Holy Holotype

Holotype (noun): the single specimen designated by an author as the type of a species or lesser taxon at the time of establishing the group (Merriam-Webster Dictionary)

I remember my first time holding a holotype. It was that of a Scleractinian, a hard-calcified coral, lump-shaped and brainy, patterned with meandering avenues of ridged polyps. “Be careful,” the museum curator whispered. And I nodded in reply, too self-aware and focused on the specimen to speak.

Holotype (noun): a single type specimen upon which the description and name of a new species is based (Oxford Languages Dictionary)

Many years later, I’m seated in a bible study group, reading aloud from the book of Matthew. I’m struck by the radicalism of Jesus’s teachings in the context of his culture, and it makes me question the room that I’m in. Am I modeling my life on the religious of my time or on Jesus?

The son of God critiqued the religious of his time: “you whitewashed tombs” and “you brood of vipers.” He spent the majority of his earthly ministry pursuing the poor, dying, and dead. He preached “blessed are the poor in spirit.”

Holotype (noun): a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism that is the one that was used when the species was formally described. It may be the only such physical example… (Wikipedia)

At the end of bible study, I scribble “holy holotype” on a sticky note that becomes scrunched and wadded when it eventually peels off the front of my Bible. Weeks later, I find the note again. Temporarily buried then revived, like memories of holding coral in a museum.

I still remember the whispers of reverence, of care, of certainty. My awe at handling the first coral sample of its species that became the model specimen of its kind. A biological blueprint of sorts, or a means of comparison. The cream of the crop and the standard set before all others. The initial and the ultimate.

Jesus (human): holotype for holiness, humanity, and humankind