NASA engineer Josef F. Blumrich wrote ‘Spaceships of the Prophet Ezekial’ in 1974’, but articulated quad rotary wing aircraft had not been invented yet. Blumrich was on the right track, but 30 years is a long time in aeronautical engineering.

Note:  All of the early artistic illustrations of Ezekia’s ‘wheels’ were long prior to the advent of powered flight. Subsequent artists merely copied the ‘wheel within a wheel’ interpretation.  The illustration of the craft in Blumrich’s book looked unstable and top heavy.  The rotors were entirely too small. I’ve used the quad rotor from ‘Avitar’ as an illustration, altho I visualize the Ezekial craft differently.

Ezekial lived about 2615 years ago.  As a captive of the Babylonians for 5 years (approx)… this is what he supposedly saw.  It is the best surviving account of a Close Encounter of the First Kind in antiquity. As with all such Biblical scripture, it’s difficult to decipher in order to imagine a visual of the actual dynamic for several reasons.

1. Ezekial had no idea whatinhell he was looking at.

2.  The people who wrote it had no idea what he was looking at either, so they crafted the usually cluttered narrative in the promotion of the ‘Glory of God’ and nearly threw the baby out with the bathwater in the process.

3.  The reason it survived the cut at Nicea was they didn’t understand it either. (Good thing… or it would have been destroyed  and lost forever.)

 The problem is… sifting thru the ‘stuff & clutter’ to determine what it was.  I’ll tackle this a piece at a time.  

First off… where was he?

‘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 saw visions of God.’

 (The Khabur river is sometimes identified with the Chebar, the setting of several important scenes of the book of Ezekiel in the Hebrew Bible, including the opening verse: "Now it came about in the thirtieth year, on the fifth day of the fourth month, while I was by the river Chebar among the exiles, the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God". (New American Standard Bible). Ezekiel references this river seven more times: 1,3; 3:15, 23; 10:15, 20; and 43:3. Those who challenge the identification assert that the Khabur is too far north to be associated with the Chebar. Instead, their likely candidate is the Shatt el-Nil, a silted up canal toward the east of Babylon, which may be the ka-ba-ru waterway mentioned among the 5th century BCE Murushu archives from Nippur.’

The river is also mentioned in 1 Chronicles 5:26: "Tiglath Pileser...took the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half tribe of Manasseh into exile. He took them to Halah, Habor (Khabur), Hara and the River Gozan, where they are to this day. (NIV). The identification of the Khabur with the Habor is not contested.’) This area is a rocky desert region.’

Ezekial: ‘And I looked, and behold, a stormy cloud out of the north, (the sound of a great rushing) and a fire infolding (upon) itself…’

(All indicative of a jet turbine engine or similar technology, powering a rotary winged aircraft (helicopter) at low altitude. ‘Having been next to launching aircraft on a carrier flight deck and helo’s on land and sea for years, the exhaust indeed appears to be ‘enfolding upon itself’.  The noise of a helo goes without saying… so imagine 4 rotors at once at low level in a sandy desert. Next, imagine you’ve never even dreamed of such a combination of sight and sound in your wildest…!)

Ezekial: ‘and the noise is thunderous and a brightness was about it, and out of the midst thereof as the look of glowing brass,

(Ezekial witnessed a ‘machine’… that he could not imagine; having no point of reference to it. The glow could be a reflection of aircraft lighting in blowing sand at low altitude.  In translation… it must be remembered that in the original language, some words may not have existed, or one word sufficed to describe all things similar.  It must also be remembered how many languages this passage was translated into prior to ‘English’.  Also, the skill/knowledge level of the translators(s).  It should be note that Ezekial had zero knowledge of internally powered machinery,  jet type propulsion, rotary wings and had never seen transparent glass, much less any sort of Plexiglas or electrical lighting.  These things were beyond his imagination.) 

Ezekial: ‘…out of the midst of the fire.  Also out of the midst thereof, (This ‘midst’ being the aforementioned ‘look of glowing brass’ ‘vehicle/machine’) the likeness of four living creatures.  (His perception) And this was their appearance: They had the likeness of a man.  And every one had four faces, (This ‘four’ of everything is replicated for some reason) (As for the ‘faces’… this would depend upon distance and illumination at the time. It’s highly probable that these ‘creatures’ were some misidentified part of the craft itself, such as landing gear and open fairings.)

