Our commentary
UFOs in the Bible? The verses people cite
Our own look at a common question, by David Dell. The background on this page is ours, not a summary of the book.
Lists of “UFOs in the Bible” circulate widely, and they mostly quote the same handful of passages. Writers have read Scripture this way since the 1960s. Erich von Däniken treated Ezekiel's vision as a spacecraft and suggested that the two angels who visited Lot were ancient astronauts. The Presbyterian minister Barry Downing argued in The Bible and Flying Saucers (1968) that aliens guided the Israelites in the wilderness and that a flying vehicle parted the Red Sea. Here are the passages most often cited, in the King James text, with what each passage itself says it was.
1. Ezekiel's wheel
“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 was as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel.” Ezekiel 1:16 (KJV)
The most famous “biblical UFO.” Ezekiel calls the scene “visions of God” and later names the creatures as cherubim (Ezekiel 10:20). We go through it in detail in What was Ezekiel's wheel?
2. Elijah's chariot of fire
“And it came to pass, as they 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.” 2 Kings 2:11 (KJV)
Read quickly, a fiery vehicle carries a man into the sky. Read closely, the chariot and horses of fire separate Elijah from Elisha, and Elijah goes up “by a whirlwind.” A few chapters later the same book shows fiery chariots again, this time as heavenly armies around Elisha, normally unseen and made visible when God opens a servant's eyes.
“And Elisha prayed, and said, LORD, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the LORD opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.” 2 Kings 6:17 (KJV)
3. The pillar of cloud and fire
“And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night:” Exodus 13:21 (KJV)
A glowing column that leads a people, moves and stops sounds like a craft to modern readers. The text identifies it twice: it is “the LORD” going before them, and in the next chapter the pillar moves together with “the angel of God”:
“And the angel of God, which went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them; and the pillar of the cloud went from before their face, and stood behind them:” Exodus 14:19 (KJV)
4. Zechariah's flying roll
“Then I turned, and lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and behold a flying roll. And he said unto me, What seest thou? And I answered, I see a flying roll; the length thereof is twenty cubits, and the breadth thereof ten cubits.” Zechariah 5:1–2 (KJV)
A flying object roughly 30 by 15 feet (if a cubit is about 18 inches, our own conversion) is a favorite on UFO lists. But a “roll” is a scroll, the prophet sees it in a series of eight visions, and the angel explains it at once:
“Then said he unto me, This is the curse that goeth forth over the face of the whole earth: for every one that stealeth shall be cut off as on this side according to it; and every one that sweareth shall be cut off as on that side according to it.” Zechariah 5:3 (KJV)
The biblical scholar Katrina Larkin calls it “the word of the Lord in materialized form”: a scroll of judgment against theft and false oaths, not a vehicle.
5. Jacob's ladder
“And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it.” Genesis 28:12 (KJV)
Sometimes cited as a stairway for visitors. The text says it was a dream, and the beings on it are “the angels of God.”
6. The Star of Bethlehem
“When they had heard the king, they departed; and, lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was.” Matthew 2:9 (KJV)
A star that travels ahead of the Magi and stops over one house is the strongest candidate on most lists, because stars don't do that. Interpreters have argued over it for centuries. Origen proposed a natural explanation, while John Chrysostom argued the star must have come down to point out a spot as small as a manger. In 1614 Johannes Kepler linked it to conjunctions of Jupiter and Saturn in 7 BC; others propose a close Jupiter–Venus conjunction in 2 BC, a comet or a nova. Many Christians simply read it as a miraculous sign, and Ellen White wrote in 1898 that it was “a distant company of shining angels.” None of these readings needs a spacecraft.
7. The cloud at the Ascension
“And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight.” Acts 1:9 (KJV)
“Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.” Acts 1:11 (KJV)
Downing claimed Jesus left the earth in a flying saucer. Luke's account says a cloud received him, and that he will return “in like manner.” In Scripture, clouds very often signal God's presence, as with the pillar of cloud in the wilderness.
What the pattern shows
This section is our own commentary. In every one of these passages the writer tells us what the thing was: the glory of the LORD, the LORD going before Israel, angels, a vision, a sign. UFO readings keep the description and set aside the writer's own identification. Skeptics and believers can agree that this isn't reading the text on its own terms.
That doesn't make the Bible silent about strange things in the sky. It describes an unseen realm full of real beings (see What does the Bible say about aliens? and the interdimensional theory of UFOs), and it warns that not every sign comes from God:
“For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.” Matthew 24:24 (KJV)
We look at that warning in UFOs and spiritual deception, and at a famous modern case read three different ways in the Miracle of the Sun at Fátima.
Sources: Ezekiel 1:16; 2 Kings 2:11, 6:17; Exodus 13:21, 14:19; Zechariah 5:1–3; Genesis 28:12; Matthew 2:9, 24:24; Acts 1:9–11 (KJV) · Ancient astronauts (von Däniken, Downing) · Barry Downing · Zechariah 5 (Larkin) · Star of Bethlehem