarding demons (and Heiser makes the case here one that is close to irrefutable), is that they were believed to be the disembodied spirits of these giants. Giants were killed physically by the Flood and by men who came later, but their spirits lingered on the earth, and continue to cause problems for mankind. That’s the context for why preventing their continued procreation was so vital in the Old Testament and why exorcism becomes an important sign of Christ’s divine nature and authority within the text of the New Testament.
Heiser also discusses and demonstrates the link between the Christian sacrament of baptism, and the Flood event, arguing that baptism is an act of spiritual warfare, signaling back to the Flood narrative, and asserting victory over evil and restoration of humanity with God. Today we might view baptism as a sign of death and resurrection, or of being washed clean of the stain of sin, but it is also symbolically linked with Genesis 6.
Throughout the book, Heiser makes it clear that the New Testament writers had this Great Flood worldview in mind, noting places wherein Peter and Jude directly quote the pseudepigraphal Book of Enoch and Jubilees, which touch on this pre-Flood story as well. My favorite example though from the book is wherein he uses the pre-Flood story to explain an odd passage from 1 Corinthians 11, regarding the need for women to wear head coverings.
6 For if a wife will not cover her head, then she should cut her hair short. But since it is disgraceful for a wife to cut off her hair or shave her head, let her cover her head. 7 For a man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God, but woman is the glory of man. 8 For man was not made from woman, but woman from man. 9 Neither was man created for woman, but woman for man. 10 That is why a wife ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels.
In very short summary (I highly recommend the thorough explanation from the book) it was the medical belief in the Greek speaking world (of which Judea was part) that hair length was directly linked to sexual function – so much so that hair was viewed in similar fashion as a sexual organ. Due to the scientific beliefs about nature and procreation at the time, it was believed that men should have short hair and women should have long hair in order to improve human fertility. With that as the case, the ben Elohim / sons of God / Watchers would reasonably lust over the uncovered long hair of women because visible long hair was viewed as being akin to showing one’s private parts would be today. This is also why the requirement about the wearing of head coverings went away as understanding of science changed (though it remains encouraged in some places to promote modesty.)
So what does that have to do with Mt. Hermon? The traditional belief is that Mt. Hermon is the place where the Watchers descended and swore amongst themselves to procreate with human women. It’s the place where all of this was set into motion. Mt. Hermon is also, perhaps as a result, linked with the gates of hell. Most importantly, it is believed by many scholars to be the location of the Transfiguration of Jesus Christ. The Transfiguration was thus a response to an earlier moment of evil and another signal of victory and the possibility of redemption for mankind. Jesus came not only to reverse The Fall, but also the events from Mt. Hermon.
As usual, Heiser delivers a lot of dense scholarly material in an accessible way, weaving bits of ancient texts, linguistic interpretation, and history into something that provides a lot of readable and enjoyable information that never feels overwhelming. I learned a lot and I recommend the book without any reservations.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Michael S. Heiser (February 14, 1963 – February 20, 2023) was an American Old Testament scholar and Christian author with training in ancient history, Semitic languages, and the Hebrew Bible from the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Wisconsin–Madison. His expertise and work focused on the nature of the spiritual realm in the Bible and about spiritual matters more generally, and he wrote more than ten books on these subjects since 2010.
He served as executive director of the School of Ministry at Celebration Church in Jacksonville, Florida, and previously as scholar-in-residence at Faithlife Corporation. He ran The Naked Bible podcast and Miqlat, a ministry to disseminate his scholarship. He had additionally been active in media productions around his area of interest, and in response to popular presentations relating to spiritual matters (such as material in the Stranger Things series, and in rebutting ancient astronaut conjectures).
Selected Works:
——— (2021). A Companion to the Book of Enoch: a reader’s commentary, Vol. II: The Parables of Enoch (1 Enoch 37-71). Crane, MO: Defender Publishing. ISBN 978-1-948-01441-0.
———(2015). I Dare You Not to Bore Me with The Bible. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press. ISBN 978-1577995395.
——— (2015). The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press. ISBN 978-1-577-99556-2.
——— (2015). Supernatural: What the Bible Teaches About the Unseen World – and Why It Matters. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press. ISBN 978-1577995586.
——— (2017). Reversing Hermon: Enoch, the Watchers, and the Forgotten Mission of Jesus Christ. Crane, MO: Defender Publishing. ISBN 978-0-998-14263-0.
——— (2017). The Bible Unfiltered: Approaching Scripture on Its Own Terms. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press. ISBN 978-1-683-59040-8.
——— (2018). Angels: What the Bible Really Says About God’s Heavenly Host. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press. ISBN 978-1-683-59104-7.
——— (2019). A Companion to the Book of Enoch: A Reader’s commentary, Vol. I: The Book of the Watchers (1 Enoch 1-36). Crane, MO: Defender Publishing. ISBN 978-1-948-01430-4.
——— (2019). The World Turned Upside Down: Finding the Gospel in Stranger Things. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press. ISBN 978-1-683-59322-5.
——— (2020). Demons: What the Bible really says about the powers of darkness. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press. ISBN 978-1 683-59290-7.
