Pigeon

The pigeon and the turtledove move together through Scripture as a single category. They are the small clean bird that the poor can bring, the bird Noah sends out from the ark, the bird that nests in the rock and flies home to its windows, the bird sold in the temple court, and the visible figure under which the Holy Spirit descends on the Son. The same animal carries the weight of sacrifice, of habitat, of return, and of divine indication.

The Dove from the Ark

The first appearance of the dove in Scripture is as Noah's messenger over the receding flood. After "God remembered Noah, and all the beasts, and all the cattle that were with him in the ark" (Gen 8:1), Noah sends out birds to test the waters. The dove is sent three times. On the first flight "the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned to him to the ark; for the waters were on the face of the whole earth" (Gen 8:9). On the second flight "the dove came in to him at evening; and, look, in her mouth an olive-leaf plucked off: so Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth" (Gen 8:11). On the third flight "she did not return again to him anymore" (Gen 8:12). When Noah leaves the ark, he "took of every clean beast, and of every clean bird, and offered burnt-offerings on the altar" (Gen 8:20) — the dove's clean status, and its candidacy as offering, is established at the first altar after the flood.

Habitat and Habit

The dove is named with its specific habits. Jeremiah speaks of a bird that knows its season: "Yes, the stork in the heavens knows her appointed times; and the turtledove and the swallow and the crane observe the time of their coming" (Jer 8:7). Isaiah pictures returning exiles flying back to their lofts as homing birds: "Who are these who fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows?" (Isa 60:8). The Song of Songs marks the spring by the bird's voice: "The flowers appear on the earth; The time of the singing [of birds] has come, And the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land" (Song 2:12). Jeremiah, addressing Moab, sets the dove's nesting habit against the safety of cities: "leave the cities, and stay in the rock; and be like the dove that makes her nest over the mouth of the abyss" (Jer 48:28).

The voice of the dove also stands for distress. Hezekiah's lament uses it directly: "Like a swallow [or] a crane, so I chattered; I moaned as a dove; my eyes fail [with looking] upward: O Lord, I am oppressed, be my surety" (Isa 38:14).

Sacrificial Use

From Abraham forward the pigeon and turtledove are paired in sacrifice. At the cutting of the covenant in Genesis 15, Yahweh says to Abram, "Take me a heifer three years old, and a she-goat three years old, and a ram three years old, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon" (Gen 15:9). Birds and beasts are listed together as elements of the same act.

The Levitical law then sets out a category of bird-sacrifice in its own right. The general rule is given first: "And if his oblation to Yahweh is a burnt-offering of birds, then he will offer his oblation of turtledoves, or of young pigeons" (Lev 1:14). Beneath that general rule the law specifies who may bring the bird-offering and for what.

Trespass and Sin Offerings of the Poor

Where a lamb is beyond the worshipper's means, the trespass-offering may be paid in birds: "And if his means are not sufficient for a lamb, then he will bring his trespass-offering for that in which he has sinned, two turtledoves, or two young pigeons, to Yahweh; one for a sin-offering, and the other for a burnt-offering" (Lev 5:7). The two birds carry the two functions between them.

Purifying After Childbirth

The same provision is made for the woman who has borne a child. The ordinary offering is a lamb and a young bird; if she cannot afford the lamb, the lamb is replaced by a second bird: "And when the days of her purifying are fulfilled, for a son, or for a daughter, she will bring a lamb a year old for a burnt-offering, and a young pigeon, or a turtledove, for a sin-offering, to the door of the tent of meeting, to the priest" (Lev 12:6); and "if her means are not sufficient for a lamb, then she will take two turtledoves, or two young pigeons; the one for a burnt-offering, and the other for a sin-offering: and the priest will make atonement for her, and she will be clean" (Lev 12:8).

Cleansing of the Leper

The cleansed leper who is poor brings the same pair: "and two turtledoves, or two young pigeons, such as he is able to get; and the one will be a sin-offering, and the other a burnt-offering" (Lev 14:22).

The Defiled Nazarite

For the Nazarite who has been defiled by contact with a corpse, the bird-offering is fixed and not contingent on means: "And on the eighth day he will bring two turtledoves, or two young pigeons, to the priest, to the door of the tent of meeting" (Num 6:10). The same paired birds, here as the prescribed atonement.

The Temple Market

Because the bird-offering was the small worshipper's offering, the temple courts kept a market in pigeons. Jesus finds it in the outer court at Passover: "And he found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting" (John 2:14). When he drives the traders out he addresses the dove-sellers directly: "and to those who sold the doves he said, Take these things from here; don't make my Father's house a house of merchandise" (John 2:16). Mark records the same purge in Herod's temple, where Jesus "overthrew the tables of the money-changers, and the seats of those who sold the doves" (Mark 11:15). The dove is the named commodity in both narratives because it is the offering of the poor; its trade in the temple is what is singled out.

The Holy Spirit Descending as a Dove

The dove also has a fixed symbolical use: it is the visible form under which the Holy Spirit descends on Jesus at the Jordan. John the Baptist's testimony names it: "And John bore witness, saying, I have seen the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven; and it stayed on him" (John 1:32). Luke's narration adds that it was a bodily appearance: "and the Holy Spirit descended in a bodily form, as a dove, on him, and a voice came out of heaven, You are my chosen Son; in you I am well pleased" (Luke 3:22).

The Dove in Poetry

The dove also carries figurative weight in the poetry. The psalmist describes the people of God in their rest: "When you⁺ lie among the sheepfolds, [It is as] the wings of a dove covered with silver, And her pinions with yellow gold" (Ps 68:13). The Song of Songs uses "dove" as a name for the beloved: "My dove, my undefiled, is [but] one; She is the only one of her mother; She is the choice one of her who bore her" (Song 6:9).