Text, Author and Report - Part B

Keywords: UFO, unidentified flying objects, Bible, flying saucers, prophecy, Paleo-SETI, ancient astronauts, Erich von Däniken, Josef F. Blumrich, Zecharia Sitchin, Ezekiel, biblical prophecy, spacecraft, spaceship, NASA, Roswell, aircraft, propellant, extraterrestrial hypothesis, Jacques Vallee, interdimensional hypothesis, Project Blue Book, Condon Report, ancient history, Jesus, Judaism, Christianity, Middle East, end times, engines, rockets, helicopters, space travel, aliens, abductions, alien abductions, crop circles, extraterrestrials, astronomy, economics, biology, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Space Shuttle, Apollo, stars, planets, solar system, scriptures, design, fuel tank, aerodynamics, fuels, hydrogen, oxygen, wheels

Juxtaposition of Verse Number and Contents

    We find that the progress and the continuity of the action developed in Chapter 10 is interrupted already in the first Verse, which, as was shown in section 4 of this book, really belongs in Chapter 9. The specific action of Chapter 10 thus begins in Verse 2. It is soon interrupted again by Verse 5, then briefly continued in Verses 6 and 7, to be completely banished for a long spell by the technical details of Verses 8 to 17. It is not picked up again until almost the end of the Chapter (Verses 18 and 19); and Verse 20, containing as it does an explicit and therefore relevant confirmation, may possibly also be regarded as pertaining to the action. Verses 21 and 22 are additions which again contain confirmation but are entirely misplaced at this point.  [p.112] 

    The technical descriptions that interrupt the action are in accord with those given in Chapter 1, to such a degree that some parts are word for word identical; the only exceptions are Verses 12 and 14. The former concerns the distribution of "eyes" over the whole vehicle and has already been discussed at length. The faces mentioned in Verse 14 have also been investigated with respect to their actual appearance. It should only be added here that in this case Ezekiel sees a different face turned toward him than the one in Chapter 1. This is no surprise, since Ezekiel's own position with reference to the spaceship may have been different.

    Among the examples of incomplete text one could conceivably include the description of the command capsule in Verses 26 to 28 of Chapter 1. However, in view of the general difficulty of describing it, as discussed in section 4 above, such inclusion is questionable. The second encounter, on the contrary, can clearly be recognized as a fragment because, while it begins in Chapter 3, Verse 22, it is never brought to a conclusion. Even the beginning itself is incomplete because, in contrast to all the other encounters, there is no information regarding the date.

    Another example will be found at the beginning of the third encounter. In Verses 2 and 3 of Chapter 8 fragments have been combined, the meaning and correlation of which can be understood only on the basis of the description provided on the occasion of the first encounter. The suspicion that in this case Ezekiel sees something that is different from what he saw during the earlier and later encounters is eliminated by Chapter 43, Verse 3, which explicitly identifies the spacecraft of the fourth encounter with that of the first and third.

    In this verse "to destroy the city" means the third encounter and "which I had seen by the river Chebar" the first. The same reference to the first encounter is also found in the introduction to the second (Chapter 3, Verse 23). All these pronounced references confirm the identity of the spaceships observed and we can therefore all the more surely characterize Verses 2 and 3 of Chapter 8—which are under discussion here—as fragments.

    With regard to the fourth encounter, we have already discussed the two groups of features which lead us to recognize that its description is incomplete: the story of that encounter comes to an abrupt end without any statements about Ezekiel's return to his community, such as he had made in the first and third encounters; also, there are no further comments on the city seen by Ezekiel at the outset.

    The sudden beginning of the story of the second encounter is a good example of an abrupt change of topic. It is understandable only if one recognizes the already mentioned absence of date. Earlier we scrutinized from another angle a drastic change of theme in the narration of the fourth encounter. It concerns the sudden transition from description to injunction in Verses 12 and 13 of Chapter 47. Here again it is quite possible that his "jump" from one line of thought to another is due to missing text.

    Finally, in this context, it is appropriate to discuss—if only briefly—a special case not mentioned so far. It concerns the location of beginning and end of the first encounter. We read: 

     But it is also a remarkable fact that, at the end of this encounter, Ezekiel flies to that very same community: 

     If we take these statements literally, they mean that both the beginning and the end of this flight occurred in the immediate vicinity of the same place. In other words: the commander took Ezekiel on a local flight. In section 8 of this book we shall see that this is, in fact, less absurd than one might at first think. The other possible interpretation would be to assume gross negligence on the part of the writer of that report, which—for this very reason—would appear unlikely. It should be pointed out that neither Reference 4 nor Reference 6 offers any comments on this point.

    In conclusion we can say that the text-related problems discussed here are, fortunately, only sporadic. It is true that here and there they may make the understanding somewhat more difficult, but their import falls far below a level where they could seriously impede the correct interpretation. Their real significance is therefore limited to the following considerations which concern the author.  [p.114]