Coffee this Friday, January 12, at the usual time and place.
(1) Archaeomagnetism continues to yield biblical insights: In pre-Substack days, Two Things covered archaeomagnetic dating, a field that continues to yield insights. Jerusalem Post reported last week on Israeli breakthrough research to verify an event in the Book of Kings. 2 Kings 12:18 tells us, “At that time Hazael king of Syria went up and fought against Gath and took it … [and then] set his face to go up against Jerusalem.” Excavations at Tell es-Safi, identified as the ancient city of Gath, have uncovered collapsed brick structures. But were these structures destroyed in a single event (such as a fiery battle) or did they simply collapse over time, as some argue? Israeli researchers used a novel archaeomagnetic technique to settle the debate:
“When a brick is fired in a kiln before construction, it records the direction of the earth’s magnetic field at that specific time and place,” said Vaknin. “In Israel, this means north and downward, but when builders take bricks from a kiln and build a wall, they lay them in random orientations, thus randomizing the recorded signals. On the other hand, when a wall is burned on site, as might happen when it is destroyed by an enemy, the magnetic fields of all bricks are locked in the same orientation.”
…[T]he research team applied the new method to samples from the wall at Tell es-Safi and the collapsed debris found beside it. The findings were conclusive: The magnetic fields of all bricks and collapsed debris displayed the same orientation – north and downwards. “Our findings signify that the bricks burned and cooled down in-situ, right where they were found, namely in a conflagration in the structure itself, which collapsed within a few hours,” Vaknin declared.

(2) Catholics protest: Fiducia supplicans (FS), the Vatican document allowing priests to bless “irregular” unions including same-sex couples, has created scandal, confusion, and division not only for the Roman Catholic Church but for all Christians. At Public Discourse, Jayd Hendricks underscores the growing fissures:
Cardinals and bishops in Eastern Europe, Asia, the Pacific, South America, and Africa, as well as Eastern rite bishops—many of whom are bishops appointed by Pope Francis—have publicly and explicitly rejected FS….
The Church is perhaps more divided than at any time since the immediate aftermath of Vatican II…. When the German bishops or our own Fr. James Martin, SJ, publicly advances what is against the Catechism of the Catholic Church, not to mention the Scriptures, without serious reprimand from Rome, there is a crisis. When these same leaders are encouraged from Rome, there emerges an even greater crisis.
It has been heartening to see the response from bishops around the world who reject this new thing…. FS is a flawed document. Bishops would do well to treat it as such.
Hope to see you Friday.