What happened
After the Israelites leave Egypt, the Book of Exodus says God led them with a moving column: a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, so that they could travel around the clock. When Pharaoh's chariots catch up with them at the sea, the pillar moves from the front of the camp to the rear and parks itself between the two armies. To the Egyptians it is cloud and darkness, but on the Israelite side it gives light all night. At the morning watch God 'looked unto the host of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and of the cloud' and threw them into confusion. Later chapters say the cloud settled over Mount Sinai and then over the Tabernacle, and that the camp moved only when it lifted, sometimes after a single night and sometimes after a year. Jewish and Christian commentators have argued for centuries over whether there was one column or two.
The original account
And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night: He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people. ... And it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel; and it was a cloud and darkness to them, but it gave light by night to these: so that the one came not near the other all the night.
Exodus 13:21-22; 14:20, King James Version (public domain)
The official explanation
The 1906 Jewish Encyclopedia suggested the image grew out of the ancient practice of carrying fire at the head of an army or caravan, smoke by day and flame by night. The Roman historian Curtius says Alexander signalled his marches with a fire-topped pole above his tent. Martin Noth tied the imagery to a remembered volcano, Frank Moore Cross to Canaanite storm-god myth, and Walter Beyerlin to temple incense ritual. Scholars generally treat the pillar as a literary sign of God's presence (theophany) rather than an observed object.
The anomalous case
Taken at face value, the text describes a large, self-luminous column that keeps station ahead of a moving population for long periods. It gives off its own light at night, deliberately changes position to screen one army from another, and shows a dark face to one side and a bright face to the other. Ancient readers noticed that last detail: the Targum Pseudo-Jonathan describes a cloud that was half light and half darkness. A column that hovers, glows, moves with apparent intent and later 'descends' to a fixed spot is close to how modern witnesses describe structured luminous objects. The University of Colorado's 1968 Condon Report noted that ufologists already read the pillar as a guiding craft. Erich von Daniken went further, arguing that the Ark of the Covenant was a transmitter Moses used to talk with beings in the craft that guided the Exodus.
The strongest argument that this was something genuinely unknown or classified, with each claim attributed to the person who made it.
How it has been read
A theophany expressing God's guiding presence. It may be modelled on the custom of signal fires carried before armies and caravans, or on volcanic and storm imagery from the Sinai traditions. Commentators debate whether the text means one pillar that changes appearance (Keil) or two separate pillars (Rashi, Nachmanides).
Ancient-astronaut authors, including Erich von Daniken and Barry Downing, read the pillar as a hovering craft that guided the Israelites and created a barrier at the Red Sea. Downing argued that a flying vehicle under intelligent control parted the sea.
Documents
- Exodus 13 (KJV) scripture, biblehub.com
- Exodus 14 (KJV) scripture, biblehub.com
Sources
- Exodus 13 (KJV) Bible Hub
- Exodus 14 (KJV) Bible Hub
- Pillar of fire (theophany) Wikipedia
- Cloud, Pillar of Jewish Encyclopedia (1906)
- Final Report of the Scientific Study of UFOs, Sec. 5 Ch. 1: UFOs in History (Samuel Rosenberg) University of Colorado / NCAS
- Are UFOs Mentioned in the Bible? Part 1 The John Ankerberg Show
Witness reports elsewhere
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