{"it":{"id":"TX012","kind":"text","sub":"Hebrew","name":"Ezekiel 1 and 10 (chariot vision)","place":"St Petersburg","date":"c.593-571 BCE (Babylonian exile)","oldest":"DSS 4QEzek fragments; Leningrad Codex","inst":"Leningrad Codex B19a","lang":"Hebrew","src":[210,511,512],"lat":59.934,"lon":30.335,"tags":["Near East","Sky beings"],"sum":"In the fifth year of King Jehoiachin's captivity, the priest Ezekiel was among the exiles by the river Chebar, in the land of the Chaldeans. There, he says, the heavens were opened. A whirlwind came out of the north, with a great cloud and fire.\n\nIn the King James Version, Ezekiel 1 describes four living creatures. Each has four faces and four wings, and their feet sparkle like burnished brass. Beside them are wheels, and \"their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel.\" The rims are full of eyes. When the creatures rise from the earth, the wheels rise with them.\n\nWhat is hard to explain is the precision. Ezekiel returns to the wheels again and again, and he describes the noise of the wings as a great rushing. It reads less like a dream than a careful report of something seen.\n\nThe mainstream view is that this is a vision of God's throne in symbols that Ezekiel's readers would know. Erich von Däniken goes further. In Chariots of the Gods he calls it an eyewitness account of a landing. He compares the wheels to an all-terrain vehicle or an amphibious helicopter and asks why an all-powerful God would need a vehicle at all.\n\nWhy does a prophet spend so many words on wheels?","why":"Ezekiel describes four winged creatures and wheels within wheels that rise from the ground.","nfacts":2,"nsrc":5,"yt":"List every mechanical verb in Ezekiel 1.","rel":["TX013","UFO-ARN"],"hook":"Ezekiel saw a wheel in the middle of a wheel, with rims full of eyes."},"S":{"210":["www.biblegateway.com","https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ezekiel+1&version=KJV"],"511":["Wikipedia: Ezekiel 1","https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ezekiel_1"],"512":["Wikipedia: The Spaceships of Ezekiel","https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Spaceships_of_Ezekiel"]},"rec":{"id":"TX012","alias":["W15T08"],"ms":[{"a":"4Q74_date","v":"50 BCE-50 CE","u":"date","unc":"","by":"","yr":"","m":"palaeography","b":"S","t":"MEASUREMENT","id":"W15M016","s":["W15S13"],"c":"Wikipedia Ezekiel 1","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ezekiel_1&oldid=1362919378"},{"a":"11Q4_date","v":"50 BCE-50 CE","u":"date","unc":"","by":"","yr":"","m":"palaeography","b":"S","t":"MEASUREMENT","id":"W15M017","s":["W15S13"],"c":"Wikipedia Ezekiel 1","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ezekiel_1&oldid=1362919378"}],"lab":[],"eng":[],"ori":[],"gaps":[],"dat":[],"aa":[{"id":"AA116","a":"Description of a landing spacecraft.","who":"Josef Blumrich, The Spaceships of Ezekiel (1974)","main":"Prophetic throne-vision (merkavah) using Mesopotamian iconography of composite guardians (lamassu).","ms":"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ezekiel+1&version=KJV","st":"unresolved","n":"interpretive claim; no measurable data","nl":1},{"id":"AA223","a":"Records contact with non-human/advanced beings or craft","who":"AA literature (see claimant_index)","main":"Vision dated 593-592 BCE (Lang)","ms":"W15S13","st":"contradicted","n":"Spacecraft reading (Blumrich-type) is interpretation; text identifies creatures as cherubim (Ezek 10:20).","nl":"1"}],"ac":[],"me":[],"ci":[{"who":"Erich von Daniken","med":"book","ep":"Chariots of the Gods? (Eng. pb, IA scan), ch.4 \"Was God an Astronaut?