Comments: The Situation

Keywords: UFO, unidentified flying objects, Bible, flying saucers, prophecy, Paleo-SETI, ancient astronauts, Erich von Däniken, Josef F. Blumrich, Zecharia Sitchin, Ezekiel, biblical prophecy, spacecraft, spaceship, NASA, Roswell, aircraft, propellant, extraterrestrial hypothesis, Jacques Vallee, interdimensional hypothesis, Project Blue Book, Condon Report, ancient history, Jesus, Judaism, Christianity, Middle East, end times, engines, rockets, helicopters, space travel, aliens, abductions, alien abductions, crop circles, extraterrestrials, astronomy, economics, biology, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Space Shuttle, Apollo, stars, planets, solar system, scriptures, design, fuel tank, aerodynamics, fuels, hydrogen, oxygen, wheels

Comments on Chapter 1

Go to Chapter Part: A B C D

When I originally read Blumrich's work, I was very impressed. But when I then went and started reading the entire Book of Ezekiel, even though I had absolutely no knowledge about the Bible it was obvious that Blumrich had taken material totally out of context. However, I discuss that elsewhere.

For now, just be aware that:

1. Ezekiel's book provides nowhere near as much evidence that, "They were here" as Blumrich claims.
     
2. Blumrich's theory is based on a German-language Bible that contains two serious mistranslations, "vehicular structure" and "round feet".
     
3. The translation Blumrich relied upon was a very recent and little-known (Catholic) translation that used a "translate-the-concept" approach that did not accurately translate individual words.
     
4. Unfortunately, the German "round feet" mistranslation was copied by English translators into the New American Bible (also Catholic).
     
5. Because Blumrich was Catholic he had a copy of both Bibles, giving him the erroneous belief that both mistranslations were accurate. (Scholars routinely review recent work of other scholars in their field, so the Catholic English translators definitely got the idea from the Catholic German version.)
     
6. Blumrich says that his design requires a round "flying saucer" shape for aerodynamic reasons.
     
7. Ezekiel describes the shape of what he saw and it definitely was not round or flying-saucer shaped.
     

Blumrich became convinced after reading only 7 verses in one German Bible and before he examined any reference works or other Bibles.

Because no other Bible contains both mistranslations that Blumrich based his theory on, when Blumrich's German-language book was translated into English the translator had to translate the German mistranslations instead of substituting verses from some well-respected English translation such as the King James Version, New American Standard Bible, or New International Version.

In other words:

1. In good faith and with absolutely no intent to deceive or misinterpret, Blumrich, who had no background in biblical studies, examined one German-language Bible translation he happened to have handy.
     
2. That recent, rarely-used translation contained mistranslations that are unimportant "in the grand scheme of things" because the book of Ezekiel is not widely used by theologians or clergy.
     
3. When Blumrich saw those mistranslations, something "clicked" for him. He read "round shiny brass foot" and thought Ezekiel was describing part of a machine.
     
4. Blumrich did check other Bibles.  Unfortunately, one of those—in a different language—copied the "round foot" error.
     
5. Blumrich did notice that other translations don't say "round feet".  He incorrectly assumed different translators were using different Hebrew source texts.
     
6. Already convinced, Blumrich subsequently read into other sections what he would expect to see if Ezekiel had actually been describing a machine.
     
1. Blumrich read in a non-existent description of a flying saucer although his source text never says the vehicle was round.
2. Blumrich ignored 94 percent of the source text on the ground that, "It deals with non-technical matters."
3. Whenever the remaining 6 percent of Ezekiel's text directly contradicted Blumrich's interpretation, he simply ignored it, declaring either, "This could not have happened," or "Obviously text is missing."
4. When all other translations disagreed with Blumrich's interpretation, he simply disregarded them, speculating that different translators had used different source texts. He never attempted to confirm this erroneous speculation.
     
7. Blumrich then designed a flying saucer that is viable from both the scientific and engineering perspectives.
     
8. Even more strongly convinced, because his design is a viable craft, Blumrich then made all sorts of assumptions about what Ezekiel was describing, based not on Ezekiel's text but on Blumrich's own design.
     

Critics of Blumrich often say, "You know what? I think Blumrich started out writing a book debunking von Däniken and he realized he could sell more books if he supported him." That view is definitely wrong.  I have researched Blumrich extensively and communicated about his intentions with both his sons who are still living, including Christoph, who helped him research the book. Based on both their input and Blumrich's subsequent actions over more than 25 years, there is no doubt whatsoever that he really believed what he wrote.