Daily Verse | Genesis 14:13
One who had escaped came and reported this to Abram the Hebrew.

Friday’s Reading: Genesis 15-17
Saturday’s Reading: Genesis 18-20

It’s Friday and the end of the first week of January 2022, the 93rd week and third year of “two weeks to flatten the curve.” It’s also the 50th week since the disaster known as Brandon was foisted on these United States. I think just as the Democrats commemorated the January 6 riots with melodramatic speeches, a performance by the cast of Hamilton and a candlelight vigil organized by an antifa-linked group, the Republicans should hold a memorial on January 20 to mourn the death of America as founded, reciting all the failures of the current administration and the malfeasance of the Democrat Party that is now a rabid anti-American Marxist cabal.

But enough of that. Let’s close out the week with a stunning discovery reported just before Christmas.

Israeli researchers on Wednesday displayed a Roman-era golden ring with an early Christian symbol for Jesus inscribed in its gemstone, found in a shipwreck off the ancient port of Caesarea.

The thick octagonal gold ring with its green gemstone bore the figure of the “Good Shepherd” in the form of a young shepherd boy in a tunic with a ram or sheep across his shoulders.

In the Facebook post linked from the image, the Israel Antiquities Authority writes:

This image, of the ‘Good Shepherd’, is known in ancient Christian art as a symbol of salvation; it is a parable of Jesus as the merciful shepherd of mankind, or as the one who has shown the protection of man or the testimony of his believers. The investigators are sobbing, who carried the ring, was one of the first Christians; the ring was revealed in the vicinity of Caesarea, which has great significance in the Christian tradition, as in Caesarea was one of the oldest centers of Christianity.

The shipwreck from which the ring was taken was dated to about 1,700 years ago.

Sokolov said that while the image exists in early Christian symbolism, representing Jesus as a caring shepherd, tending to his flock and guiding those in need, finding it on a ring was rare.

The presence of such a symbol on a ring probably owned by a Roman operating in or around Caesarea made sense, given the ethnically and religiously heterogenous nature of the port in the third century, when it was one of Christianity’s earliest centers.

I’ve written before about discoveries like this, which are always exciting because they independently fortify our faith in Christ. If you’re a believer, you understand what I mean. If you’re not, perhaps it appeals to your curiosity about the veracity of the Bible.

Have a good weekend.