Sunspots 622

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:

Christianity: Christianity Today discusses the significant role played by single women missionaries in translating the Bible.

Sojourners reminds us that the Resurrection of Christ was first revealed to women, and women were the first to tell others about it. (The article says that the men were in hiding).


Ethics: Sojourners examines the recent bombing of an airfield in Syria, and concludes that the action was not justifiable under Just War Theory, mostly because, they say, Mr. Trump did not have "right intentions." (Some of the criteria for a Just War were met.)

Humor: (Sort of) Nature tells us why and how our shoelace knots fail.

(and, again, sort of) Listverse tells us a lot about the history of the design of playing cards, both artistically and structurally.


Politics: FiveThirtyEight tells us that Mr. Trump is hardly the first US President to become more hawkish soon after installation in office, and tells us why this is so.

Scientific American discusses some of the challenges to building a border wall (and some of the kinds of damage such a wall would do.)

Science: Listverse discusses 10 extinct species that some scientists want to bring back to life.

Listverse also discusses the 10 most important scientific discoveries of the past 10 years.

The New York Times reports that climate change has re-routed an Alaskan river.

The Washington Post reports on a specimen of a giant worm-like mollusc. (Molluscs are the phylum to which clams, oysters, snails and slugs belong.)



Image source (public domain)

BIG pearls: Revelation 21:21

Some time ago, I heard a devotional. The speaker said that Revelation 21:21 says that the holy city, after the end of things, will have twelve gates, each one made from a single pearl. I checked this, and found complete agreement among several versions of the Bible. They all say that each gate will be made from one pearl!

The idea is astonishing. So is the agreement among translators! I know that Revelation uses figurative language, and that we should be very careful in taking it literally. But, anyway, I want to muse about the idea of gates of pearl for a bit. (There is an expression, pearly gates, that refers to the gates of heaven.)

A pearl is an object produced by a clam, mussel, or similar mollusc. Layers of Calcium Carbonate are deposited around a foreign object in the mantle of the mollusc. Natural pearls, which develop spontaneously, are considered very valuable, at least if they are spherical in shape. A quick on-line search turned up a necklace, with 25 natural pearls, probably not very large, in gold, selling for more than $18,000. Cultured pearls are produced by inserting a foreign object into the mantle of a mollusc. Different types of material are used.  There are also imitation pearls, which are manufactured, with no help from a mollusc.

Why do oysters produce pearls? Scientists don't seem to be sure, but it is probably a type of immune response -- sequestering a foreign object.

How could there be a gate made from a single pearl? I don't know. The God who made the universe from nothing could certainly prepare a mollusc large enough to produce such a pearl, or He could make pearls with no molluscs at all. Why pearl? My guess is because of their value.

Jesus warned about throwing pearls to pigs. (Matthew 7:6) I suppose that He meant to be careful to value things as God sees them, and not to reject the life with Christ, the most valuable thing. Jesus also talked about a pearl of great price, so desirable that a man sold all that he had to obtain it. He was talking about life with Christ, again. (Matthew 13:45-6)

Thanks for reading.