Ezekial: ‘and every one of them had four wings. (Which begs the question… what other word in the original language would describe an appendage or device which would seemingly enable ‘flight’?  These ‘wings’ after some due consideration, were most likely rotor blades extending from a central hub, and the ‘creatures’ were extended vertical landing gear below the assembly.)  

Ezekial: ‘And their feet were straight feet; and the sole of their feet was like the sole of a calf's foot; (indicating a treaded sole, not smooth as were the sandals of the time.)

Ezekial: ‘…and they sparkled as the look of burnished brass. (Again, a metallic appearance.)  

Ezekial: And they had the hands of a man under their wings on their four sides.’

(This was puzzling for a bit, but from my own background in Aviation Ordnance, this could translate to ‘grasping’ or something that holds, as a hand would hold. This seems to indicate an external stores/weapons pylon. The external sway brace struts are splayed at right angles to the bomb rack, and have sway brace pads attached to screws angled inward. He wouldn’t know about the internal rack suspension hooks, only the sway brace assemblies, which could easily be mistaken for a hand’ holding whatever was attached to the pylon. Bomb racks are also used for the suspension of external fuel tanks and various other (non-lethal) external stores.) If the racks were empty, he’d only see the sway braces, looking like ‘fingers’.

Ezekial: ‘… and they four had their faces and their wings. 

(Another repetitive annoyance that occurs in ‘scripture’ for emphasis. Of note: The number Four in Biblical context: ‘But the number four can also represent God bringing disorder for example, the Four Horsemen who bring calamity on the earth (Revelation 6:1-8) and the four acts of Judgment (sword, famine, evil beasts, and pestilence) with which God condemns the idolators of Jerusalem (Ezekiel 14:21)  Modern numerology often contains aspects of a variety of ancient cultures and teachers, including Babylonia, Pythagoras and his followers (Greece, 6th century B.C.), astrological philosophy from Hellenistic Alexandria, early Christian mysticism, early Gnostics, the Hebrew system of the Kabbalah, The Hindu Vedas, the Chinese "Circle of the Dead", Egyptian "Book of the Masters of the Secret House" (Ritual of the Dead. Numerology is consistent with belief in the occult and aspects of the supernatural. There are many other examples, but this numerology is cause for suspicion in relation to the actual event.)  

Ezekial:  ‘Their wings were joined one to another; (Rotor blades to a central hub.) they turned not when they went; (Puzzling. This could indicate that the main rotors were being secured, and articulated to the stowed position.)

Ezekial: they went every one straight forward.  (The rotors are folded) And the likeness of their faces…’ (His perception is that the landing gear fairings and the rotors are individual beings..)

Ezekial: …was the face of a man; and they four had the face of a lion on the right side; and they four had the face of an ox on the left side; they four had also the face of an eagle. 

(OK… so what appeared to him as an Ox and a Lion ‘on either side’ or an insignia of some sort or a mechanism at about the height of a man attached  to the  craft; or fanciful embellishment by a future translation.)   

Present aircraft often incorporate flashing lights and marker lights, as well as head and tail lights.  The ‘Eagle isn’t specified as the back side, so one may assume this was above or below some location on landing gear assy.)

Ezekial:  And their faces and their wings were parted above; (There was a visible space between the gear and the rotors) Ezekial: ‘…two [wings] of every one were joined one to another, and ‘two covered their bodies’.’

(This indicates to me that all four rotor assemblies were articulated to fold or overlap, making a smaller area profile. While not readily apparent to the average reader, all Navalized aircraft fold their wings and rotors to reduce their flight profile for stowage (parking) aboard ship in confined spaces. In that this craft could not possibly have been manufactured on Earth at the time and was not a ‘space ship’, but an aircraft. It had to be transported by a ‘carrier’ or Mother ship capable of landing on Earth and escape velocity to leave the planet.)  Such a craft would have a ‘hanger bay’ for aircraft operating within an earth-type atmosphere.

