While searching for saucers flying through the long corridors of history, I found one very dark and winding path. I have already said that the superstitious beliefs of past times often prevent us from distinguishing such phenomena as false suns, mirages, auroras, etc. Since we also found flying saucers in each of these categories, we should not be too harsh to condemn our distant ancestors … We should not accuse them of not understanding the simplest things, although sometimes they gave free rein to their imagination, for their colorful descriptions of swords and armies appearing in heaven, blood pouring from there, severed heads and wings of angels are hardly more fantastic than our ideas about flying saucers like interplanetary flying vehicles.
I have already cited several strange reports of extraordinary celestial phenomena observed in the 16th and 15th centuries and even earlier. Fiery spirits often appear in legends and folk traditions, sometimes having a very real basis in the phenomena associated with flying saucers. For us, it can be a well-known consolation that not only ours, but also other generations were horrified by the plates.
Before typography was invented in 1440, historical chronicles were either passed on by word of mouth or were carefully handwritten by chroniclers.
Many documents have been lost or lost. Some manuscripts have not been deciphered, for translation from the languages of the Middle Ages presents great difficulties. Without a dictionary or special manual, even Chaucer's English is almost incomprehensible to us. Of the ancient works, only a few have survived, like Pliny's Natural History. Here we find a lot of all sorts of stories and fables brought from distant countries and accepted by Pliny on faith. Thus, its natural history is a very peculiar mixture of facts and fables, where animals that never existed, such as dragons and unicorns, live together with the inhabitants of the fields and forests familiar to us.
We have already seen that Pliny's description of meteors is not complete, but we have every reason to assume that all meteorology in general was marking time at least until the 16th or even up to the 17th century.
While searching for the earliest reports of flying saucers, I suddenly remembered the story of the wheels of Ezekiel. Couldn't these wheels, unfortunately, be flying saucers? The Bible very clearly and vividly tells about many meteorological phenomena, such as storm, thunder, lightning and rainbow. What are the wheels of Ezekiel? Are they just symbols or, perhaps, images associated with some natural phenomena?
Many of the events that Ezekiel talks about are in full accordance with the known historical facts, and we can even say that he lived around 600 BC. e. Even as a young man, as a priest in Jerusalem, Ezekiel was captured and taken to a small village near Babylon or Nippur on the Euphrates River. In everything that Ezekiel wrote, there is a longing for the city of his youth, for he is forced to live in a country that was essentially a huge desert. Visions appeared to him, and sometimes they were eerie pictures, like a valley filled with bones (37.1-14).
If Ezekiel, speaking of certain visions, describes objects and phenomena familiar to us, or at least what he himself saw and what we can understand, then why cannot his first vision be a flying saucer?
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Ezekiel has separate phrases in which we are clearly talking about some atmospheric phenomena, for example, rainbows of different colors - fiery, amber, topaz (a bright glow from orange to white) and, finally, sapphire (blue).
At first, I wanted to explain this vision simply as an ordinary night mirage, but the brightness of the colors indicated that this phenomenon occurred during the day.
Ezekiel's vision is so consistent with the modern description of false suns surrounded by halos that I think it immediately catches the eye. The correspondence is so great that it simply cannot be overlooked.
Ezekiel speaks twice about the celestial wheels that appeared to him in a vision: first in chapter 1 and then in chapter 10. Although they largely repeat each other, slight discrepancies and additional facts confirm the identity of these phenomena.
Chapter first
And I saw: and behold a stormy wind was coming from the north, a great cloud and swirling fire, and radiance around it, and from its midst it is like the light of a flame from the midst of the fire; and from its midst was seen the likeness of four animals - and such was their appearance: their appearance was like that of a man; and each has four faces, and each of them has four wings;
and their legs were straight legs, and their feet were like the foot of a calf's, and shone like shiny brass (and their wings were light).
And the hands of men were under their wings on their four sides;
and their faces, and their wings, all four; their wings touched one another; during their march they did not turn around, but walked each in the direction of their face.
The likeness of their faces is the face of a man, and the face of a lion on the right side of all four of them; and on the left side is the face of a calf for all four, and the face of an eagle for all four.
And their faces and their wings were divided from above, but each had two wings touching one another, and two covered their bodies.
And they walked, each in the direction that was in front of him; where the spirit wanted to go, there they went; during their march they did not turn around.
And the sight of these animals was like the kind of burning coals, like the kind of lamps; fire walked among the animals, and a glow from the fire and lightning came from the fire.
And the animals moved quickly to and fro like a flash of lightning.
And I looked at the animals - and here on the ground beside these animals, one wheel in front of their four faces.
The type of wheels and their arrangement are like the type of topaz, and the similarity of all four is the same, and by their appearance and by their arrangement it seemed as if the wheel was in the wheel.
