Introduction
I would say it’s natural to assume that if ancient humans encountered giants or flying humanoids, more so if they also possessed vastly superior technology, they could easily mistake them for heavenly beings, like angels or even ‘gods.’ I shall let the Bible speak for itself, and I shall let you, the reader, be the judge of whether the various biblical authors were inadvertently referring to aliens (extraterrestrials).
(1) Book of Genesis
(a) Nephilim
We come across a mysterious biblical passage in the first book of the Bible; we read,
“It came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, that the sons of God [heavenly beings (NAB, 6:2n)] saw the daughters of men [women] that they were fair [beautiful (NAB)]; and they took them [as their] wives of all which [whoever] they chose. … There were giants [Nephilim (NAB)] in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto [had intercourse with (NAB)] the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.” (Genesis 6:1–2, 4, KJV, emphasis mine)
The original Hebrew word used in Genesis 6:4 is Nephilim, meaning ‘those who had come (or fallen) down.’ Could these “heavenly beings” have been extraterrestrials? Keep in mind that angels are spiritual beings: they do not have a physical body; so they couldn’t possibly have had intercourse with the “daughters of men.” In confirmation, according to the evangelist Matthew, angels do not marry: he portrays Jesus telling the Sadducees, “In the resurrection [afterlife] they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven.” (Matthew 22:30, KJV)
(b) Enoch
Here’s what we read about the disappearance of the seventh generation human, Enoch:
“Enoch walked with God: and he was not [no longer here (NAB)]; for God took him.” (Genesis 5:24)
Doesn’t this sound like an alien ‘abduction’?
(c) Abraham
Three “men” visit Abraham and he feeds them a meal:
“He [Abraham] lift up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood by him: and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground, and said, ‘My Lord, if now I have found favour in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant: let a little water, I pray you, be fetched, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree: and I will fetch a morsel of bread, and comfort ye your hearts; after that ye shall pass on: for therefore are ye come to your servant.’ And they said, ‘So do, as thou hast said.’ … He took butter, and milk, and the calf which he had dressed, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree, and they did eat. And they said unto him, ‘Where is Sarah thy wife?’ And he said, ‘Behold, in the tent.’ And he said, ‘I will certainly return unto thee according to the time of life; and, lo, Sarah thy wife shall have a son.’ And Sarah heard it in the tent door, which was behind him. Now Abraham and Sarah were old and well stricken in age; and it ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women [fertility]. … And the Lord said, ‘Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous; I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me; and if not, I will know.’ And the men turned their faces from thence, and went toward Sodom: but Abraham stood yet before the Lord.” (Genesis 18:2–5, 8–11, 20–22, KJV, emphasis mine)
Admittedly, the leader is identified as God in 18:22, and the other two “men” are identified as angels in 19:1. However, as mentioned above, angels are spirits: they don’t have a body; it begs the question, therefore, how they could possibly eat a meal. So it seems the three “men” weren’t spiritual/divine beings. Note also that they also knew that Sarah was pregnant with a male zygote/embryo, despite her having passed the age of fertility. Apparently, these beings had superior knowledge/vision and consequently mistaken for divine beings.
(d) Jacob
(i) Jacob once had a strange “dream”; but was it really a dream, or was it just that he couldn’t believe what he was seeing?
“He [Jacob] lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set; and he took of the stones of that place, and put them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep. And he dreamed, and behold a ladder [stairway (NAB)] set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it. And, behold, the Lord stood above it.” (Genesis 28:11–13, KJV, emphasis mine)
Could this have been a hovering UFO with aliens going up and down a ladder/stairway?
(ii) Jacob wrestles with a ‘divine being’ that looked like “a man.”
“That night … Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched [struck (NAB)] the hollow [socket (NAB)] of his thigh [hip (NAB)]; and the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was out of joint [dislocated (NAB)], as he wrestled with him. And he said, ‘Let me go, for the day breaketh.’ And he said, ‘I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.’ And he said unto him, ‘What is thy name?’ And he said, ‘Jacob.’ And he said, ‘Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.’ And Jacob asked him, and said, ‘Tell me, I pray thee, thy name.’ And he said, ‘Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name?’ And he blessed him there.” (Genesis 32:23, 25–29, KJV, emphasis mine)
I pose this question: can a ‘spirit’ wrestle without a body? Moreover, was the light of day too much glare for this strange being? Possibly, then, he had large eyes (as modern alien pictures show) capable of annoyingly allowing a myriad light rays to enter them.
