Pigeon and Turtledove

Scripture references: Genesis 8:8–12; 15:9–10; Leviticus 1:14; 5:7–10; 12:6–8; 14:22; Numbers 6:10; Song of Songs 2:12; 5:2; 6:9; Isaiah 38:14; 59:11; 60:8; Jeremiah 8:7; Luke 2:22–24; John 2:14–16; Matthew 10:16

The two birds, Pigeon and turtledove are distinct species of the Columbidae family. The turtledove (Hebrew תֹּר, tor; Greek τρυγών, trygon) is the Eurasian turtledove (Streptopelia turtur), a migratory bird that arrives in the Levant in spring and departs in fall. The pigeon (Hebrew יֹונָה, yonah; Greek περιστερά, peristera) is the rock dove/rock pigeon (Columba livia), the domesticated bird and the species commonly used for sacrifice and commerce. In the Old Testament both appear in the sacrifice system; in the New Testament the pigeon/dove is the species sold in the Temple courts.

Abraham's covenant, Genesis 15:9–10, YHWH tells Abraham to bring "a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon." Abraham cuts the larger animals in two and arranges them opposite each other. The birds he does not cut. When the deep sleep falls and the smoking fire pot and flaming torch pass between the pieces, YHWH cuts the covenant with Abraham. The turtledove and pigeon are present at the founding covenant of Israel, not cut but present whole at the fire's passing.

The affordable sacrifice, Leviticus 1:14; 5:7–10; 12:6–8, The Levitical system explicitly structures the sacrifice around economic capacity. The standard burnt offering is a bull or a sheep or a goat. For those who cannot afford even a sheep or goat, the alternative is two turtledoves or two pigeons: one for a sin offering, one for a burnt offering. The same provision applies for the postpartum purification of a new mother (Leviticus 12:6–8), for the cleansing from skin disease (14:22), for a Nazirite who becomes defiled (Numbers 6:10). The turtledove/pigeon sacrifice is the sacrifice YHWH designed for the poor. No worshiper was priced out of atonement.

Mary and Joseph's offering, Luke 2:22–24, "And when the time came for their purification according to the Law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord... and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the Law of the Lord, 'a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.'" Luke quotes Leviticus 12:8, the provision for those who cannot afford a lamb. Mary and Joseph offer the affordable sacrifice, the offering of the poor. The one who will be called the Lamb of God is presented at the Temple accompanied by the affordable sacrifice of those who have no lamb."

Driven from the Temple, Matthew 21:12; John 2:14–16, In both the Synoptic and Johannine accounts of the Temple cleansing, Jesus overturns the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. John's account has Jesus say: "Take these things away; do not make my Father's house a house of trade." The pigeon sellers are specifically named, not only the money changers, because the pigeon trade in the Temple court was a commerce in the affordable sacrifice, the mechanism by which the poor accessed the atonement system. The overturning of the pigeon sellers is the overturning of the commerce that had enclosed what was meant to be free access.

The dove's voice, Song of Songs 2:12, "The flowers appear on the earth, the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land." The turtledove's spring arrival, its distinctive purring call after the winter silence, is the sound that marks the season of love in the Song. Its seasonal migration made it the natural clock of spring in the agricultural Levant.

The pigeon and turtledove are the birds of the affordable sacrifice, present at Abraham's covenant, designed into the Levitical atonement system for the poor, offered by Mary and Joseph at the presentation of the one who is the Lamb, and sold in the Temple courts that Jesus overturns. The Sanctum holds them as Canon-tier: the birds whose function in the sacrifice system is YHWH's provision that no one be priced out of atonement.