Are there aliens in the Bible?

What does the Bible say about aliens? Nothing. At no point does any part of the Bible discuss the existence of creatures from other planets. Indeed, the idea of beings living on other planets was not even conceived by ancient people at all.

However, this fact has not stopped people from creating theories that the Bible contains hidden references of visits by extraterrestrial creatures. People who support this view will refer to passages such as “the sons of God” visiting and impregnating human women in Genesis 6:4, the bizarre angelic beings described in the visions of the prophets (such as Ezekiel 1:4-28), or supernatural occurrences like Elijah being taken up to heaven in a chariot of fire (2 Kings 2:11 / 4 Kingdoms 2:11). They will make the argument that these are actually accounts of aliens as described with the vocabulary of near-eastern ancient people. Elijah’s chariot, for example, might have been an alien spacecraft, but was only described as a “chariot of fire” because ancient Hebrews didn’t know what a spaceship was.

Proponents of this hypothesis do not limit their theories to the Bible, but will tell you that all ancient religions have their source in some sort of contact between ancient man and visitors from other planets. This hypothesis is called “ancient astronauts” or “ancient aliens”, and was in part popularized by the History Channel program, “Ancient Aliens”.

Is it even possible that these passages in the Bible support for the idea of extraterrestrial creatures? To answer this question we need to understand two important things: what counts as evidence and the role of modern prejudice in our thinking.

Are there UFOs in the Bible? No.

The most important idea in this discussion is between the possibility for something and evidence for something. Let’s say you go to work and all your co-workers are mysteriously absent. Nobody is sitting in their desks. You are alone. In this crazy scenario, you might jump to the conclusion that your co-workers are gone because they have all been eaten by a monster, but this is to confuse evidence for possibility. The fact is that your co-workers are gone, but this fact is not evidence that they were actually eaten by a monster. That is simply a possibility. In order to believe something is the case, you need actual, real, concrete evidence for that belief. Possibility alone is not enough.

In the same way, just because it is possible to interpret certain passages in the Bible as supporting an ancient aliens hypothesis does not mean that the Bible provides actual support or evidence for that theory. Remember, but the Bible can be interpreted in almost any way if you are creative enough. The question is not, “can we interpret the Bible in this way?” but “what is the right way to interpret the Bible?” As there is no actual, real, concrete evidence, we have to conclude that aliens are not in the Bible. That said, I think it’s important to address why modern people might find the idea of the ancient aliens hypotheses attractive.

Belief in aliens allows belief in the supernatural

To answer this question, we need to understand better what sort of prejudices modern people are prone to. One of the main prejudices of modern people is they have a hard time believing in the claims of ancient people about “the supernatural”. Spirits, gods, magic, and even religion are things that were normal to every culture throughout all of human history. Since modern people usually think about the world in a more scientific way, they have a hard time believing in “supernatural” things at all. So when modern people encounter ancient supernatural stories like in the Bible, they often come to one of two conclusions: these stories are in some way untruthful (either because ancient people were stupid, or were writing metaphorically) or else that there was some presence of advanced technology that ancient people simply didn’t understand, and so people in the Bible created categories like “gods” or “magic” to help them understand such advanced technology. This is why modern people like the concept of ancient aliens: they can give some truth to old religious stories without changing their fundamental scientific beliefs about “supernatural” phenomena like magic and gods.

These modern beliefs are prejudices. They are not examining the evidence of ancient texts and letting those texts speak for themselves. Instead, this modern view has already made up its mind about whether spirits, gods, or magic exist. It is reframing ancient texts like the Bible to fit modern materialistic or “scientific” beliefs (this is often called scientism). Naturally, modern people are free to believe whatever they like about these topics, but to force that reading onto ancient authors is not really an intellectually honest way to engage with ancient stories like in the Bible.

Are aliens demons, or angels? The spirits that surround us.

What does the Bible actually say about these ”supernatural” episodes, when we read it on its own terms? When you examine the beliefs of the Biblical authors, the Jewish religious communities surrounding the Biblical authors, and the interpretations of the earliest Christians, you will find that did believe in the existence of non-human, intelligent, “advanced” beings. These creatures are what we might today call “spirits”.

The Biblical literature is full of references to spiritual creatures of many kinds. There are otherworldly, bizarre powers like the seraphim and cherubim, wicked creatures referred to as “demons” or “unclean spirits”, and powerful spiritual beings referred to as “messengers” (“angels”/“angeloi”) of God. The Old Testament frequently refers to the existence of other “gods” in the sense of lesser beings who were created by the one God. For example, Psalm 82:1 (LXX 81:1) states that, “God has taken his place in the divine council; in the midst of the gods he holds judgment” (ESV). Deuteronomy 10:17, Psalm 136:2 (LXX 135:2), and Daniel 2:47 describe God as the “God of gods”. This is the idea that there were spiritual powers that we might call “gods” (with a lowercase-G) who had great power, but that above them was their creator, the supreme deity, totally beyond them, and that this supreme God was the deity worshiped by the ancient Israelites.

