Art Bell speaks with Michael Heiser, a doctoral candidate specializing in divine beings in ancient Semitic texts, about the intersection of ufology, theology, and ancient languages. Heiser presents his novel The Facade, which explores what would happen if intelligent extraterrestrial life were revealed to mainstream Western religions, and argues that the Hebrew Bible contains a divine council of multiple beings beneath a singular supreme God.
Heiser challenges Zecharia Sitchin's translations of key terms like Nephilim and Elohim, demonstrating through Hebrew and Akkadian grammar that several of Sitchin's foundational claims contain errors a first-year language student would recognize. He shows that the plural word Elohim frequently functions as a singular noun and that Sitchin's translation of Nephilim as "people of the fiery rockets" requires changing the spelling of the original word.
The discussion shifts to Heiser's new work, The Bible Code Myth, where he argues that textual criticism and manuscript variations undermine the premise of hidden letter sequences in scripture. Art proposes future debates pairing Heiser against both Sitchin and Bible code proponents.
