Another interesting astronomy passage. Paul wrote this at 1 Corinthians 15: 41 (Paul was an apostle of Jesus, who wrote this passage around 55 C.E.) :
"The glory of the sun is one sort,and the glory of the moon is another, and the glory of the stars is another; in fact, star differs from star in glory."
For the casual looker at the heavens most stars look the same. It is only by spending some time observing them that you might be able to pick out some colours like red for Betelgeuse, or blue for Rigel. So, at the least, we can say Paul was a keen observer too, yet the colours of the stars to the naked eye are subtle, so to make the blanket statement that star differs from star in glory based on their colour is not immediately obvious.
Now, astronomers know that there are many types of stars that differ, like neutron stars, white dwarfs, supergiant stars, red stars, yellow stars, magnetars, stars that go supernova, ect. They really do differ in glory. The argument could be used that he was talking about the brightness differences of the stars . However it is pretty easy to figure out that some stars are further away than others. I highly doubt he would be trying to teach his listeners something so simplistic. Also, it would not be in harmony with the context of the passage .
Please read the context for this passage at 1 Corinthians 15:35-49, where he talks about various objects in creation having bodies , or forms that are so different, like birds having a different type of flesh than fish, which have a different type of flesh than cattle, ect., then he said that the stars share the same aspect of being different. This is an incredible argument Paul is using to the Corinthian congregation since some were having doubts that some of the Christians would be in a spirit form when they were resurrected during the Lord's Day. They had only experience with the human form being in a physical, fleshly body. He tried to show them that God's creation comes in a lot of variety of forms or bodies, and that the spirit form of body (like an angel's) is just another type of being, created by God. That is why some see God's inspiration in Paul's statement here, talking about how stars differ, something that at that time was unknown.
Brien
"The glory of the sun is one sort,and the glory of the moon is another, and the glory of the stars is another; in fact, star differs from star in glory."
For the casual looker at the heavens most stars look the same. It is only by spending some time observing them that you might be able to pick out some colours like red for Betelgeuse, or blue for Rigel. So, at the least, we can say Paul was a keen observer too, yet the colours of the stars to the naked eye are subtle, so to make the blanket statement that star differs from star in glory based on their colour is not immediately obvious.
Now, astronomers know that there are many types of stars that differ, like neutron stars, white dwarfs, supergiant stars, red stars, yellow stars, magnetars, stars that go supernova, ect. They really do differ in glory. The argument could be used that he was talking about the brightness differences of the stars . However it is pretty easy to figure out that some stars are further away than others. I highly doubt he would be trying to teach his listeners something so simplistic. Also, it would not be in harmony with the context of the passage .
Please read the context for this passage at 1 Corinthians 15:35-49, where he talks about various objects in creation having bodies , or forms that are so different, like birds having a different type of flesh than fish, which have a different type of flesh than cattle, ect., then he said that the stars share the same aspect of being different. This is an incredible argument Paul is using to the Corinthian congregation since some were having doubts that some of the Christians would be in a spirit form when they were resurrected during the Lord's Day. They had only experience with the human form being in a physical, fleshly body. He tried to show them that God's creation comes in a lot of variety of forms or bodies, and that the spirit form of body (like an angel's) is just another type of being, created by God. That is why some see God's inspiration in Paul's statement here, talking about how stars differ, something that at that time was unknown.
Brien
