Dove

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DOVE.?The words translated ?dove? apply equally to doves and pigeons. In Palestine seven varieties of the Columb? are found. The most noticeable are: the wood pigeons or ring-doves (Columba palumbus), which fly in great flocks all over the land; the turtle-dove (Turtur communis), a harbinger of spring, arriving in the land in April (Jer_8:7, Son_2:12); and the palm turtle-dove (Turtur senegalensis), which is common in a semi-domesticated state in the streets and courts of Jerusalem. ?Dove? is a favourite name of affection (Son_1:15; Son_4:1; Son_5:2; Son_5:12; Son_6:9), and to-day it is one of the commonest names given to girls by Eastern Jewish parents. It is typical of harmlessness (Mat_10:16), helplessness (Psa_74:19), and innocence. The last quality doubtless makes it typical of the Holy Spirit (Mat_3:16 etc.). Doves were used in sacrifice (Lev_5:7; Lev_12:6 etc.), and have been kept as pets for long ages.
E. W. G. Masterman.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909


Emblem of peace (Gen_8:7-12). After God's wrath for sin had been executed upon the earth, the dove was thrice sent forth; at the first sending she found no rest for the sole of her foot until she put herself in Noah's (or "comforter") hand, and was drawn into the ark; on the second trip, she brought back the olive leaf, the earnest of the restored earth; on the third trip, she was able to roam at large, no longer needing the ark's shelter. As the raven messenger "going forth to and fro," alighting on but never entering into the ark, symbolizes the unbelieving that have "no peace," "like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest" (Isa_57:20-21): so the dove, in its threefold embassy, represents respectively the first return of the soul to its rest, the loving hand of Jesus; its subsequent reception of the dovelike spirit, the earnest of the final inheritance (Eph_1:13-14); and its actual entrance finally on the new heaven and new earth (Revelation 21), where there will be no need of the arklike church to separate between the world and God's people, between the saved and unsaved, where all shall be safe and blessed forever and the church shall be co-extensive with the world.
As the lamb is the emblem of the Savior, so the dove of the Holy Spirit the Comforter, because of its gentleness, tenderness, innocence, and constant love (Mat_3:16). He changes us into His own likeness. The liquid full soft eye is the emblem of the heavenly bride's eye, through which the soul beams out (Son_1:15). Contrast the sinner's eye (Mat_20:15; 2Pe_2:14). The church's unsheltered innocence in the world calls forth the prayer: "Deliver not the soul of Thy turtle dove unto the multitude of the wicked" (Psa_74:19; Psa_55:11). Their plaintive note symbolizes the mourning penitent (Isa_59:11).
The change from the Egyptian bondage amidst the face blackening potteries to the freedom and beauty of Israel's theocratic state is expressed in Psa_68:13-14, "though ye have lien (lain) among the pots yet shall ye be as the wings of a dove covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow gold," the dove's outspread wings reflecting a golden or silver splendor according to the direction in which the sunshine falls on them, typifying the dovelike spirit of joy and peace beaming forth from the believer, once darkness, but now light in the Lord. The dove's timidity answers to the believer fleeing from sin, self, and wrath, to the refuge in the cleft Rock of ages (Son_2:14; Jer_48:28; Isa_26:4, margin). Its gregariousness answers to the communion of saints, all having flocked together to Christ (Isa_60:8); the returning Israelites shall so flock to Jerusalem, as doves in a cloud to their cotes; and the converted Gentiles to Israel.
Saints must imitate its harmless simplicity (Mat_7:16), but not its silliness (Hos_7:11). The Israelites under God's visitation of the enemy's invasion "shall be on the mountains like doves of the valleys" (Eze_7:16); as doves which usually frequent valleys mount up to the mountains when fearing the birdcatcher (Psa_11:1), so Israel, once dwelling in the peaceful valleys, shall flee from the foe to the mountains, once the scene of their highplace idolatries, now retributively the scene of their abject flight. In Jer_25:38, "because of the fierceness of the oppressor" (Hebrew: the dove), the allusion is to the Chaldaean standard, the dove, the symbol of Venus. Semiramis the queen was said to have been nourished by doves when exposed at birth, and at death to have been transformed into a dove. In 2Ki_6:25 the "dove's dung" sold for food in the famine seems to have been a vegetable or poor grain or vetch pea, so named, that grew in the land not built upon and lying, as is common in the East, within the city.
Linnaeus identified it with the Ornithogalum umbellatum, with eatable bulbs, "the star of Bethlehem"; the color of the flowers, white mixed with green, originated the name "dove's dung," which is of like color. Keil thinks it to be a saltwort yielding alkali, Herba alkali. Josephus, however (B. J., 5:13, section 7), mentions literal dung having been eaten in terrible famine. The offering of a dove was the alternative permitted to those unable to afford a more costly one, an alternative adopted instead of the lamb by the Virgin mother at her purification, a proof of the poverty to which our Lord stooped at His incarnation. The sellers of doves profaned the temple court by selling doves to meet the wants of the poorer classes (Joh_2:13-17).
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.