\" (TOC p.34)","v":"Ezekiel gives precise details of a vehicle landing","b":"S","s":["W17S17"]}],"cq":[],"sd":[],"pas":[{"ref":"Ezekiel 1:16 KJV","q":"\"as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel\"","exact":"yes","tr":"KJV","url":"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ezekiel+1&version=KJV","mo":"sky vehicle"}],"tr":[],"mo":[],"tl":[],"wit":[{"id":"W15T08","mw":"Qumran 4Q74 (4QEzek-b; 50 BCE-50 CE; vv.10-13,16-17,19-24); 11Q4 (11QEzek; 50 BCE-50 CE; vv.8-10); Masoretic: Codex Cairensis (895), Petersburg Codex (916), Aleppo Codex (10th c), Leningradensis (1008)","kn":"Vision dated 593-592 BCE (Lang)","pf":"genuine ancient","st":"contradicted","sn":"Spacecraft reading (Blumrich-type) is interpretation; text identifies creatures as cherubim (Ezek 10:20).","b":"S","s":["W15S13"]}],"tx":{"mainstream_reading":"Prophetic throne-vision (merkavah) using Mesopotamian iconography of composite guardians (lamassu).","alternative_reading":"Description of a landing spacecraft.","alt_proponent":"Josef Blumrich, The Spaceships of Ezekiel (1974)","mistranslation_or_dispute":"Blumrich (NASA engineer) reconstruction vs biblical scholars' iconographic reading.","key_theme":"living creatures, wheels within wheels, fire, firmament","language":"Hebrew","physical_object_institution":"Leningrad Codex B19a","composition_date":"c.593-571 BCE (Babylonian exile)","oldest_ms_date":"DSS 4QEzek fragments; Leningrad Codex","b":"V"},"sub":[],"src":[{"id":"W15S13","t":"Wikipedia Ezekiel 1","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ezekiel_1&oldid=1362919378"},{"id":"W17S17","t":"von Daniken, Chariots of the Gods? English pb (Internet Archive OCR full text; saved prim/chariots_ia.txt)","u":"https://archive.org/download/chariots_of_the_gods/chariots_of_the_gods1_djvu.txt"},{"id":"S0745","t":"www.biblegateway.com","u":"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ezekiel+1&version=KJV"},{"id":null,"t":"Wikipedia: Ezekiel 1","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ezekiel_1"},{"id":null,"t":"Wikipedia: The Spaceships of Ezekiel","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Spaceships_of_Ezekiel"},{"id":"VTX012-6","t":"Bible Gateway (KJV): Ezekiel 1","u":"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ezekiel%201&version=KJV"},{"id":"VTX012-7","t":"von Däniken, Chariots of the Gods? (Internet Archive)","u":"https://archive.org/details/chariotsofgods00vond"}],"qs":["Why does a prophet spend so many words on wheels?","Is careful detail a sign of a real sight, or of a skilled writer?"],"gal":[{"src":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/69/Northeast_Texas_Rural_Heritage_Museum_August_2015_35_%28Book_of_Ezekiel%29.jpg/1280px-Northeast_Texas_Rural_Heritage_Museum_August_2015_35_%28Book_of_Ezekiel%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Northeast_Texas_Rural_Heritage_Museum_August_2015_35_(Book_of_Ezekiel).jpg","title":"Northeast Texas Rural Heritage Museum August 2015 35 (Book of Ezekiel).jpg","lic":"CC BY-SA 4.0","licurl":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0","by":"Michael Barera","cap":"The Book of Ezekiel on display in the Ezekiel Airship exhibit at the Northeast Texas Rural Heritage Center and Museum in Pittsburg, Texas (United States)."},{"src":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/11/CodexGigas_086_Ezekiel.jpg/1280px-CodexGigas_086_Ezekiel.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:CodexGigas_086_Ezekiel.jpg","title":"CodexGigas 086 Ezekiel.jpg","lic":"Public domain","licurl":"","by":"Benedictine monastery of Podlažice","cap":"The Codex Gigas (English: Giant Book) is the largest extant medieval manuscript in the world. It is also known as the Devil's Bible because of a large illustrat"},{"src":"https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/eb/Ezekiel-Vision-Merkaba.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ezekiel-Vision-Merkaba.jpg","title":"Ezekiel-Vision-Merkaba.jpg","lic":"Public domain","licurl":"","by":"Matthaeus (Matthäus) Merian (1593-1650)","cap":"Engraved illustration of the \"chariot vision\" of the Biblical book of Ezekiel, chapter 1, made by Matthaeus (Matthäus) Merian (1593-1650), for his \"Icones Bibli"},{"src":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b1/Vision_of_Ezekiel%2C_Minas_Gospel%2C_1455.jpg/1280px-Vision_of_Ezekiel%2C_Minas_Gospel%2C_1455.