Chariots of the Gods (6 page)

According to this report, there is no doubt that the two strangers, the 'angels', possessed a power unknown to the inhabitants. The suggestive urgency, the speed with which they drove the Lot family on, also make us think. When father Lot tarried, they pulled him along by the hands. They had to get away in a matter of minutes. Lot, they ordered, must go into the mountains and he must not turn round. Nevertheless, father Lot does not seem to have had unlimited respect for the 'angels', because he keeps on making objections: '... I cannot escape to the mountain lest some evil take me, and I die.' A little later the angels say that they cannot do anything for him if he does not go with them.

What actually happened at Sodom? We cannot imagine that almighty God is tied down to a time-table. Then why were his 'angels' in such a hurry? Or was the destruction of the city by some power or other fixed to the very minute? Had the count-down already begun and did the 'angels' know about it? In that case the moment of destruction would obviously have been imminent. Was there no simpler method of bringing the Lot family to safety? Why did they have to go into the mountains at all costs? And why on earth should they be forbidden to look round again?

Admittedly these are awkward questions about a serious matter. But since the dropping of two atomic bombs on Japan, we know the kind of damage such bombs cause and that living creatures exposed to direct radiation die or become incurably ill. Let us imagine for a moment that Sodom and Gomorrha were destroyed according to plan, i.e. deliberately, by a nuclear explosion. Perhaps—let us speculate a little further—the 'angels' simply wanted to destroy some dangerous fissionable material and at the same time to make sure of wiping out a human brood they found unpleasant. The time for the destruction was fixed. Those who were to escape it—such as the Lot family—had to stay a few miles from the centre of the explosion in the mountains, for the rock faces would naturally absorb the powerful dangerous rays. And—we all know the story— Lot's wife turned round and looked straight at the atomic sun. Nowadays no one is surprised that she fell dead on the spot. 'Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrha brimstone and fire ...'

And this is how the account of the catastrophe ends (Genesis 19:27-28):

'And Abraham got up early in the morning to the place where he stood before the Lord: And he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrha, and toward all the land of the plain, and beheld, and, lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace.'

We may be as religious as our fathers, but we are certainly less credulous. With the best will in the world we cannot imagine an omnipotent, ubiquitous, infinitely good God who is above all concepts of time and yet does not know what is going to happen. God created man and was satisfied with his work. However, he seems to have repented of his deed later, because this same creator decided to destroy mankind. It is also difficult for us enlightened children of this age to think of an infinitely good Father who gives preference to 'favourite children', such as Lot's family, over countless others. The Old Testament gives some impressive descriptions in which God alone or his angels fly straight down from heaven making a tremendous noise and issuing clouds of smoke. One of the most original descriptions of such incidents comes to us from the prophet Ezekiel:

'Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the river of Chebar, that the heavens were opened... And I looked, and, behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud, and a fire unfolding itself, and a brightness was about it, and out of the midst thereof as the colour of amber, out of the midst of the fire. Also out of the midst thereof came the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance; they had the likeness of a man. And every one had four faces, and every one had four wings. And their feet were straight feet; and the sole of their feet was like the sole of a calf's foot: and they sparkled like the colour of burnished brass.'

Ezekiel gives precise details of the landing of this vehicle. He describes a craft that comes from the north, emitting rays and gleaming and raising a gigantic cloud of desert sand. Now the God of the Old Testament was supposed to be omnipotent. Then why does this almighty God have to come hurtling up from a particular direction? Cannot he be anywhere he wants without all this noise and fuss?

Let us follow Ezekiel's eye-witness account a little further:

'Now as I beheld the living creatures, behold one wheel upon the earth by the living creatures, with his four faces. The appearance of the wheels and their work was like unto the colour of a beryl: and they four had one likeness: and their appearance and their work were as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel. When they went they went upon their four sides: and they turned not as they went. As for their rings, they were so high that they were dreadful; and their rings were full of eyes round about them four. And when the living creatures went, the wheels went by them: and when the living creatures were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up.'

The description is astonishingly good. Ezekiel says that each wheel was in the middle of another one. An optical illusion! To our present way of thinking what he saw was one of those special vehicles the Americans use in the desert and swampy terrain. Ezekiel observed that the wheels rose from the ground simultaneously with the winged creatures. He was quite right. Naturally the wheels of a multipurpose vehicle, say an amphibious helicopter, do not stay on the ground when it takes off.

More from Ezekiel:

'Son of man, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak unto thee.'

The narrator heard this voice and hid his face in the ground in fear and trembling. The strange apparitions addressed Ezekiel as 'son of man' and wanted to talk to him. The account goes on:

'... and I heard behind me a voice of a great rushing, saying, Blessed be the glory of the Lord from this place. I heard also the noise of the wings of the living creatures that touched one another, and the noise of the wheels over against them, and a noise of great rushing.'

In addition to his precise description of the vehicle, Ezekiel also noted the noise the novel monstrosity made when it left the ground. He likens the din made by the wings and the wheels to a 'great rushing'. Surely this suggests that this is an eye-witness account? The 'gods' spoke to Ezekiel and told him that it was his task to restore law and order to the country. They took him with them in their vehicle and confirmed that they had not yet forsaken the country. This experience made a strong impression on Ezekiel, for he never tires of describing the weird vehicle. On three more occasions he says that each wheel was in the middle of a wheel and that the four wheels could go 'on their four sides ... and turned not as they went'. And he was particularly impressed by the fact that the whole body of the vehicle, the backs, the hands, the wings and even the wheels were 'full of eyes'. The 'gods' reveal the purpose and goal of their journey to the chronicler later when they tell him that he is living in the midst of a 'rebellious house' which has eyes to see and sees not and ears to hear and hears not. Once he has been enlightened about his countrymen, there follow, as in all descriptions of such landings, advice and directions for law and order, as well as hints for creating a proper civilisation. Ezekiel took the task very seriously and handed on the instructions of the 'gods'.

