As I promised in my last note, we will take a closer look at Europa now.
One of Jupiter's many moons, Europa, was discovered in 1610 by Galileo. (Interestingly, as I write this note, a CNN article has just reported that his two missing fingers have been found in a jar...Galileo has been made whole again and now can rest in peace, I guess.) Europa is the smallest of the 4 Galilean moons, roughly a bit smaller than Earth's moon. As I pointed out in one of my earlier notes, some researchers believe Europa is our best bet to find extraterrestial life due to what they believe to be a deep ocean on its surface.
Europa is sometimes referred to as Jupiter II and was named after the mythological Phoenician woman Europa. She was daughter of the King of Ancient Tyre. This is the same Tyre that centuries later, Ezekiel, the Biblical prophet of the Lord, prophesied against. Moreover, some Biblical scholars believe that the Lord's prophetic warning to the King of Tyre was also aimed at sending a message to Satan (see vv. 12-18 in Ezekiel 28). And since we are on the topic of Tyre (a city in modern day Lebanon, which happens to figure into the Biblically prophetic Psalm 83 war), Hiram Abiff, a central figure in Masonic literature and tradition hailed from Tyre. Needless to say, Tyre seems to be a rather interesting place rich in history.
Anyway, getting back on track, what I found most fascinating about the legend of Europa was the fact that she was abducted by Zeus, who changed himself into a white bull (the same bull as the constellation Taurus) and made her his wife. This is fascinating because the European Union uses this imagery, the woman riding the beast as their "trademark" so to speak, which makes sense since Europe was named after Europa. In fact, the official website of the EU is named Europa, which begs the question, who or what is represented by the beast (aka Zeus)??? Does this remind anyone else of Revelation 17 - the woman riding on the beast?
Finally, in closing, it is interesting to note that at the same time that Jupiter's moon Europa is taking on more significance as a possible habitation for extraterrestial life, its namesake, the European Union is taking on more influence as a world power. I'm not sure what this means, if anything, but it is at the very least an interesting coincidence!
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