Abandoned Altars

An Israeli scholar says that Moses either saw a “cosmic event” or was high on a psychedelic, probably acacia, which he claims is similar to ayahuasca. Says he himself tried the latter, didn’t say if he saw God, though.

So is that a rational explanation? What were the rest of the Israelites on then when God landed on Mt. Sinai? Curious, I checked out the actual verses (King James version) and to me, it really does sound instead an awful lot like a rocket landing:

16 And it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people that was in the camp trembled.

17 And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God; and they stood at the nether part of the mount.

18 And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the LORD descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly.

19 And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long, and waxed louder and louder, Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice.

20 And the LORD came down upon mount Sinai, on the top of the mount: and the LORD called Moses up to the top of the mount; and Moses went up. (Exodus 19, emphasis added)

Further (and here’s something I don’t recall from parochial school OR the Chuck Heston movie), later, after they get the commandments, Moses and the boys go up the mountain, SEE GOD and have some munchies with him!

9 Then went up Moses, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel:

10 And they saw the God of Israel: and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven in his clearness.

11 And upon the nobles of the children of Israel he laid not his hand: also they saw God, and did eat and drink. (Exodus 24, emphasis added)

I’ve checked all the other English translations I can and they all agree: these 74 guys saw God Himself standing on a blue field and did not get zapped for it.

Of course, if they were all high as kites on dope, that would explain it.

Or did they really physically see a physical being?

I’m sure there’s a some mystical Kabbalistic interpretation to this, or perhaps it could be attributed to lingering anthropomorphism of the Israelite authors that shouldn’t bother anybody, but once again, I can’t shake the feeling that I’ve seen this Star Trek episode before…

This is not the first time I’ve speculated about the possibilities that Biblical encounters with angels, and even the visions with the Virgin of Guadalupe were aliens. But the closer one looks at the ancient stories with modern eyes, one inevitably has to wonder about the rest of revealed religion.

So if we had never seen the Gospel before now, what would we make of it? Wouldn’t we interpret it through contemporary idioms?

Seems to me that in our post-Star Trek universe, we might easily assume “Kingdom of Heaven” (a kingdom “not of this world”) meant a Galactic Empire of some kind. The very phrases used to describe Jesus might take on a whole new high-tech meaning: “Son of God” that he was a human-alien hybrid, while “Son of Man” might mean that as such he was an improvement on humanity.

If Christ were a human-alien hybrid, was his death and resurrection some sort of test? Did his success somehow prove humans were worth preserving?

The whole business of “judging the living and the dead” might even sound to us like separating the population on the basis of genetics… sheep from goats, as Revelations says. Salvation might take on a radical new meaning.

The whole Christian cosmos could be translated into sci-fi terms far more easily than many imagine, or certainly would approve of. And it just might happen sooner than one thinks. There are, after all, strange signs in the sky… and a lot of crazies running around down here.

Is Heaven a planet? Another dimension? I sure don’t know but I personally welcome such speculations. Two thousand years ago some very weird events were interpreted according to the times – a world of gods and demi-gods, crystalline heavens, magic, and superstition – and we’ve been trying to make sense of it all ever since.

I don’t think theology has done so well, especially in adapting the myth to the times. Maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad idea to wipe the slate clean and start over with fresh, twenty-first century eyes.

Keep watching the skies!