The Cast: Pre Biblical Astronauts

Babylon

Thanks, again, to the Babylonian scribes, we have the following story from pre-biblical times; the Epic of Etana.  "I will take you to the throne of Anu,” said the eagle. They had soared for an hour and then the Eagle said: “Look down, what has become of the earth!” Etana looked down and saw that the earth had become like a hill and the sea like a well...After the third hour, the earth was only a speck of dust, and the sea no longer seen”. 
Archaeology and The Old Testament, James B. Pritchard, (Princeton, New Jersey)  

If this is strictly fiction, the question arises: What gave the writers of pre-biblical times the idea that the earth could be left behind at such a speed?  Or, in fact, that the earth could be left behind at all?

Egypt

From the Egyptian Book of the Dead comes this quote, This place has no air, its depth is unfathomable and it is black as the blackest night. 
Archaeology and The Old Testament, James B. Pritchard, (Princeton, New Jersey).  

• Who told the Egyptian 3,500 years ago that space is black?  
• From where did they get the idea that there is no air in space?

It seems a lot more realistic to assume that ancient, as well as modern, cultures, were visited by saucerians.  It is not beyond reason to suppose that the astronauts gave them specific information and on occasion even took them out into space.

China

More than 4,000 years ago, a Chinese man and his wife took up space travel.  Again, a statement like that, based on an ancient story, could be discarded if it were not for a few notable facts presented. 

• We find first that they explored space by "mounting a current of luminous air."  Surely the current of luminous air is the exhaust of a fiery rocket? 

• His wife, it seems, was content to travel to the moon, and she said, "it was a luminous sphere, shining like glass, of enormous size and very cold; the light of the moon has its birth in the sun." 

          Gods from Outer Space. Von Daniken, (Bantam Books, New York, N.Y.) 

The astronauts of Apollo 11 also said that the moon was desolate with a glasslike soil.  It is cold in the shade.  If the Chinese did not go there, how did they know these facts 4000 years ago?

• In a Collection of Old Tales from China, compiled in the fourth century, we find this interesting statement.  An enormous ship appeared on the sea at night with brilliant lights...it could also sail to the moon and the stars, hence its name ‘a ship hanging among the stars’ or ‘the boat to the moon’...this giant ship which could travel in the sky or sail the seas was seen for over 12 years.  

Why did it quit coming to earth?  Shi Ching says that when the Divine Emperor saw crime and vice rising in the world, he commanded Chong and Li to cut off communication between the earth and the sky – and since then there has been no more going up or down. 

We Are Not The First, Andrew Tomas, BantamBooks, New York

India

The Sanskrit from ancient India, recently translated into the language of modern day western readers, dates from about the third to the eighth century CE.  However, the ideas presented in those writings are slightly ahead of our times.

It is in the Mahabharata that we hear about Bhima who "flew with his vimana (flying machine) on an enormous ray which was as brilliant as the sun and made a noise like the thunder of a storm".  

And in the same great ancient Indian epic, we also hear about the great warrior Arjuna's ascent to Indra's heaven.  Importantly, Arjuna is, we are told, a mortal. However, during the telling of his particular adventure we are told of his ascent to heaven in a car that travels upwards to the clouds with a noise like thunder.  Whilst travelling to heaven Arjuna apparently also sees flying cars that have crashed and are out of action and other flying cars that are stationary, whilst others fly freely in the air.

"These were space vehicles similar to the so-called flying saucers reported throughout the world today."

In the ancient Vymanka-Shastra (the science of aeronautics), there is a description of a Vimana: "An apparatus which can go by its own force, from one place to place or globe to globe.  
Wikipedia: Mahabharata

South America

South America is rich in folklore about gods from the skies.  The following is a story of Bep Kororoti who mysteriously appeared to the villagers one day.  It took some time for the townsfolk to accept him as one of them, for "he had with him a weapon which he pointed at a tree and then a stone, and destroyed them both".

Finally, though, they did accept him and he married one of the local women and settled down.  Things went along quite well until the hero got restless and decided to leave the village.  Having gone up to the mountaintop, the story continues, "suddenly there was a tremendous crash that shook the whole region and Bep Kororoti vanished into the air, surrounded by fiery clouds, smoke and thunder." 
Von Daniken, In Search of Ancient Gods. (Heron and Souvenir Press, New York).  

This reminds us, again, of the words of Exodus 19:16+18. When God descended on Mount Sinai, there were thunderings and lightnings, and a thick cloud on the mountain…and the whole mountain quaked greatly.    

The next post will deal more with space travel and how it relates to Enoch, a biblical hero!