THE PRIME SOURCE for the biblical verses quoted in
The Twelfth
Planet is the Old Testament in its original Hebrew text. It must be
borne in mind that all the translations consulted of which the
principal ones are listed at the end of the book - are just that:
translations or interpretations. In the final analysis, what counts
is what the original Hebrew says.
In the final version quoted in
The Twelfth Planet, I have compared
the available translations against each other and against the Hebrew
source and the parallel Sumerian and Akkadian texts/tales, to come
up with what I believe is the most accurate rendering.
The rendering of Sumerian, Assyrian, Babylonian, and Hittite texts
has engaged a legion of scholars for more than a century.
Decipherment of script and language was followed by transcribing,
transliterating, and finally, translating. In many instances, it was
possible to choose between differing translations or interpretations
only by verifying the much earlier transcriptions and
transliterations. In other instances, a late insight by a
contemporary scholar could throw new light on an early translation.
The list of sources for Near Eastern texts, given at the end of this
book, thus ranges from the oldest to the newest, and is followed by
the scholarly publications in which valuable contributions to the
understanding of the texts were found.
THE OLD TESTAMENT has filled my life from childhood. When the seed
for this book was planted, nearly fifty years ago, I was totally
unaware of the then raging Evolution versus Bible debates. But as a
young schoolboy studying Genesis in its original Hebrew, I created a
confrontation of my own. We were reading one day in Chapter VI that
when God resolved to destroy Mankind by the Great Flood, "the sons
of the deities", who married the daughters of men, were upon the
Earth.
The Hebrew original named them Nefilim; the teacher explained
it meant "giants"; but I objected: didn't it mean literally "Those
Who Were Cast Down", who had descended to Earth? I was reprimanded
and told to accept the traditional interpretation.
In the ensuing years, as I have learned the languages and history
and archaeology of the ancient Near East,
the Nefilim became an
obsession. Archaeological finds and the deciphering of Sumerian,
Babylonian, Assyrian, Hittite, Canaanite and other ancient texts and
epic tales increasingly confirmed the accuracy of the biblical
references to the kingdoms, cities, rulers, places, temples, trade
routes, artifacts, tools and customs of antiquity. Is it not now
time, therefore, to accept the word of these same ancient records
regarding the Nefilim as visitors to Earth from the heavens?
The Old Testament repeatedly asserted: "The throne of Yahweh is in
heaven" - "from heaven did the Lord behold the Earth". The New
Testament spoke of "Our Father, which art in Heaven". But the
credibility of the Bible was shaken by the advent and general
acceptance of Evolution. If Man evolved, then surely he could not
have been created all at once by a Deity who, premeditating, had
suggested "Let us make Adam in our image and after our likeness".
All the ancient peoples believed in gods who had descended to Earth
from the heavens and who could at will soar heavenwards. But these
tales were never given credibility, having been branded by scholars
from the very beginning as myths.
The writings of the ancient Near East, which include a profusion of
astronomical texts, clearly speak of a planet from which these
astronauts or "gods" had come. However, when scholars, fifty and one
hundred years ago, deciphered and translated the ancient lists of
celestial bodies, our astronomers were not yet aware of Pluto (which
was only located in 1930). How then could they be expected to accept
the evidence of yet one more member of our solar system? But now
that we too, like the ancients, are aware of the planets beyond
Saturn, why not accept that ancient evidence for the existence of
the Twelfth Planet?
As we ourselves venture into space, a fresh look and an acceptance
of the ancient scriptures is more than timely. Now that astronauts
have landed on the Moon, and unmanned spacecraft explore other
planets, it is no longer impossible to believe that a civilization
on another planet more advanced than ours was capable of landing its
astronauts on the planet Earth some time in the past.
Indeed, a number of popular writers have speculated that ancient
artifacts such as the pyramids and giant stone sculptures must have
been fashioned by advanced visitors from another planet - for surely
primitive man could not have possessed by himself the required
technology? How was it, for another example, that the civilization
of Sumer seemed to flower so suddenly nearly 6,000 years ago without
a precursor?
But since these writers usually fail to show when, how
and, above all, from where such ancient astronauts did come - their
intriguing questions remain unanswered speculations.
It has taken thirty years of research, of going back to the ancient
sources, of accepting them literally, to re-create in my own mind a
continuous and plausible scenario of prehistoric events. The Twelfth
Planet, therefore, seeks to provide the reader with a narrative
giving answers to the specific questions of When, How, Why and
Wherefrom.
The evidence I adduce consists primarily of the ancient texts and
pictures themselves.
In The Twelfth Planet I have sought to decipher a sophisticated
cosmogony which explains, perhaps as well as modern scientific
theories, how the solar system could have been formed, an invading
planet caught into solar orbit, and Earth and other parts of the
solar system brought into being.
The evidence I offer includes celestial maps dealing with space
flight to Earth from that Planet, the Twelfth. Then, in sequence,
follow the dramatic establishment of the first settlements on Earth
by the Nefilim: their leaders were named; their relationships,
loves, jealousies, achievements and struggles described; the nature
of their "immortality" explained.
Above all, The Twelfth Planet aims to trace the momentous events
that led to the creation of Man, and the advanced methods by which
this was accomplished.
It then suggests the tangled relationship between Man and his lords,
and throws fresh light on the meaning of the events in the Garden of
Eden, of the Tower of Babel, of the great Flood. Finally, Man -
endowed by his makers biologically and materially- - ends up
crowding his gods off the Earth.
This book suggests that we are not alone in our solar system. Yet it
may enhance rather than diminish the faith in a universal Almighty.
For, if the Nefilim created Man on Earth, they may have only been
fulfilling a vaster Master Plan.
Z. SITCHIN
New York, February 1977