Mauro Biglino, a former translator for a Vatican-linked publishing house, claims he was fired after proposing a radical reinterpretation of the Bible. Biglino suggests that the word 'Elohim,' which appears 2,570 times in scripture and is commonly translated as 'God,' actually refers to a group of gods or advanced, mortal beings with high technology.
Biglino's conclusions are based on his literal translation of the original Hebrew text, asserting that centuries of theological interpretation have obscured the authors' original intent. He pointed to the plural form of 'Elohim' and its inconsistent use with singular or plural verbs as evidence that it does not always refer to a single deity. Hebrew dictionaries, he noted, offer a range of meanings for 'Elohim,' including 'gods,' 'judges,' 'rulers,' and 'superhuman beings.'
"The Elohim were flesh and blood, but with a longer lifespan, but still mortal, with higher technology and higher powers," Biglino stated in a podcast interview. This theory aligns with the ancient astronaut hypothesis, which posits that extraterrestrials visited ancient civilizations.
Biglino cited Psalm 82, which describes God standing among other divine beings, as support for his interpretation. He believes this passage depicts an assembly of the Elohim rather than a solitary supreme being. Biblical scholar Michael S. Heiser has also interpreted Psalm 82 as describing a divine council, though he viewed its members as spiritual entities.
Furthermore, Biglino suggests that passages traditionally understood as supernatural visions are eyewitness accounts of advanced technology. He referenced the Book of Ezekiel's description of 'wheels one inside the other' as a potential description of an aerial craft, arguing that the Hebrew term 'ruah' originally meant 'wind' or 'that which moves swiftly through the air space,' rather than 'spirit.' Biglino maintains that Ezekiel was documenting a real encounter with an unidentified object.
His work builds on the ancient astronaut hypothesis popularized by Erich von Däniken, with whom Biglino collaborated on the book "Skies Aflame." Unlike von Däniken's focus on archaeological sites, Biglino bases his theories on his direct translations of the Hebrew Bible.