“My dove, my perfect one, is unique.” Song of Songs 6:9
If you’ve ever spent time in any large city, no doubt, you’ll at some point find yourself amidst a bevy of pigeons. In our city culture, we often see pigeons as an annoyance, somewhat dirty birds that leave droppings all over our sidewalks and strut leisurely across our path. And yet, we honor the “dove” as a symbol of the Holy Spirit, a sign of peace, restoration, and love. These birds, all species of the Columbidae[1] family, are one and the same. While we have tended to call those flocking into our cities in search for food “pigeons,” we’ve mostly identified those wild birds that live in the crags, cliffs, and branches of forests and mountains, “doves.” We love to hear their sweet, mournful coos at night, and our heart melts at their monogamous and loyal pairings. The misunderstanding, according to scientists, seems to have come from various names of the birds in different countries or from their various dwelling places. In Israel, the most common birds of the Columbidae family in Jesus’ time would have been the wild dove that found its nests in the high hills, peaks, and cliffs, similar to the ones described in scripture, particularly in the Song of Songs. Unlike our usual idea of a dove, which is homogeneously white, Israel’s doves were gold and silver colored, a golden body with silver tipped wings. The birds would be said to gleam in the sun.[2] These wild, mysterious, free, mountain birds that gleamed in the light represented, in many ways,aspects of God’s creative Spirit.
Not only did these doves fascinate visibly but behaved differently from other birds. They were monogamous, pairing for life, their haunting, mournful voices echoed through the mountains, they were peaceful, gentle birds unlike many birds of prey that lived on the plains, and they never abandoned their nests.[3]
One of the most intriguing aspects of Jesus’ baptism is the “dove” imagery that describes the Holy Spirit’s descending upon Him. Here, understanding something about the Jewish people’s conceptions of the “dove,” can help us to understand the deep symbolism behind this description of the Holy Spirit.
First, the Holy Spirit is said according to Mark to be “like a dove descending” on Jesus. As Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw “the heavens torn apart,” and the Spirit descending like a dove upon him. And then a voice “came from heaven, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.’” Although many assume that the “he” in the paragraph is John’s vision of Jesus’ receiving the Holy Spirit, that may not necessarily be the case, but it could have also been Jesus, who coming out from the water, sees the Holy Spirit descending upon him and hears the voice of God.” If John is viewing the phenomenon, then we can assume that this has occurred, so that John and those present can witness to Jesus’ identity and mission.[4] Similar to the healings Jesus does, with the purpose that people can witness to who he is and to God’s amazing glory, here too, the event serves to point to Jesus as God’s Messiah. If the viewer is Jesus himself, then it depicts a very personal experience of God’s official “ordination” of Jesus into His sacrificial ministry.[5] I suggest we can embrace both meanings.
As for the depiction of the Holy Spirit as a “dove,” this symbolism as deep and extensive meaning in the Jewish tradition. Several scriptural references help to illuminate the Jewish symbolism of the dove: 1) Genesis 1; 2) the Song of Songs; 3) the Story of Jonah; and 3) the Story of Noah (Noach in Hebrew, which means “resting place”).
From the beginning of the Creation story, God’s creative Spirit is described by the Talmud as “hovering” over creation, as a dove hovers over her nest. The gleaming gold and silver bird with upraised, fluttering wings represents the creative, divine energy of Godand also the nurturing, loving aspect of God, who loves creation and calls it good. God is a relational God and like a mother dove pledges in covenant to protect and be a loyal parent to Israel throughout eternity. This “feminine” aspect of God in the Holy Spirit is also typical in the Jewish faith. Ruach, the Hebrew word for Holy Spirit, is a feminine word, and many attribute the Holy Spirit with the nurturing qualities of the multi-faceted, multi-gendered God of Creation, Elohim.[6]
Likewise, the Song of Songs, echoes both the protective and the strikingly exquisite qualities of the Holy Spirit, which is nurturing, loving, and loyal. Whether symbolizing parent or lover, the dove is a monogamous creature symbolizing the kind of fidelity and passionate love that describes God’s covenantal nature with humanity. In this sense, the symbol of the dove in Jesus’ baptism, like the rainbow in Noah’s story, is a covenantal marker, symbolizing new life, a new covenant, and the sign that God is “breaking through” our world in order to do something new and amazing that will change everything.[7]
The nurturing parent God is also sacrificial. While the dove itself is a sacrificial animal, a “clean” bird, designated for its purity, in the Jewish tradition, the dove in Jesus’ baptism also signifies the atoning sacrifice of Jesus. As Son of God and Messiah, God incarnate, the symbol of the dove also exhibits God’s grand “sacrifice of self” in order to redeem His people, His beloved Creation, for whom He would do anything and everything, being the passionate, loving, loyal, and covenantal parent He is. His declaration of love, in His beloved Son, is His ultimate blessing of Creation as “good.” Jesus is the “best” of God’s creative energy, and Jesus as God will become the atoning sacrifice for all creation. In this, we also hear the low, mournful cooing of the cove as the suffering God, the suffering servant, the long-suffering lover, the dove remaining in its nest, after its chicks have flown.[8] The Holy Spirit will also protect Jesus in His mission, even as He serves sacrificially as “Prince of Peace.”[9]
Even as Jesus is blessed in His baptism, he is at the same time, commissioned for a “death mission” His purity and divine nature will then be “tested by fire” and proven in his temptations in the wilderness. The “voice” of God declaring Jesus beloved is still the mournful voice of the dove, knowing what Jesus’ final mission will entail. God will sacrifice God’s self in order to redeem the beloved Creation.