Ezekial:  ‘And they went every one straight forward: whither the Spirit was to go, they went; they turned not when they went. 

(Again, this ‘turned not’ appears. Which could indicate that even tho they ‘went’… they remained stable, nothing appeared to move to propel them. As for ‘spirit’, having no knowledge of self propelled vehicles, Ezekial would assume a supernatural force was at work. This may be due to a vestige of Animism remaining in perceptions or the times in which this was written.)

Ezekial: ‘And as for the likeness of the living creatures, their appearance was like burning coals of fire, as the appearance of torches: it went up and down among the living creatures;…’(Suggesting some sort of illumination… possible sequential position lights and landing lights.)

Ezekial: ‘and the fire was bright; and out of the fire went forth lightning. (He sees the light, then sees the beam as it is scanning the landing area.  And the living creatures ran (Went away at speed) and returned as the appearance of a flash of lightning.  (This could possibly indicate a searchlight as is found on helicopters.  The narrative seems out of sequence at this point between preparing to land and the actual landing.)   

Vision of the Four Wheels

Ezekial:  ‘And I looked at the living creatures, and behold, one wheel upon the earth beside the living creatures, toward their four faces.  (Here he describes the main craft. The main landing gear has now been deployed in addition to the initial struts. This happens fast, so he probably missed it)

Ezekial: ‘The appearance of the wheels and their work was as the look of a chrysolite; (Semi-transparent Greenish Gold stone)  and they four had one likeness; (They were identical) and their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel. 

(What other words describe wheel? Disk, Hoop, Circle, Shroud, Rotor, Portal?)

Ezekial:  ‘ When they went, they went upon their four sides; they turned not when they went.’ 

(I had to think about this one… because such a thing doesn’t exist yet. ‘When they went’… What is the ‘they’ that ‘went’ and where did they go?  I think he was referring to the (four) circular rotor shrouds disengaging and disappearing as they collapsed in segmented sections along the fuselage sides of the craft. ‘Transformer’ style. This would happen in a split second. The rotor blades would have stopped, giving him the appearance of connected spokes initially. The spokes then become ‘wings’ as he observes them and their shape when the dust has settled and the shrouds have been stowed.  This makes sense in the context of stowage space within’ the ‘carrier’ mother ship.  Ezekial doesn’t mean ‘turn’ in the literal sense… he means nothing appeared to move when the ‘thing’ moved. At this point, it becomes difficult to determine which ‘wheels’ Ezekial is referring to.  After some pondering, I concluded that whoever assembled the original Biblical narrative probably didn’t know either.  It appears that the events are out of sequence.  This is most likely the result of ‘run on sentences caused by the absence of punctuation in primitive writing.  Many early scribes were illiterate. They simply copied whatever was was put before them.  It’s highly doubtful that the collected scrolls which were included in the Bible by the Council of Nicea in 325 CE were the original writings. The possibility that the scribe got the scrolls he was transcribing out of sequence is high. No telling how many translations of this were still in existence in 325 CE, or how many actually survived up until that time.         

In the following, Ezekial is again describing the main rotors, not the landing gear.)

Ezekial: ‘As for their rims, they were high and dreadful; and they four had their rims full of eyes round about. (Ezekial cannot yet distinguish the rotor blades he refers to as ‘wings’ because they’re spinning.

This sounds to me like rotor blades or ducted fan within a shroud. The shroud being perforated.  When rotor blades turn at high speed… the tips are supersonic and can create a ‘glow’ due to the Kopp-Etchells Effect. (Helicopter Light Scintillation Halo). 

 

‘The Kopp-Etchells Effect is a new name. The Kopp-Etchells Effect was named after two soldiers, Benjamin S. Koop (U.S. Army) and Joseph Etchells (U.K. Army) who died in Afghanistan in July 2009, by Michael Yon (a former Green Beret and now a independent combat journalist ) . The Kopp-Etchells effect is a result of dust striking helicopter blades as they take off or land at night, causing a bright 'halo' effect around the spinning rotor disk. When helicopters pass through dust storms, contact of the particles with the rotating blades produces either sparks or static electricity.’