(2) Book of Numbers
We meet with the ‘Nephilim’ again in the fourth book of the Bible; we read:
“They [Israelite scouts] returned from searching of the land after forty days. And they went and came to Moses, and to Aaron, and to all the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh; and brought back word unto them, and unto all the congregation, and shewed them the fruit of the land. And they told him, and said, ‘We came unto the land whither thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it. Nevertheless the people be strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled, and very great: and moreover we saw the children of Anak there. The Amalekites dwell in the land of the south: and the Hittites, and the Jebusites, and the Amorites, dwell in the mountains: and the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and by the coast of Jordan.’ And Caleb [their leader] stilled the people before Moses, and said, ‘Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it.’ But the men that went up with him said, ‘We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we.’ And they brought up an evil [discouraging (NAB)] report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, ‘The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature. And there we saw the giants [Nephilim (NAB)], the sons of Anak, which come of the giants [Nephilim (NAB)]: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.’” (Numbers 13:25–33, KJV, emphasis mine)
Apparently, therefore, these beings survived the global flood in Noah’s time, despite God’s causing the flood mainly because of them. Right after the Genesis passage above, we read, “God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth …. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth …. And the Lord said, ‘I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth.’” (Genesis 6:5–7, KJV).
So why didn’t God also destroy the Nephilim as well; was it that he couldn’t because they lived on another planet (planet X?), or on the far side of the moon, or under the oceans/seas in USOs (unidentified submerged objects) so that a global flood could not affect them.
[Note: ‘Planet X,’ or Nibiru (if it really exists), supposedly has a very elliptical orbit around our sun with about a 3,600-year period. Although currently absent from our solar system, it could possibly have been present at the time of the writing of the Old Testament books mentioned in this article; and it will come back temporarily somewhere between Mars and Jupiter. If aliens visited earth they probably came from a nearby planet. Any mortal beings outside a 100-light-year radius away from us will probably be unable to reach us in their lifetime. That is, anything outside the Milky Way, which is about 100,000 light years in diameter, can most probably be ruled out.]
Strangely enough, in its article ‘Do Aliens and Extraterrestrials Exist?,’ https://thirdmill.org/answers/answer.asp/file/46660 (accessed October 15, 2023), the ‘Third Millennium Ministries’ website denies that the Bible talks about extraterrestrials here in Numbers on the basis that Jesus only redeemed human beings—not extraterrestrials; it has, “no mention is made in the Bible of a—the—Redeemer for aliens.”
In my article entitled ‘Adam and Eve—Original Sin’ I show clearly that Adam and Eve’s story is based on a prior myth etched on clay tablets about a millennium before Genesis was written—the ‘Epic Poem of Gilgamesh.’ The talking serpent should be a clear giveaway that it belongs in the realm of fables; and so, it never actually happened: that is, there was no ‘original sin’ or ‘fall’ of humanity, and therefore Jesus had no reason to redeem us from. (Incidentally, the global—Noah’s—flood is also templated in this poem: see my article on ‘The Flood.’)
Moreover, the website’s annexed article ‘Nephi-What?’ https://thirdmill.org/answers/answer.asp/file/40004 (accessed October 15, 2023), tortuously tries to deny what the Bible says in order to conform with the above agenda. It contends that “the ‘sons of God’ were unusual men. Specifically they were kings.” Meanwhile, in its footnote to Genesis 6:2, the New American Bible states clearly that the “sons of God” were “heavenly beings.”
The website also contends that “perhaps the best explanation is that the Nephilim is a term for ‘fierce warriors.’” Again the New American Bible in its footnote to Genesis 6:1–4, equates the Nephilim with “prehistoric giants.” Not to mention that, according to Numbers 13:33, we read, the Israelites seemed small, “as grasshoppers” compared to the Nephilim.
[Note: According to ‘Wikipedia,’ the ‘New American Bible’ (NAB) translation “was carried out in stages by members of the ‘Catholic Biblical Association of America’ (CBA).” (Wikipedia: “New American Bible,” accessed November 20, 2023) “[CBA] Membership now numbers more than 1,200. Those who hold an advanced degree in biblical studies are eligible to be elected to membership, irrespective of any religious affiliation.” (Wikipedia: “Catholic Biblical Association,” accessed November 20, 2023) I’d like to point out, therefore, that the ‘New American Bible’ isn’t just the opinion of a single or a handful of biblical scholars.]
I don’t have enough space to properly counter the Third Millennium Ministries’ two articles here: I’ll let the reader read them carefully and see for oneself to what extent Christians go, denying even what’s in black and white in their own allegedly infallible Bible.