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vision_of_Ezekiel,_Minas_Gospel,_1455.jpg","title":"Vision of Ezekiel, Minas Gospel, 1455.jpg","lic":"Public domain","licurl":"","by":"Minas","cap":"Vision of Ezekiel. Armenian manuscript of Minas gospel, Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia."}],"sum":"# Ezekiel's Wheel Within a Wheel\n\nIn the early 1970s Josef Blumrich sat down with a Bible and an engineer's suspicion. He was chief of the systems layout branch in the program development office at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama, a man who had spent his career on the shapes of real rockets. Popular writers had begun to claim that the opening chapter of the Book of Ezekiel described a spacecraft, and Blumrich set out to prove them wrong. He compared six translations, worked through the text line by line, and came out the other side convinced. He later wrote that he had seldom felt as delighted, satisfied and fascinated as he was at being proven wrong.\n\nWhatever one makes of his conclusion, the episode tells us something about the text he was reading. Few passages in any ancient book can make a working engineer change his mind. This one did, and to understand why, it helps to stand where Ezekiel says he stood.\n\n## A priest among the exiles\n\nIn 597 BCE the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar took Jerusalem and carried its young king Jehoiachin and many of its leading citizens into exile. Among them was a priest named Ezekiel, son of Buzi. He was settled in the land of the Chaldeans, in southern Mesopotamia, beside a waterway the Bible calls the river Chebar. Five years into the exile, in a date scholars calculate to about 593 or 592 BCE, something happened to him there that he spent the rest of his life describing.\n\n\"The heavens were opened,\" he says, \"and I saw visions of God.\" Then he reports what he saw, and the report is unlike almost anything else in the prophets. It is not a voice, or a dream, or a burning bush. It is a thing that arrives from a direction and behaves in a particular way.\n\n## What he saw\n\n\"A whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud, and a fire infolding itself, and a brightness was about it.\" Out of the middle of the fire came four living creatures. Each had the likeness of a man but four faces, of a man, a lion, an ox and an eagle, and four wings. Their legs were straight, their feet like the soles of a calf's foot, and they \"sparkled like the colour of burnished brass.\" They did not turn as they moved. They went \"every one straight forward,\" and they \"ran and returned as the appearance of a flash of lightning.\"\n\nThen the wheels. \"Behold one wheel upon the earth by the living creatures.\" The wheels shone like beryl, a gold coloured gem, and \"their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel.\" They could go in any of four directions without turning. Their rims were so high that they were \"dreadful,\" and full of eyes all around. When the creatures moved, the wheels moved beside them. \"When the living creatures were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up.\"\n\nAbove the creatures' heads was a firmament, a flat expanse \"as the colour of the terrible crystal.\" Above that sat a throne like sapphire, a word that probably means lapis lazuli, and on the throne a figure like a man, glowing like amber within fire. When the wings moved, Ezekiel heard \"the noise of great waters,\" like the noise of an army. When the creatures stood still, they let down their wings.\n\nNine chapters later the whole apparatus returns. In chapter 10 Ezekiel sees it again, this time at the Temple in Jerusalem, and he repeats the wheels within wheels and the eyes. He hears the wheels addressed by a name, \"O wheel.\" And he adds a line of identification: \"This is the living creature that I saw under the God of Israel by the river of Chebar; and I knew that they were the cherubims.