Michael S. Heiser

Michael Steven 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. 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 also hosted the Peeranormal Podcast until 2021 which discussed peer-reviewed research on the paranormal. 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 television series Stranger Things, and in rebutting ancient astronaut conjectures). Heiser died from pancreatic cancer on February 20, 2023.