Ezekiel's Wheels

What is it? Opinions vary. The strangest is the claim that they are flying saucers. The writer tries to impress with his knowledge, but he made it unnecessarily complex and ridiculous.

Ezekiel's wheel is easy to see as the stars rotating around the Polar Star, as shown in the two images below. Chrysolite translates literally to "gold stone," with gold being seen as a color of the stars. The wheels rise from the earth with the living creatures because the stars rise from the horizon.

¹⁵Now as I looked at the living creatures, I saw a wheel upon the earth beside the living creatures, one for each of the four of them.
¹⁶As for the appearance of the wheels and their construction: their appearance was like the gleaming of a chrysolite; and the four had the same likeness, their construction being as it were a wheel within a wheel.
¹⁷When they went, they went in any of their four directions without turning as they went.
¹⁸The four wheels had rims and they had spokes; and their rims were full of eyes round about.
¹⁹And when the living creatures went, the wheels went beside them; and when the living creatures rose from the earth, the wheels rose.
²⁰Wherever the spirit would go, they went, and the wheels rose along with them; for the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels.
²¹When those went, these went; and when those stood, these stood; and when those rose from the earth, the wheels rose along with them; for the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels. (Ezek. 1:15-21)

 

Some believers claim Isaiah knew of a "round" earth long before science discovered it. Well not exactly. The circle of the earth describes the band of stars of the twelve Zodiac constellations. To Ezekiel, the totality of stars formed wheels as we see in the time lapse photograph below left. The singular wheel is formed from the twelve Zodiac constellations on the sun's ecliptic.

²²It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in; (Isa. 40:22)