 

Within a perforated rotor shroud, this could easily give the appearance of ‘eyes’.  Given the desert region of this Biblical account, it only makes sense that this is what Ezekial saw. Again, neither quad rotors or Kopps-Etchells would have been thought of by Blumrich in 1974.)

Obviously out of sequence, Ezekial describes the aircraft hovering to find a suitable landing area:

Ezekial: ‘And when the living creatures went, (Ezekial assumes the landing gear assy is a being.) the wheels went beside them; and when the living creatures were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up and turned not as they went.’

(The landing gear is fully extended and possibly has illumination in the landing gear well.)  

Ezekial: ‘Whithersoever the Spirit was to go, they went, thither would [their] spirit go; and the wheels were lifted up along with them: for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels.’

(Ezekial is confused… and probably scared out of his wits at this point.  He knows what wheels are, but these are different. He has no idea that the landing gear wheels are attached by a single hub axle with folded out of the ‘creature’s’ landing struts.  This would indicate either a sort of dual landing gear system of pad or wheel , or… the wheel was contained in the pad housing clamshell and deployed by rotating vertically if desired.)

Ezekial:  ‘When those went, they went; and when those stood, they stood; and when those were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up along with them: for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels.’

(Note this assumption of implied Animism… or transfer of spirit of the living to a material ‘object’.  The pilot of the craft is maneuvering a bit to find a suitable place to set it down… or maneuvering closer to Ezekial.  Ezekial is obviously freaked out by these wheels.)

Vision of the Divine Glory

Ezekial: And there was the likeness of an expanse over the heads of the living creature, as the look of the terrible crystal, (clear canopy) stretched forth over their heads above. 

(I’ve also encountered this Biblical verse to read: ‘‘And behold an angel sat as upon a throne of fire, surrounded by a firmament as of a beryl’  This indicates how differently scripture has been edited / embellished and even deleted within the space of a half century; or even a printing…much less 2,615 years ago.

(‘Throne of fire would indicate a seat, surrounded by cockpit instrument illumination panels.  There was no ‘glass’ in Ezekial’s day. This was something beyond his imagination. This ‘firmament’ expanse and ‘terrible crystal’ means something covered this particular creature, [Most likely the pilot] that was hard and transparent, such as Plexiglas.) 

Ezekial: And I saw as the look of glowing brass, as the appearance of fire, within it round about; (Cockpit illumination) from the appearance of his loins and upward, and from the appearance of his loins and downward,…’)

(Which seems to indicate a structural member separating the canopy, top and bottom, similar to a helicopter.)

Ezekial: ‘And under the expanse 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.’

(Again, this seems out of sequence, but suggests that the cockpit was above the rotors, if the ‘expanse’ he’s referring to is the canopy and not something else such as the fuselage. Again Ezekial describes the rotors in the folded position.)

Ezekial: ‘And when they went, I heard the noise of their wings, like the noise of great waters, as the voice of the Almighty, a tumultuous noise, as the noise of a host: when they stood, they let down their wings.’

(Again, this account is out of sequence. The rotors are deployed in flight. ‘When they stood’ he refers to the landing gear touching down and the rotors stowed to fold position.)

Ezekial: ‘And above the expanse 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 a likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it.’

(There are varied descriptions of this, but ‘over their heads’ (plural) indicates he’s still referencing the landing gear as ‘beings’.  The ‘man’ (pilot) is seated under a clear (possibly tinted) canopy.)

Ezekial: ‘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.

 (An archaic description of a rainbow; indicating a soft light. This could be cause by sunlight on the canopy, or sunlight on dust/moisture created by the rotors. This even supposedly was near a river, so that would explain the moisture.)

Ezekial: ‘This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of Jehovah. And when I saw, I fell on my face, and I heard a voice of one that spoke.’ 

(At this point… the narrative goes completely off the chart… but Ezekial was most likely hailed over a loud speaker from the craft for some purpose.  In what language or why we’ll never really know. I suppose someone could rationally decipher the remainder of the narrative (eating scrolls and such), but that’s beyond my intent to describe the alien flying craft.)

 

W.E. Shaw 2015