Mauro Biglino, an Italian scholar and former translator for Edizioni San Paolo, a Catholic publishing house connected to the Vatican, stated he was dismissed after proposing a radical reinterpretation of the Bible. Biglino claims that the Hebrew word 'Elohim,' which appears 2,570 times in the Bible and is commonly translated as 'God,' should be understood as 'Gods' and refers to a group of mortal, alien beings possessing advanced technology.
Biglino's conclusions are based on what he describes as a literal translation of the original Hebrew text, bypassing centuries of theological interpretation. He argues that this literal approach reveals that the Bible, in many instances, describes encounters with multiple divine figures rather than a single supreme being. He noted that 'Elohim' is often treated as singular despite its plural form, suggesting a departure from a monotheistic interpretation.
"When I started to write what I really read in the Hebrew Bible, I was fired in one minute," Biglino said in a podcast interview. He elaborated that these 'Elohim' were not supernatural spirits but beings of flesh and blood with extended lifespans and superior technology.
This theory aligns with the ancient astronaut hypothesis, popularized by Erich von Däniken, who suggested extraterrestrials visited ancient civilizations. Biglino, who collaborated with von Däniken on the book "Skies Aflame," bases his interpretations on biblical texts rather than archaeological mysteries. In his book "Gods of the Bible," he points out that while modern Bibles translate 'Elohim' as 'God,' specialist editions often leave the word untranslated due to its disputed meaning. Hebrew dictionaries, he notes, offer a range of translations including 'gods,' 'judges,' 'rulers,' 'superhuman beings,' and 'angels.'
Biglino cited Psalm 82 as a key passage, where the text describes God standing among other divine beings, referred to as 'gods' and 'sons of the Most High,' who are then told they will die like mortals. Biglino interprets this as an assembly of 'Elohim,' a council of powerful beings, rather than a singular deity. Biblical scholar Michael S. Heiser has also interpreted Psalm 82 as describing a divine council, though he viewed its members as spiritual beings.
Furthermore, Biglino suggests that passages traditionally seen as supernatural visions, such as the Book of Ezekiel, could be eyewitness accounts of advanced technology. He posits that the Hebrew term 'ruah,' translated as 'spirit,' originally meant 'wind' or 'air' and described something moving rapidly, such as an aircraft. He believes Ezekiel's description of 'wheels within wheels' was a literal account of an unidentified object in the sky, rather than a symbolic vision of divine glory.