(3) Second Book of Kings
In the ‘Second Book of Kings,’ we read of the disappearance of the prophet Elijah:
“It came to pass, as they [prophets Elijah and Elisha] still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.” (Second Kings 2:11, KJV, emphasis mine)
Doesn’t this look like Elijah was abducted as well—like Enoch above? Notice also the words “whirlwind” and “fire,” which are the same words used in the Ezekiel passage (1:4) below.
(4) Book of Ezekiel
In the ‘Book of Ezekiel,’ we not only read of possible aliens but apparently also of UFOs. It’s understandable that the biblical author has difficulty expressing himself; so, please, note my emphases in this passage.
“Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I [Ezekiel] was among the captives by the river of Chebar, that the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God. In the fifth day of the month, which was the fifth year of king Jehoiachin’s captivity, the word of the Lord came expressly unto Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar; and the hand of the Lord was there upon him. And I [Ezekiel] looked, and, behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud, and a fire infolding itself, and a brightness [glow (NAB)] 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 [humanoid]. 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 [gleamed (NAB)] like the colour of burnished brass. And they had the hands of a man under their wings on their four sides; and they four had their faces and their wings [their faces and their wings looked out on all their four sides (NAB)]. Their wings were joined one to another; they turned not when they went; they went every one straight forward. As for the likeness of their faces, they four had the face of a man, and the face of a lion, on the right side: and they four had the face of an ox on the left side; they four also had the face of an eagle. Thus were their faces: and their wings were stretched upward; two wings of every one were joined one to another, and two covered their bodies. And they went every one straight forward: whither the spirit [locomotion/propulsion] was to go, they went; and they turned not when they went. As for the likeness of the living creatures, their appearance was like burning coals of fire, and like the appearance of lamps [torches (NAB)]: it went up and down among the living creatures; and the fire was bright, and out of the fire went forth lightning. And the living creatures ran and returned as the appearance of a flash of lightning. Now as I beheld the living creatures, behold one wheel upon the earth [ground (NAB)] by the living creatures, with his four faces [one {wheel on the ground} alongside each of the four living creatures (NAB)]. The appearance of the wheels and their work was like unto the colour of a beryl [topaz (NAB)]: and they four had one likeness: and their appearance [construction (NAB)] and their work was as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel. When they went, they went upon their four sides: and they turned not when they went. As for their rings [rims (NAB)], they were so high that they were dreadful [fearsome (NAB)]; 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. Whithersoever the spirit was to go, they went, thither was their spirit to go; and the wheels were lifted up over against them: for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels. When those went, these went; and when those stood, these stood; and when those were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up over against them: for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels. And the likeness of the firmament upon the heads of the living creature was as the colour of the terrible [awesome (NAB)] crystal, stretched forth over their heads above. And under the firmament were their wings straight, the one toward the other: every one had two, which covered on this side, and every one had two, which covered on that side, their bodies. And when they went, I heard the noise of their wings, like the noise of great waters, as the voice of the Almighty, the voice of speech, as the noise of an host [army (NAB)]: when they stood, they let down their wings. And there was a voice from the firmament that was over their heads, when they stood, and had let down their wings. And above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone: and upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man [humanoid] above upon it. And I saw as the colour of amber, as the appearance of fire round about within it, from the appearance of his loins even upward, and from the appearance of his loins even downward, I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and it had brightness round about. As the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness round about. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. And when I saw it, I fell upon my face, and I heard a voice of one that spake.” (Ezekiel 1:1–28, KJV, emphasis mine)
This passage begs the question: why would spirits, angels or God, need “wheels” to move around? Notice especially the clause: “the spirit [locomotion/propulsion] of the living creature was in the wheels”: the creatures drove the transporting mechanism around. It seems, therefore, that the four creatures had a tangible body—they were not ‘spirits’—like angels or demons. And, although humanoids, their body didn’t look much like that of a human being, either: they had four wings, four faces, joint-less legs with a calf’s sole, and reflected light like polished brass. Doesn’t it sound like a fearsome alien? Moreover, notice especially the clauses describing the transporting mechanism: “a brightness [glow] was about it,” “a wheel in the middle of a wheel,” “their rings [wheels’ rims] were full of eyes round about them,” and “the living creatures ran and returned as the appearance of a flash of lightning.” Doesn’t this mechanism sound much like modern descriptions of an ‘unidentified flying object,’ (UFO)? Such superior technology, like sudden acceleration/deceleration, could easily have made the biblical author conclude they were ‘divine’ beings.
