T H E O R I ES A N D HYPOT H ESES
chance, but as part of the plan the "visitors" had concerning the development of civilized life on earth. This view is startling specific; but it has been evaluated as a valid interpretaion of the biblical text and is not in contradiction with the traditional teachings of the Church. The first part of Misraki' s book ( 1 80 ) is concerned with quotations from the Bible and their interpretation in the author's view, as well as parallels to behaviors described by modem witnesses of UFO activity. Later, he generalizes his theory to include indications found in the majority of ancient documents. For example, he remarks, concerning the apparent disagreements among the gods, including Yahweh himself: It would seem that the Yahwist and Elohist tradition has been purposely censored in accordance with directions given by "celestial guides" of the Hebrews, who had very understandable reasons to conceal the fact that their leadership on our planet had been established in the midst of important disorders. We find nothing similar among the promoters of concurrent traditions. In narratives coming from all points of the globe, quar rels and disastrous fights are described at length. One finds mentions of dissensions resulting in ferocious battles, to which the convulsions of the crust of the earth gave a physical parallel. A Mediterranean gnosis taught that the world, i.e., the earth, had been created by laldabaoth, an incompetent 'demiurge' "who took himself to be God."'" Confronted '" Lecky points out ( 198) that "Most of the Gnostics re garded the God of the Jews as an imperfect spirit presiding over an imperfect moral system. Many, however, regarded the Jewish religion as the work of the principle of Evil-the god of matter; and the Cainites made everyone who had opposed it the object of reverence, while the Ophites ac tually worshipped the serpent. We have, perhaps, a partial explanation of the reverence many of the Gnostics had for the serpent in the fact that this animal, which in Christiani ty represents the principle of Evil, had a very different posi tion in anicent symbolism." See in this connection the works of B. Le Poer Trench.
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