The Spaceships of Ezekiel

by Josef F. Blumrich

Based on the Book of Ezekiel and the question of alien visitors in biblical times

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, History, Aliens, Religion

179 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1973

Reviews

[Steve Wiggins · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book had been on my shelf since my teenage years. I give it three stars for creativity. I am a former professor of Bible, open to the possibility of intelligent life in space, however, Blumrich makes a sophomore mistake of misunderstanding the prophet Ezekiel. There is no need for extraordinary circumstances to explain what Ezekiel is doing in his book. The truth is more mundane, but this little book was a fun read nevertheless. I wrote a couple of posts about it on my blog: Sects and Violence in the Ancient World.

[Jennifer Linsky · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book suffers from an audience problem. To whit, it will be of interest primarily to two groups of people: those who have faith in the bible, and those who have faith in extraterrestrials. Only one of those groups is likely to be satisfied by the conclusions Mr. Blumrich reaches.

The book is dry, reading like an engineering report. This should not surprise anyone, as Mr. Blumrich was in fact an engineer, and wrote in the style familiar to him. What is surprising is that Mr. Blumrich overstates his case, repeatedly using phrases such as "it has been shown" and "it has been proven." It would be more honest to say "it could be that" or "one possibility is."

I do not doubt that the craft Mr. Blumrich describes would function exactly as he describes. I do not doubt that it would be an effective and efficient single-stage-to-orbit-and-return vehicle. I don't even doubt that it's possible that Ezekiel was describing such a craft. What I do doubt is that it is in any way possible to say, from the paucity of evidence given within the text, that this or any answer is the definitive and only possible answer.

Was Ezekiel visited by aliens? I dunno. But after reading this book, I'm convinced it's possible.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ezekiel is a fascinating book because while he is considered a prophet his experiences are slightly different. This book does a very good job of outlining exactly what Ezekiel saw from an engineering perspective and goes line by line to give an explanation. The only thing I wish is that he did work with a translator (he states why he didn’t) however I think if he did we could have seen more possibilities. Just because we have the most recent translation doesn’t mean it’s an accurate one.

[Jan Kolmas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating

[Jeremy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very interesting theory written by a man who has knowledge of military technologies of our flying crafts. Dating back to the 70s but of course our technologies have leaped even further than his times had.

This book breaks apart the Bible's Ezekiel story to shed light on an interpretation a bit contrary to what may be preached from any sermon. Imagine if Ezekiel's visions were that of god's "from the sky view". And also imagine if the strange creatures Ezekiel saw preceding the firmament with the capsule containing the "form like a man" were helicopters preparing a spaceship type craft for a landing on the ground.

Believe whatever you will. I think this was a nicely laid out book in the way it detailed our "current" aircrafts in the NASA program and compared them to Ezekiel's descriptions of the beings that visited him so many years ago. Four faces, four wings, human hands, glowing fire, lightning, smoky clouds, bronze spacesuits...

Somewhat dry, repetitive reading but I definitely recommend this book to the curious.

[Denver Michaels · Rating 5 out of 5]

Referenced by the great ancient astronaut theorist Erich von Däniken, this book deserves a spot on the shelf for any student of the theory. Part technical manual and part Bible commentary, this classic work from the 1970s is still worth reading over 40 years later. A word of caution—if technical descriptions of machinery bore you, then this book will be a tedious and tough read.

[John Tuck · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read this book some time ago and found it to be one of the silliest, most preposterous book I had read up until that point. I still find the book's main thesis to be one which might be made into an episode of The Simpsons or The Big Bang Theory. Pure fiction, all of them!

[P. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Intriguing

This book raised perspectives on ancient texts and history that deserve attention. Could Ezekiel actually have seen and travelled in a spaceship 's lander module? It is certainly interesting to suspend normal belief and face the challenge of, what if?