\"\n\n## Why the detail matters\n\nThe striking thing is not that a prophet saw God. Prophets do that. It is the kind of attention Ezekiel pays. He tells us what the feet were like, how the creatures moved, which way the wheels could roll, what happened to them on lift off, what the wings did on landing, what the noise sounded like. He returns to the wheels again and again, as if he were trying to describe a mechanism for which he had no vocabulary. That is exactly what struck the Swiss writer Erich von Däniken, who called the chapter an eyewitness account of a landing, compared the wheels to an all-terrain vehicle or an amphibious helicopter, and asked why an all-powerful God would need a vehicle at all.\n\nBlumrich took the argument further than anyone. In The Spaceships of Ezekiel, published in German in 1973 and in English in 1974, he proposed that the prophet had met beings in a shuttle craft, and he drew it in technical detail, with appendices of specifications. To solve the problem of a wheel that could roll in any direction without turning, he designed one with rollers set around its rim. The design received a US patent, and wheels of that general kind, known as omni wheels, are now used on forklifts and exploration vehicles that need to move sideways as easily as forward.\n\n## The mainstream reading\n\nBiblical scholars read the chapter very differently, and their case deserves a fair hearing. The vision belongs to a known tradition, later called the merkavah, the throne chariot of God. Ezekiel was a priest trained in the Temple, and the Temple held carved cherubim. He was also living in Babylonia, surrounded by the great composite guardian figures of Mesopotamian art, the winged bulls and lions with human faces that flanked palace gates. A creature with the faces of a man, a lion, an ox and an eagle fits that world. Ezekiel himself tells us, in chapter 10, that these were cherubim. On this view the wheels and eyes are symbols of a God who sees everything and can go anywhere, even to a captive people in a foreign land.\n\nCritics of the spacecraft reading also point out that Blumrich bent the text. In one place he rendered the word \"visions\" as \"vehicular structure.\" The writer Ronald Story complained that he \"doctors up his Biblical quotes just a smidgen,\" and Jerome Clark called the book a creative but misplaced effort to turn a metaphor into engineering.\n\nThe text itself is old and well guarded. Fragments of this chapter survive in two Dead Sea Scrolls copied between about 50 BCE and 50 CE, and it appears in the great Hebrew codices of the ninth to eleventh centuries, including the Leningrad Codex of 1008, now in St Petersburg. Whatever Ezekiel saw, the words we read are close to the words he left.\n\nStill, the question that drew Blumrich in has never quite gone away. A prophet could have written about the throne of God in a hundred ways, and the scriptures around him did. Ezekiel chose to write like a witness taking careful notes, troubled by how the wheels turned without turning. Picture him on the bank of a Babylonian canal, a priest with no Temple and no word for what was in front of him, watching a great wheel rise from the ground beside a creature of fire and lifting with it into a crystal sky."},"img":null,"md":null,"hh":[{"v":"593 BCE","h":"c.593-571 BCE (Babylonian exile)","s":[284]},{"v":"Hebrew","h":"Language","s":[284]},{"v":"Leningrad Codex B19a","h":"Where the physical copy is held","s":[284]}],"hs":{"284":["www.biblegateway.com","https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ezekiel+1&version=KJV"]},"lh":{"s":"img/h/TX012.webp","w":1280,"h":853,"o":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/69/Northeast_Texas_Rural_Heritage_Museum_August_2015_35_%28Book_of_Ezekiel%29.jpg/1280px-Northeast_Texas_Rural_Heritage_Museum_August_2015_35_%28Book_of_Ezekiel%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail"}}