Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

BIRDS

Palestine’s unique geographic position as a land bridge connecting Europe, Africa, and Asia, along with the confluence of a number of environmental zones (ocean, lakes, streams, mountains, valleys, deserts) within a small geographic area, has resulted in an unusually rich assemblage of bird species. Not only do numerous species of birds make their home in Palestine — ca. 150 species are permanent residents who breed in the land — the land bridge serves as a major flyway for numerous migrating species, providing seasonal homes for these countless visitors. Indeed, in recent years at least 380 distinct species have been identified in Israel, while some 374 species of birds have been recorded for Jordan (not surprisingly, the species lists for the neighboring countries largely overlap).

The OT contains at least 60 distinctive Hebrew words in some 203 passages which refer to birds in either a generic or a specific sense. The NT contains 9 different Greek words for birds dispersed among 47 NT passages, although 8 of these words appear to refer to kinds of birds or bird terms already known from the Hebrew text, meaning that the NT adds only one additional type of bird not already known from the OT. Similarly, the Apocrypha contains 11 words for birds which are spread throughout some 43 passages but, again, only one of these words is not included in either the OT or NT. Thus, together, the OT, NT, and Apocrypha contain at least 62 terms relating to birds in a general or specific sense.

Identification

Unfortunately, precise correlation of these Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and Latin bird terms with modern scientific species is not always possible. Sometimes simply not enough information is provided to be precise about which species of bird is indicated. Also, a number of the Hebrew and Greek words are simply generic terms for birds, such as Heb. ʿôp (“birds”), gôzāl (“young bird”), and ṣippôr (“small song birds”). Nevertheless, careful study of the meaning of the ancient aviary words themselves, along with the textual contexts and an understanding of the present bird population and their ecological niches, has provided ornithologists with a fairly good idea of which species are referred to in many if not most of these biblical texts.

In antiquity, of course, biblical writers did not classify birds according to our modern taxonomic system. They did, however, depict the different ways in which humans relate to birds, thus implicitly creating a number of broad categories. These categories included birds for food, birds for offerings, and birds of abomination — i.e., birds not suitable for the first two categories.

Domesticated Birds

A number of birds were domesticated and kept for both pets and food. They included the yônâ (dove/pigeon), tôr (turtledove), barburîm (geese and ducks), qōrēʾ (partridge), śĕlāw (quail), dĕrôr (swallow), and sîs (swift). Sometime ca. 1400 b.c.e. domestic chickens (probably Heb. tuhoṯ and/or seḵwî) were introduced to Palestine.

Some scholars have thought that the raising of doves became a major industry during the Hellenistic and later periods. The major evidence in support of this idea is the appearance of columbaria, installations consisting of dove-sized squarish niches usually cut into cave walls, throughout Palestine. Columbarium actually is Latin for dovecote (Lat. columba, “dove”; the scientific name for the dove family is Columbidae). Unfortunately, in the absence of any positive evidence, the actual purpose of the columbaria is still quite debatable. Other suggested uses of the niches included storage chambers for human ashes and beehives.

Birds for Offerings

An important category of birds was that used for sacrificial offerings. Birds could be used as substitute animals for special burnt offerings (Lev. 5:7-10) and various expiatory and purification offerings (Num. 6:10; Lev. 5:7, 11-12; 12:6-8; 14:10, 19-22, 30-31; 15:13-15, 29-30). The substitution of birds for animals was generally determined by social and economic status of the individuals making the offering (Lev. 5:7, 11; 12:8; 14:22, 30).

A number of Hebrew words are used for the birds that were considered suitable or were used for the sacrifices. These include ʿôp (any bird), tôr (dove/pigeon), bĕnî-yônâ (turtledove), gôzāl (turtledove or any young bird), and ṣippŏrîm (any small bird). In the NT, trygṓn and nossós, referring to the turtledove or any young perching bird, are used.

Birds of Abomination

One of the striking features of the kinds of birds mentioned in the Bible is the large number of birds of prey, carrion birds, and scavengers. This is not really surprising in view of the fact that these birds make up a large portion of the indigenous and migratory bird population of Israel, Jordan, and Syria, due to various geographic, environmental, and ecological factors. Since these birds tend to “find their own food in gutter and dung heap, gulping down filth and rotting flesh and the foulest carrion and excrement” or rodents and other creatures that carry disease, humans have understandably tended to avoid using these birds for food. For this reason it is not surprising that at least 20 of these predatory or scavenger birds are included in the Pentateuch’s two lists of unclean animals (Lev. 11:13-19; Deut. 14:11-18). The birds in these lists can be divided into five groups: (1) those with soaring wings; (2) birds with swooping wings; (3) flightless birds (ostrich); (4) silent-winged birds (owls); (5) and birds with white wings trimmed in black. The logic behind this grouping is that these flight characteristics are the most obvious ones that ancient ornithologists would have been able to observe without the aid of binoculars. Biblical birds of prey include the raven/crow, bearded vulture, and a variety of hawks, eagles, falcons, owls, and gulls.

Randall W. Younker

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

BIRDS

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)