Finally, while the “sign of Jonah” (Yonah means dove in Hebrew) may represent the mournful moaning of God’s voice both lamenting the sins of humanity and yet bestowing redemption upon it, this plays out most perfectly in the story of Noah (Noach). In Genesis 8:8-12, as the ark lands on the mountains of Ararat, Noach (God’s resting place) in a typical nautical practice, sends out a dove three times. The first time, the dove comes back. The second time, the dove returns with an olive branch, signifying God’s promise of new life and new covenant. The third time, the dove does not return. This “sign” for Noah is the ultimate sign of God’s redemptive, covenant promise to renew, restore, and bless creation with a brand, new start.[10]
Jesus’ baptism is a monumental sign of God’s plan to come and a new covenant that would appear not just in a sign of a bow of a symbol of fire but in the personhood of Jesus Himself. For God created and called it good. God now redeems and calls His redemption plan “pleasing.”
Today, as you partake in your own memories of Baptism, as you renew your own baptismal vows and reaffirm in whatever ways your own covenant with God as a person and as a people, I invite you to remember the sacrificial gift of your Creator God, who in the power of the Holy Spirit has also blessed you in covenant for eternal the loving redemption.
In Jesus, God has sacrificed God’s own self, so that you can live. May your heart give thanks, and may you be ever grateful for God’s atoning and beloved Son.
[1] See doveline.com.
[2] See “The Enduring Symbolism of Doves,” Under the Fig Tree, January 11, 2020, www.underthefigtree.org. See also biblehub.com.
[3] The Midrash Rabbah Song of Songs 1 notes that “just like a dove once she meets her mate never leaves him…the dove never leaves her nest, and even after her chicks have flown, she doesn’t abandon her nest, just as the Jewish people are ever faithful to God.” For more on the relational symbolism of the dove, see Rabbi Menachim Posner at Chabad.org on the “dove.”
[4] Note Psalm 2:7: “I will proclaim the decree spoken to Me by the Lord, ‘You are My Son; today I have become Your Father.’” See also Isaiah 42:1: “Here is my Servant, whom I uphold, My Chosen One, in whom my soul delights. I will put My Spirit on Him, and he will bring justice to the Nations.” This statement will echo againinthe scripture from Isaiah that Jesus chooses to read at the synagogue in Nazareth, when He proclaims His identity as Messiah, Son of God, to His hometown at the start of his ministry.
[5] Peter Leithartembraces this interpretation.
[6] See Talmud Brachot 53b, in which the moving dove depicts the relationship between God and God’s people in the Song of Songs. The Talmud compares the Spirit of God hovering over the waters to a dove hovering over her young. See also biblicalarchaeology.org and jewishweek.timesofisrael.com. This “hovering” nature of the Spirit is also described in the Dead Sea Scrolls.
[7] This idea can be found in Kabbalah, in which the dove is a symbol of healing and hope for a better world and new future. The dove in Kabbalah symbolizes the actual “name” of Hashem. See also Psalm 68:13-14. David’s psalm of victory quotes: “When you lie among the sheep folds, it is as the wings of a dove covered with silver, and pinions with yellow gold.” The psalms, Genesis, and the Song of Songs all call attention to the extremely relational nature of God, who chooses Jesus to represent God in human form in a “new creation” that will become a new covenant.
[8] See Joshua Heller, “Doves, Hawks and Ravens,” Jewish Theological Seminary, jtsa.edu.
[9] In times of peace, Jewish people slept peacefully in the caves and cliffs of Israel, protected and secure.
[10]See “The Enduring Symbolism of Doves,” underthefigtree.org.