First contact …

… John Fowles's Peculiar UFO Novel. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
As Fowles grasps, the notion of ‘first contact’ is much older than sci-fi.The four canonical
Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John could very well be described as ‘first contact’ literature. The same is true of the Old Testament. When I was a child, I was taught the religious hymn "Ezekiel Saw the Wheel (Way Up in the Middle of the Air)." For the prophet Ezekiel, this uncanny appearance in the sky marked avisitation by angels, but nowadays people who see flying saucers get written up
in The National Enquirer, not holy scripture.