---
title: "Ezekiel’s Wheels Full of Eyes (Ezekiel 1 and 10) · Fly Brain Experiment"
url: https://theflybrain.com/experiments/ezekiel-wheels/
description: "The fly stands as Ezekiel on the bank of the river Chebar at dusk while a whirlwind brings the four living creatures, beryl wheels whose rims fill with…"
language: en
---

# Ezekiel’s Wheels Full of Eyes (Ezekiel 1 and 10)

The fly stands as Ezekiel on the bank of the river Chebar at dusk while a whirlwind brings the four living creatures, beryl wheels whose rims fill with compound eyes, a crystal firmament and a sapphire throne, following the text of Ezekiel 1:4–28 and chapter 10.

**An eight-second loop from the workstation. Full recording pending publication.** [Follow along](#recordings) for the release. Meanwhile, [run it in your browser](https://theflybrain.com/experiments/ezekiel-wheels/run/).

## What the fly saw

Frames rendered from the fly’s eye camera at four points in the timeline, each with the 32-column retinal input the connectome model receives at that moment.

![Eye-camera frame at 0:20](https://theflybrain.com/images/eye/ezekiel-wheels-0.jpg) ![32-column retinal input at 0:20](https://theflybrain.com/images/eye/ezekiel-wheels-0-retina.png)

0:20 A whirlwind out of the north

![Eye-camera frame at 0:53](https://theflybrain.com/images/eye/ezekiel-wheels-1.jpg) ![32-column retinal input at 0:53](https://theflybrain.com/images/eye/ezekiel-wheels-1-retina.png)

0:53 A wheel in the middle of a wheel

![Eye-camera frame at 1:27](https://theflybrain.com/images/eye/ezekiel-wheels-2.jpg) ![32-column retinal input at 1:27](https://theflybrain.com/images/eye/ezekiel-wheels-2-retina.png)

1:27 The terrible crystal

![Eye-camera frame at 2:00](https://theflybrain.com/images/eye/ezekiel-wheels-3.jpg) ![32-column retinal input at 2:00](https://theflybrain.com/images/eye/ezekiel-wheels-3-retina.png)

2:00 Coals from between the cherubim

**Interactive preview.** Run this experiment in your browser with its cameras, the compound-eye inspector, wireframe views and a simulated neural panel. [Run in browser](https://theflybrain.com/experiments/ezekiel-wheels/run/)

## Timeline

11 steps, with their times in the experiment

1.  0:00
    
    **By the river Chebar**
    
    Dusk on the bank. The fly stands with two captive flies; a harp hangs on a willow branch. Reeds lean over the slow water.
    
2.  0:08
    
    **A whirlwind out of the north**
    
    “A whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud, and a fire infolding itself.” The funnel crosses the plain, flames spiral into its amber core and the reeds bend south.
    
3.  0:22
    
    **Four living creatures**
    
    Four figures rise out of the fire. Each has four faces – fly, lion, ox and eagle – straight brass legs on calves’ feet, hands under its wings. The upper wings open until their tips touch.
    
4.  0:36
    
    **Coals of fire and lightning**
    
    Glowing coals move up and down among the creatures. Bolts leap out of the fire; the creatures dart out and back “as the appearance of a flash of lightning.”
    
5.  0:46
    
    **A wheel in the middle of a wheel**
    
    Four beryl-green wheels drop out of the cloud beside the creatures, each a ring turning inside a second ring at right angles. The chariot rolls to the water’s edge.
    
6.  1:00
    
    **Rings full of eyes**
    
    “Their rings were full of eyes round about them four.” Compound eyes open in ripples around every rim, then on the wings and bodies, and turn toward the fly.
    
7.  1:14
    
    **The wheels lifted up**
    
    The creatures rise and the wheels rise with them. The chariot sweeps low over the river and the fly; spray lifts from the water under the beating wings.
    
8.  1:26
    
    **The terrible crystal**
    
    A crystal firmament spreads over the creatures’ heads, its edge hung with shards that catch the amber light.
    
9.  1:36
    
    **A throne of sapphire**
    
    Above the firmament: a sapphire throne and a figure of amber and fire, ringed by the colours of the bow in the cloud. The fly falls on its face.
    
10.  1:50
     
     **Coals from between the cherubim**
     
     Chapter 10: a fly clothed in linen walks in between the wheels. A cherub’s hand gives it coals of fire, which it throws out over the plain. The wheels flare.
     
11.  2:02
     
     **The glory mounts up**
     
     The cherubim lift their wings and mount up from the earth with the wheels beside them. The fly rises and watches the light recede into the north.
     