St. Augustine, a fourth-century Christian thinker, observed that the pagans use the term “gods” to refer to what the Christians called “angels”. He thought that there was no problem with this, provided that everyone understood that there was a difference between the lesser “gods” who are created and the One God who is uncreated and lord of all.

What did these spiritual beings do? There are many examples in the Bible and the surrounding literature. These spiritual beings are described as having a variety of tasks, including taking care of creation, overseeing the well being of humans, performing errands across the cosmos, assembling in a divine council before the throne of God, and acting as messengers and intermediaries between God and human beings.

One of the most important elements in the ancient understanding of these spiritual creatures is that some portion of them became wicked, rebelled against the supreme God, and ultimately founded the religions of the pagans. The traditional interpretation of the story in Genesis 6:4 about the “sons of God” sleeping with human women is that these were spiritual beings who committed adultery with human women and produced half-human, half-spirit hybrids that the Bible refers to as “nephalim” or “giants”. This story is elaborated on in the Book of Enoch, a non-Biblical writing from the second temple period (~200 B.C.), but which the Biblical authors took as authoritative (Jude 1:6-7 and 1:14-15; Heb 11:5). In the story, the “sons of God” are fallen spiritual creatures who teach secret knowledge to their human wives and sons, including the art of making poisons and metalworking to create weapons and wage war. This is what lead to the corruption and immorality that ultimately caused the great Flood.

Another part of this story comes from the account of the Tower of Babel. The story is in Genesis chapter 11 and details how ancient humans came together to build a city with a great tower in the center, to which God responds by changing their languages so that they could not communicate. They ultimately abandoned the project and dispersed over the earth. The way this passage was interpreted by ancient Jewish and Christian commentators was alongside Deuteronomy 32:8: "When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he divided mankind, he fixed the borders of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God” (ESV). Here, like in the story of the nephalim, the “sons of God” were understood to be spiritual beings originally entrusted to rule over mankind, to steward and protect them. The traditional understanding is that these spiritual beings ultimately ended up becoming wicked and desiring worship, ultimately founding religions based on themselves rather than directing people to worship the God of gods. This is the origin of the pagan religions that the Israelites would frequently come into conflict with over their history.

Accordingly, the early Christians did not disbelief in the existence of the pagan deities, they simply classified them as wicked, fallen gods. In a word: demons. We see this across the Old and New Testaments. The Psalmist declares that “all the gods of the nations are idols” (Psalm 96:5; LXX 95:5) and St. Paul links idols to demons when he explains that sacrifices offered to idols of the pagan gods are offered to demons (1 Cor 10:20-21).

Thus there is a sense in which, according to Christianity, most of the world’s ancient religions were founded by non-human, super intelligent beings. They simply were not from another planet but actually native to the earth.

What does the Bible say about life on other planets?

As a final question, is Christianity at odds with the possibility of life existing on other worlds? Again, neither the Bible nor the tradition of the church have anything to say against the existence of extraterrestrial life. But the Christian author C.S. Lewis entertains this very idea in his science fiction trilogy, beginning with Out of the Silent Planet. In these stories, the protagonist travels to other planets and meets alien life. Lewis presents a wonderful account of what human encounters with extraterrestrial life might look like, given a Christian understanding of the universe. In an essay from The World’s Last Night and Other Essays, Lewis explores the possibility of meeting intelligent beings on other planets, and considers that such creatures will be of one of three kinds: unfallen; fallen and unredeemed – as mankind used to be before the coming of Christ; or fallen but redeemed – as humans are now.

Conclusion

While specific passages in the Bible can be interpreted in a number of ways, the Biblical accounts do not support or lack support for the existence of extraterrestrial life. When you look at traditional Jewish beliefs from that time, and how they were understood by early Christians, the Bible does present a witness to the existence of non-human, spiritual beings like demons as the origin for various pagan religions. But neither the Biblical literature nor Christian tradition makes any dogmatic or doctrinal statement for or against the possibility of extraterrestrial life. In the absence of any real evidence, such ideas – fun as they may be – remain entirely speculative.

Further Reading

• Fr. Stephen De Young, The Religion of the Apostles

• Augustine, The City of God, Books VIII-XVI

• Justin Martyr, Apologies

• Origen, Against Celsus

• Tatian, Orations Against the Greeks

• C.S. Lewis, The Space Trilogy:

  • Out of the Silent Planet

  • Perelandra

  • That Hideous Strength