It's that time of year again (in the U.K.) when all the baby lambs are born. We are very fortunate to be surrounded by farmland and we never tire of seeing the baby lambs each year.
When I was watching the lambs this year I was reminded of something that was said by one of our church members a number of years ago. He said that he never quite understood the parable of separating the sheep from the goats, (Matt 25:31-46), until he visited the Holy land on holiday. The problem he had was that separating sheep from goats in the u.k. would be a relatively easy thing to do, whereas in the context of the parable, the suggestion is that this could be a little tricky. It was only when he actually saw the sheep in Israel, that he realized just how similar they are to the goats!
Now, I'm not an expert on the many breeds of sheep in the u.k, but it's fair to say that the more commonly seen breeds have shorter up-turned ears and short wooly coats, as opposed to the longer lop-eared variety of sheep more commonly seen in Israel, (see photo). I also noticed that the sheep in Israel have longer, shaggier fur.
In the interview below, Diana Shimon mentioned the importance of becoming familiar with the 'ancient fauna' of Israel.
I have made the mistake, (a number of times), of drawing very 'English' sheep in my Bible pictures! Has anyone else made a similar mistake?
Photo © Bibleplaces.com 2008
Other Bible animal posts:
Dugongs!
3 comments:
wow,
very interresting
This photo of sheep in Israel demonstrates how you could confuse the head with a goat from a distance.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/aaronf/93352741/
Exactly! To most people in the U.K. this would be a photo of 'goats crossing'!
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