In particular, focus again on the phrase “a wheel in the middle of a wheel.” According to Dr. Brian O’Leary, former NASA astronaut and Princeton physics professor, “They use co-rotating magnetic discs for their propulsion, that seems to be a common denominator to the UFO phenomenon.” (Morcan, loc. 230/1198)
Ezekiel chapter 10, to all intents and purposes, reiterates chapter 1, so, in the interest of simplicity, I shall not quote it here; I’ll let the interested reader satisfy his/her curiosity.
(5) Book of Revelation
The author of the ‘Book of Revelation,’ John of Patmos, also describes a ‘vision’ somewhat similar to Ezekiel’s:
“Before the throne [of God] there was a sea of glass like unto crystal: and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind. And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle. And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, ‘Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.’ And … those beasts give glory and honour and thanks to him that sat on the throne, who liveth for ever and ever.” (Revelation 4:6–9, KJV, emphasis mine)
Notice the description of the “four beasts” is somewhat similar to the description given in Ezekiel passage above, except that they had multiple eyes, six wings instead of four, and a single face rather than four faces. Notice also that the biblical author calls them “beasts,” not angels (cherubim) as in Ezekiel (10:1–2, 20). It begs the question, therefore, were they in fact aliens?
Conclusion
Please note, that in this article, I am not trying to prove the existence of extraterrestrial aliens and their associated UFOs: I don’t know! All I’m saying is that, despite what Bible-inerrancy believers categorially deny because of Jesus’s supposed redemption of humankind, the Bible does seem to confirm their existence in the above accounts. I don’t believe in the Bible’s infallibility, as most Christians do (see my articles on ‘Bible Contradictions (Old/New Testament),’ ‘Bible Prophecies (Textual/Claimed),’ and ‘Science in/NOT-in the Bible’); nor do I believe in macroevolution, as most scientists do (see my article on ‘Evolution’). So I must leave the question of aliens’ existence open.
If extraterrestrials do, in fact, exist in our universe, then possibly, life on earth might have been initiated by these same aliens (termed ‘panspermia’), as both molecular biologist Francis Crick and evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins contend. In my opinion, however, this only pushes the mystery of life’s origin one step backward since the odds against life’s originating abiotically by chance alone (termed ‘abiogenesis’) are astronomically prohibitive (1041000 or 10^41000, i.e., 1 followed by 41,000 zeros—see my article on ‘God of the Gaps?’). I believe that God created life on earth and us; and if this be the case, he could just as well have created other intelligent beings on some other habitable planets.
References
Holy Bible, The: King James Version. Oxford, UK, 1769. (KJV)
McLaughlin, Ra. Third Millennium Ministries: “Nephi-What?,” https://thirdmill.org/answers/answer.asp/file/40004; posted 2011.
Morcan, James & Lance. Antigravity Propulsion: Human or Alien Technologies? Papamoa, Bay of Plenty, New Zealand: Sterling Gate Books, 2015.
Nally, Joseph R. Jr. Third Millennium Ministries: “Do Aliens and Extraterrestrials Exist?,” https://thirdmill.org/answers/answer.asp/file/46660; posted 2011.
New American Bible: Revised Edition. Translated from the original languages, authorized by the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, and approved by the United States Confraternity of Catholic Bishops. Totowa, NJ: Catholic Book Publishing Corp., 2010. (NAB: ISBN 9780899429519)
Wikipedia s.v. “Catholic Biblical Association,” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_Biblical_Association, last edited September 10, 2023.
Wikipedia s.v. “New American Bible,” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_American_Bible, last edited November, 2023.
Author’s Books
For those readers who might be interested in buying any of my books, following are the publisher’s (iUniverse’s) links. If you find the hard copies expensive, the soft copies are only US$3.99 each. Should you decide to buy any of my books, kindly also remember to leave a review after reading it (2 or 3 sentences would do).
(1) Is God a Reality?—A Scientific Investigation: https://www.iuniverse.com/en/bookstore/bookdetails/740913-Is-God-a-Reality.
(2) Is the Bible Infallible?—A Rational, Scientific, and Historical Evaluation: https://www.iuniverse.com/en/bookstore/bookdetails/792987-is-the-bible-infallible, and
(3) Faith and Reason: Disturbing Christian Doctrines: https://www.iuniverse.com/en/bookstore/bookdetails/812598-faith-and-reason. My books are also available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Indigo-Chapters, etc.
Faith, Science & Reason 