Once again we are confronted with all kinds of questions.

Who spoke to Ezekiel? What sort of beings were they?

They were certainly not 'gods' in the traditional sense of the word, or they would not have needed a vehicle to move from one place to another. This kind of locomotion seems to me to be quite incompatible with the idea of an almighty God.

In this connexion, there is another technical invention in the Book of Books, which is worthwhile examining impartially.

In Exodus xxv, 10, Moses relates the exact instructions which 'God' gave for building the Ark of the Covenant. The directions are given to the very inch, how and where staves and rings are to be fitted and from what alloy the metals are to be made. The instructions were meant to ensure that everything was carried out exactly as 'God' wanted it. He warned Moses several times not to make any mistakes.

'And look that thou make them after their pattern, which was shewed thee in the mount.' (Exodus xxv, 40.)

'God' also told Moses that he would speak to him from the mercy seat. No one, he told Moses, should come close to the Ark of the Covenant, and he gave precise instructions about the clothing to be worn and the footwear appropriate when transporting it. In spite of all this care there was a slip up (2 Samuel vi, 2). David had the Ark of the Covenant moved and Uzzah helped to drive the cart it was in. When passing cattle shook and threatened to overturn the Ark, Uzzah grabbed hold of it. He fell dead on the spot, as if struck by lightning.

Undoubtedly the Ark was electrically charged! If we reconstruct it today according to the instructions handed down by Moses, a voltage of several hundred volts is produced. The condenser is formed by the gold plates, one of which is positively, the other negatively, charged. If, in addition, one of the two cherubim on the mercy seat acted as a magnet, the loudspeaker—perhaps even a kind of set for communication between Moses and the space-ship—was perfect. The details of the construction of the Ark of the Covenant can be read in the Bible in their entirety. Without actually consulting Exodus, I seem to remember that the Ark was often surrounded by flashing sparks and that Moses made use of this 'transmitter' whenever he needed help and advice. Moses heard the voice of his Lord, but he never saw him face to face. When he asked him to show himself to him on one occasion, his 'God' answered:

'Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me and live. And the Lord said, Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock: And it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a clift of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by: And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen.' (Exodus xxxiii, 20-23.)

There are some astonishing similarities in old texts. On the fifth tablet of the Epic of Gilgamesh, which is of Sumerian origin and much older than the Bible, we find virtually the same sentence:

'No mortal comes to the mountain where the gods dwell. He who looks the gods in the face must die.'

In other ancient books which hand down stages in the history of mankind, we find very similar statements. Why did the 'gods' not want to show themselves face to face? Why did they not let their masks fall? What were they afraid of? Or does the whole account in Exodus come from the Epic of Gilgamesh? Even that is possible. After all, Moses is supposed to have been brought up in the Egyptian royal household. Perhaps he had access to the library or acquired knowledge of ancient secrets during those years.

Perhaps we ought to query our Old Testament dating, too, because there is a good deal to support the fact that David, who lived much later, fought with a giant with six fingers and six toes in his day (2 Samuel xxi, 18-22). We must also consider the possibility that all the ancient histories, sagas and narratives were collected and compiled in one spot and later found their way to different countries in the form of copies and somewhat garbled versions.

The finds during recent years on the Dead Sea (the Qumran texts) provide a valuable and astonishing amplification of the biblical Book of Genesis. Once again several hitherto unknown texts mention heavenly chariots, sons of heaven, wheels and the smoke which the flying apparitions emitted. In the Moses Apocalypse (Chapter 33) Eve looked up to heaven and saw a chariot of light travelling there; it was drawn by four shining eagles. No terrestrial being could have described its magnificence, it says in Moses. Finally the chariot drove up to Adam and smoke came out from between the wheels. This story, incidentally, does not tell us much that is new. Nevertheless, chariots of light, wheels and smoke were spoken of as magnificent apparitions as early as and in connexion with Adam and Eve.

A fantastic event was deciphered in the Lamech scroll. As the scroll is only fragmentarily preserved, sentences and whole paragraphs of the text are missing. However, what remains is curious enough to be worth retelling.

This tradition says that one fine day Lamech, Noah's father, came home and was surprised to find a boy, who, judging by his appearance, was quite out of place in the family. Lamech reproached his wife Bat-Enosh and claimed that the child was not his. Then Bat-Enosh swore by all that was holy that the seed came from him, father Lamech, and not from a soldier or a stranger or one of the 'sons of heaven'. (In parenthesis we may ask what sort of 'sons of heaven' was Bat-Enosh talking about? At all events this family drama took place before the Flood.) Nevertheless, Lamech did not believe his wife's protestations and, feeling very upset, went to ask his father Methuselah for advice.

On his arrival, he related the family story that was so depressing to him. Methuselah listened to it, reflected and went off himself to consult the wise Enoch. The cuckoo in the family nest was causing so much trouble that the old man accepted the hardships of the long journey. The question of the little boy's origin had to be cleared up. So Methuselah described how a boy had appeared in his son's family who looked much more like a son of heaven than a man. His eyes, hair, skin and whole being were unlike those of the rest of the family.

Enoch listened to the story and sent old Methuselah on his way with the extremely worrying news that a great judgment would come upon the earth and mankind and that all 'flesh' would be destroyed because it was sordid and dissolute. But the strange boy whom the family were suspicious of had been chosen as the progenitor of those who should survive the great universal judgment. Therefore he should order his son Lamech to call the child Noah. Methuselah journeyed home and told his son Lamech what was in store for them all. What could Lamech do but recognise the unusual child as his own and give him the name of Noah!