When they walked, they walked on their four sides; did not turn around during the procession.
And their rims - they were high and terrible; all four had their rims full of eyes around them.
And when the animals walked, the wheels also walked beside them, and when the animals rose from the ground, then the wheels also rose.
Where the spirit wanted to go, there they went; wherever the spirit went, the wheels were lifted up with them, for the spirit of the animals was in the wheels.
When they walked, they also walked; and when they stood, they also stood; and when they were raised from the earth, then the wheels were lifted along with them, for the spirit of the animals was in the wheels.
Above the heads of the animals there was a sort of vault, like the sight of an amazing crystal stretched from above over their heads.
And under the arch their wings stretched straight to one another, and each had two wings that covered them, and each had two wings that covered their bodies.
And as they walked, I heard the sound of their wings, like the sound of many waters, like the voice of the Almighty, a loud noise, like the noise in a military camp; and when they stopped, they lowered their wings.
And a voice came from the vault that was over their heads; when they stopped, then they let down their wings.
And over the vault, which over their heads, there was a semblance of a throne, in appearance as if from a sapphire stone; and above the likeness of a throne there was, as it were, the likeness of a man on top of it.
And I saw a kind of flaming metal, a kind of fire inside it around; from the sight of his loins and above, and from the sight of his loins and below, I saw a kind of fire, and the radiance was around it.
In what form is a rainbow on the clouds during the rain, such was the appearance of this radiance all around.
Chapter ten
And I saw, and behold, on the vault above the heads of the cherubim, like a sapphire stone, as if something similar to a throne was visible above them.
And He spoke to the man dressed in linen, and said, Go in between the wheels under the cherubim, and take handfuls of burning coals between the cherubim, and throw them on the city; and he entered into my eyes.
The cherubim were on the right side of the House when the man entered, and a cloud filled the courtyard.
And the glory of the Lord rose from the cherub to the threshold of the House, and the House was filled with a cloud, and the court was filled with the radiance of the glory of the Lord.
And the noise from the wings of the cherubim was heard even in the outer court, like the voice of Almighty God when He speaks.
And when He gave a command to a man dressed in linen, saying: "Take fire between the wheels, between the cherubim," and when he went out and stood at the wheel -
Then from among the cherubim, one cherub stretched out his arm towards the fire, which was among the cherubim, and took it and gave it in handfuls to the one dressed in linen. He took it and went out.
And the cherubim saw the likeness of the hands of men under their wings.
And I saw: and behold, there were four wheels beside the cherubim, one wheel beside each cherubim, and the wheels looked like they were made of a topaz stone.
And in appearance all four are similar, as if the wheel was in the wheel.
When they walked, they walked on their four sides; during their procession they did not turn around, but to the place where the head was turned, and they went there; during their march they did not turn around.
And their whole body and their back, and their hands and their wings, and the wheels around were full of eyes, all their four wheels.
To these wheels, as I heard, it was said: galgal (whirlwind).
And each of the animals has four faces: the first face is a cherub's face, the second face is a human face, the third face is a lion's and the fourth is an eagle's face.
The cherubim rose. These were the same animals that I saw by the river Chebar.
And when the cherubim walked, then the wheels also walked beside them; and when the cherubim lifted up their wings to rise from the earth, the wheels did not separate, but were with them.
When they stood, they also stood; when they rose, they also rose, for the spirit of the animals was in them.
And the glory of the Lord departed from the threshold of the House and stood over the cherubim.
And the cherubim lifted up their wings, and were lifted up from the earth in my eyes; when they left, the wheels were beside them; And they stood at the entrance to the eastern gate of the House of the Lord, and the glory of the God of Israel is above them.
These were the same animals that I saw at the foot of the God of Israel by the river Chebar. And I learned that these are cherubim.
Each has four faces, and each has four wings, and under the wings are the likeness of human hands.
And the likeness of their faces is the same as those that I saw by the river Chebar - both their appearance and they themselves. Each walked straight in the direction that was in front of his face.
To understand this biblical story, let's compare FIG. 18 and 19. FIG. 18 is a schematic drawing of the well-known solar halos with false suns and halos, a phenomenon caused by ice crystals in the sky. FIG. 19 is an imaginary diagram of what the Bible says.
The similarity of the described phenomena to the solar halo is immediately evident. Indeed, different types of false suns are determined by the type and size of ice crystals, their density and location in space, the relative immobility of different layers of air containing these crystals, and, finally, the height of the Sun above the horizon. By its nature, this phenomenon can take various forms: from a simple colorless halo or a single false sun to a complex picture known as the "Petersburg phenomenon", because the astronomer Lovitz first observed it in Petersburg (now Leningrad) and described it in 1794 …
We will focus on its simpler form, on a reduced modification of the so-called "Roman phenomenon", which is mentioned in one of the first reports of false suns and halos around them; in 1630 in Rome it was observed and thoroughly described by the Jesuit priest P. Scheiner.