[Douglas McClellan · Rating 5 out of 5]

It makes you think about things in the past and what other things in the Bible are related to extraterrestrials

[Elliott · Rating 1 out of 5]

Chapter 1 contains a cutscene so dramatic and unexpected that it’s like the famous jump in 2001: A Space Odyssey where the ape throws its bone club into the air for it to become a satellite just before it would hit the ground. Blumrich starts by quoting the passages from Ezekiel in question and then all of a sudden by the end of the passage there’s a fully realized spacecraft pictured.
While Kubrick was showing the primitive club of early man becoming a satellite carrying a nuclear weapon and working with the theme of evolutionary potential that the film is really about Blumrich is just crazy. It looks as if he’d designed the spacecraft beforehand and made it fit to the passages he showed and I have to take the traditional route in that Ezekiel was not describing a literal encounter with the unknown but rather a spiritual one.

[Bill Rand · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another one of my grandfather's books that came into my collection. Its interesting just to observe how someone can take a few sentences of text written in an old document and generate an entire world with technical diagrams about how Ezekiel wasn't talking to angels but aliens.

[Angel Pagan]

I have read other books with similar titles, including Chariot of the God's. In my opinion, I don't care who writes what book about it. Read the book of the Prophet Ezekiel and ask yourself, "What is this"?

[Jason Baldauf · Rating 4 out of 5]

This really is a novel book. The author provides a break down of the biblical Ezekiel story and reverse engineers the descriptions into how it would be describing a space ship. Fun and interesting read.

[Ezequiel Merino Cabrera · Rating 3 out of 5]

Argumentar científicamente la existència y operativa de un ovni en la Biblia no es fácil, pero se puede.
Es un análisis interpretativo de las visiones de Ezequiel y es simplemente genial.

[airrunkle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating application of logic and extrapolation of physical descriptions from the text of Ezekiel.

[Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn’t understand all of it but it’s still a really neat book!

[Sandy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting but the engineering info is way over my head.

[Kendra · Rating 3 out of 5]

I will never again read the book of Ezekiel without thinking of aliens.

[David]

It was weird. Read it in 1974 whilst stationed at Fort Lewis...

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

Blumrich presents an interesting theory that the angels and God as described in the book of Ezekiel are in fact a space ship and an extra terrestrial being. That Blumrich was an actual rocket scientist adds credibility to his theory. This isn't some quack expounding nonsense, he knows what he's talking about and approaches it from a scientific standpoint. However, there are two big holes in Blumrich's theory. One being that his hypothesis of the space ship is based on a design (seen on the book cover) by a very human engineer. Therefore, the ancient visitors would have had to have had the same idea, unless of course they are really visitors from our own future and based their ships upon this same design. The other hole in the theory is that the space ship only appears in a few chapters, yet Ezekiel hears the voice of God (Blumrich hypothesizes this is an alien being) throughout the book in which the space ship does not appear.

An interesting book, although Blumrich at times goes a little too much into the science, at which times, his narrative becomes rather dry.

[Matthew · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting read and a different take on the alien gods theory.

Blumrich a NASA rocket engineer takes the writing of the prophet Ezekiel and by examining the descriptions of the 'spaceships' described in them, uses his knowledge of rocket design to create a possible spaceship out of them.

It is what seem to me, as a non rocket scientist or bible scholar, a well research and easy to read examination which a very detailed appendix section which is aimed at the technically minded and explains how he reached his conclusion and the science behind them.

Fun Fact: After publishing this book Blumrich painted a type of omi-wheel (one that can move in any direction without having to turn) which he says was influenced by the description of the wheels in Ezekiel's descriptions of the 'spaceships'

[Valerie]

von Daniken had very little technical knowledge of spacecraft. Blumrich did. I prefer books with diagrams. Odd, really, given that I'm not visually oriented generally.

[Donnie Reeves · Rating 5 out of 5]

this will make one think ----terrific author ---and scientist. I thoroughly enjoyed it---just a bit too technical at times though.

[Elentarri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting, but rather technical.

[Eliza · Rating 1 out of 5]

I hate to say it but it didn't convince me in the slightest. Boring as batshit.