## Setup

-   11 seekable stages over 134 seconds: by the river Chebar, a whirlwind out of the north, four living creatures, coals of fire and lightning, a wheel in the middle of a wheel, rings full of eyes, the wheels lifted up, the terrible crystal, a throne of sapphire, coals from between the cherubim, and the glory mounts up.
-   The fly stands about 1.3 m upright among two fellow captives, with a harp hung on a willow (Psalm 137:2). The vision is drawn 1.8 times larger than the fly scale, so the living creatures stand about 11.7 m and the beryl wheels are about 12 m across.
-   Each creature has four faces (fly, lion on the right, ox on the left, eagle behind; 1:10), straight brass legs on calves’ feet, hands under its wings and two wings raised to touch its neighbours’. Each wheel is a spoked ring turning inside a second ring at right angles, and about 1,180 compound eyes open on the rims, wings and bodies.
-   A fly clothed in linen with a writer’s inkhorn (9:2) takes coals from a cherub’s hand and throws them over the plain; an amber figure sits on the sapphire throne inside a full circular rainbow.
-   Controls: Eyes on the rims (Track the fly, default, or Look about), Wheel speed 0.25–2× (default 1×) and Lightning (default on; off removes the bolts, flashes and darts).
-   Eight cameras, including the river Chebar view of the vision, a tracking view over the fly beneath the eyes, a rim close-up of the eyes turning, the view under the firmament to the throne, a view from above the wheels and the fly eye in first person. A replay control restarts at the rings full of eyes.

## Measurement

-   Retinal-only input: the eye camera’s 32 luminance columns reach the fixed connectome model, measured spikes drive the neural display, and no direct stimulation is sent.
-   The eye image includes the whirlwind, the creatures, the rims full of eyes, the lightning flashes and the throne’s light; when the fly falls on its face it sees the ground. The changing fire, lightning, throne and beryl lights are part of the scene and reach the eye; cue text and the viewport’s dusk dimming of the host lights do not.
-   The eyes on the rims are scene props with pre-programmed aim at the fly’s head, not a neural readout. The creatures, the wheels and the fly follow a pre-programmed timeline; measured spikes do not move the fly.

## Limitations

-   The text is followed for the parts and their order; proportions, materials, colours (beryl as sea-green, amber as glowing gold), the wheel mechanics and the forms of the crystal and the throne are not given in the text.
-   “The face of a man” is shown as a fly’s face, “the likeness as the appearance of a man” as an amber fly figure, and the eyes as fly compound eyes. Real compound eyes do not swivel; their dark pseudopupil only appears to follow an observer. The eyes’ pseudopupil and trapezoid of seven rhabdomere spots follow Drosophila optics (Franceschini 1975), and the wing colour bands follow thin-film colour on transparent fly wings (Shevtsova et al. 2011, PNAS 108:668).
-   The river Chebar is a generic reed-lined channel with palms and a distant stepped tower and walls; its location near Nippur is not modeled. In the text chapter 10 takes place in a temple vision; here it is shown at the same riverbank.
-   No audio is played: “the noise of great waters” is shown only as beating wings and spray.

## Sources

-   [Ezekiel 1 and 10, King James Version (Wikisource)](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Bible_(King_James)/Ezekiel)

## About

The fly stands as Ezekiel on the bank of the river Chebar at dusk while a whirlwind brings the four living creatures, beryl wheels whose rims fill with compound eyes, a crystal firmament and a sapphire throne, following the text of Ezekiel 1:4–28 and chapter 10.

[theflybrain.com/experiments/ezekiel-wheels](https://theflybrain.com/experiments/ezekiel-wheels/)

[rituals-and-ceremonies](https://theflybrain.com/experiments/rituals-and-ceremonies/) [drosophila](https://theflybrain.com/methods/) [connectome](https://theflybrain.com/methods/) [malecns](https://theflybrain.com/methods/) [specimen-237](https://theflybrain.com/specimen-237/) [browser-preview](https://theflybrain.com/try/)

-   Subject [Specimen 237](https://theflybrain.com/specimen-237/)
-   Readme
-   MaleCNS data · CC BY 4.0
-   Views not yet tallied
-   Stages **11**
-   Duration **134 s**
-   Eyes **about 1,180**
-   Wheels **about 12 m across**
-   Cameras **8**

## Recordings

No recordings published yet.

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## Packages

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## Credits 2

[![Specimen 237](https://theflybrain.com/images/specimen-237.jpg)](https://theflybrain.com/specimen-237/) [PA](https://paranoidamerican.com)

Official Experiment

## Notes

-   Setup43%
-   Measurement21%
-   Limitations29%
-   Sources7%

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[All 32](https://theflybrain.com/experiments/rituals-and-ceremonies/)

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---
Source: https://theflybrain.com/experiments/ezekiel-wheels/ · TheFlyBrain (theflybrain.com) · Site summary for language models: https://theflybrain.com/llms.txt