Two separate visions, judging by the book of the prophet Ezekiel, refer to two different phenomena. This determines the differences that can be seen in the description of what happened in the sky.
It is not difficult to imagine one of the main features of this phenomenon: "a wheel in a wheel."
The "four animals" were obviously false suns, whose "appearance was like a kind of burning coals, like a kind of lamps." This indication is also consistent with the description of false suns. Many of them seem to be composed of a myriad of flickering sparks. These are the "faces".
It clearly follows from the description that the figure itself was a cross centered on the Sun. The crosspieces seemed to be the spokes of a wheel; each spoke formed the torso of the figure, and the false sun itself was the head. The entire description leads us to assume that this phenomenon occurred shortly after sunrise and, perhaps, these columns were painted with a pinkish light of dawn. They looked as if they were covered with feathers, and you don't need to strain your imagination too much to appear to you as “wings” covering the torso of the figure. The feet of each figure, leaning against the Sun, seemed wider due to its brightness, and this created the impression that “their legs were straight legs, and their feet were like the feet of a calf and sparkled“like shiny copper”. The Sun itself, perhaps even less bright than the false suns, produced a coppery glow.
The biblical text describes a strong wind blowing from the north; undoubtedly it was a storm that filled the sky with ice crystals and snowflakes that caused this phenomenon.
The two halos show some signs of a rainbow with a red stripe on the inside. The rest of the colors are mixed and give the impression of an amber glow. The outer iridescent arcs resemble outstretched, curved wings that touch to form a full circle, as is the case when children play cat and mouse. Meanwhile, the warm glow of the red rainbow stripe seems to be outstretched human hands, also connected in the form of a circle. Further we read that there were “eyes” on the outer ring (on the rims); it can be assumed that this means the appearance of secondary false suns, which occur very rarely.
In the commentary to the first chapter, verse twenty-four, it is indicated that the concepts of "voice" and "noise" are designated in the Hebrew language by the same word. Indeed, the crash could have been caused by the storm itself. In the Bible, thunder often becomes the "voice of the Almighty." There is no thunder during a blizzard, but we are not at all sure that this phenomenon occurred in winter. If the cold area is very high, such phenomena can be observed all year round.
The "vision" describes a "throne in appearance as if from a sapphire stone," that is, sky-blue. This throne was evidently a curved arch above the outer wheel, which is exactly what the description of its color corresponds to; of all the arches and arches that appear when false suns appear, only this upper arch is largely painted in blue.
The wheels did not rotate, but "lifted". And with them the animals rose. In other words, as the Sun rose, the huge wheels and all the details of the picture rose higher and higher with it.
The only incomprehensible place in the entire description is the faces. Comments indicate that there is no comma after the word "lion" in the original. Obviously, the four faces are a figment of the imagination: the face of a man in front, the face of a lion on the right, the face of a bull on the left, and the face of an eagle is invisible because it is turned back. I will no longer try to interpret this image somehow and will only say that many experts paid attention to the fact that the throne on wheels is very reminiscent of a chariot, and, possibly, the very “fiery chariot” on which Elijah the prophet ascended “from stormy wind to heaven."
The Bible describes other visions that were in fact false suns. Some of them appear in the sixth book of the prophet Isaiah: seraphim, six wings instead of four (which is quite probable, because a cross that goes beyond the circular halo may look like an upper wing), as well as "burning coals".
The seventh chapter of the prophet Daniel speaks of four beasts that emerged from the sea, rose up from the Earth and stood on their feet like a man. The vision also mentions a throne and wheels of fire. Since this phenomenon took place from the ground, it can be assumed that this is not a question of false suns, but of false moons.
In addition, we find here a mention of "horns", which are very characteristic of many phenomena, especially when they are clearly visible.
Most of the commentaries referring to the arrangement of the wheel, which “was in the wheel,” suggested that the rims were set at right angles, say, like the earth's equator and the meridian passing through both poles. The consequence of this confusion was one very symptomatic fact: although the wheels of Ezekiel are described very vividly and vividly, among the many Bibles illustrated by the most famous artists, including Dora, I did not find a single one where these wheels were painted. Raphael also wrote a vision of Ezekiel, but in his picture there are neither wheels nor chariots.
Without the help of meteorology, the artist, of course, could not figure out all these wheels. But with the help of meteorology, all the details of the description immediately fall into place, and whatever religious meaning is attributed to this vision, its nature is now clear to us. And Ezekiel himself turns out to be a first-class observer scientist, skillfully describing important atmospheric phenomena.