Dove. The first menton of this bird occurs in Genesis 8.
The dove's rapidity of flight is alluded to in Psa_55:6,
the beauty of its plumage in Psa_68:13,
its dwelling in the rocks and valleys in Jer_48:28 and Eze_7:16,
its mournful voice in Isa_38:14; Isa_59:11; Nah_2:7,
its harmlessness in Mat_10:16,
its simplicity in Hos_7:11, and
its amativeness in Son_1:15; Son_2:14.
Doves are kept in a domesticated state in many parts of the East. In Persia, pigeon-houses are erected at a distance from the dwellings, for the purpose of collecting the dung as manure. There is probably an allusion to such a custom in Isa_60:8.
Smith's Bible Dictionary
By Dr. William Smith.Published in 1863


יונה . This beautiful genus of birds is very numerous in the east. In the wild state they generally build their nests in the holes or clefts of rocks, or in excavated trees; but they are easily taught submission and familiarity with mankind; and, when domesticated, build in structures erected for their accommodation, called “dove-cotes.” They are classed by Moses among the clean birds; and it appears from the sacred as well as other writers, that doves were always held in the highest estimation among the eastern nations. Rosenmuller, in a note upon Bochart, derives the name from the Arabic, where it signifies mildness, gentleness, &c. The dove is mentioned in Scripture as the symbol of simplicity, innocence, gentleness, and fidelity, Hos_7:11; Mat_10:16.
The following extract from Morier's Persian Travels illustrates a passage in Isaiah: “In the environs of the city, to the westward, near the Zainderood, are many pigeon houses, erected at a distance from habitations, for the sole purpose of collecting pigeons' dung for manure. They are large round towers, rather broader at the bottom than the top, and crowned by conical spiracles, through which the pigeons descend. Their interior resembles a honey-comb, pierced with a thousand holes, each of which forms a snug retreat for a nest. More care appears to have been bestowed upon their outside than upon that of the generality of the dwelling houses; for they are painted and ornamented. The extraordinary flights of pigeons which I have seen alight upon one of these buildings afford, perhaps, a good illustration for the passage in Isa_60:8 : ‘Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows?' Their great numbers, and the compactness of their mass, literally look like a cloud at a distance, and obscure the sun in their passage.”
The first mention of the dove in the Scripture is Gen_8:8; Gen_8:10-12, where Noah sent one from the ark to ascertain if the waters of the deluge had assuaged. She was sent forth thrice. The first time she speedily returned; having, in all probability, gone but a little way from the ark, as she must naturally be terrified at the appearance of the waters. After seven days, being sent out a second time, she returned with an olive leaf plucked off, whereby it became evident that the flood was considerably abated, and had sunk below the tops of the trees; and thus relieved the fears and cheered the heart of Noah and his family. And hence the olive branch has ever been among the fore-runners of peace, and chief of those emblems by which a happy, state of renovation and restoration to prosperity had been signified to mankind. At the end of other seven days, the dove, being sent out a third time, returned no more; from which Noah conjectured that the earth was so far drained as to afford sustenance for the birds and fowls; and he therefore removed the covering of the ark, which probably gave liberty to many of the fowls to fly off; and these circumstances afforded him the greater facility for making arrangements for disembarking the other animals. Doves might be offered in sacrifice, when those who were poor could not bring a more costly offering.
Biblical and Theological Dictionary by Richard Watson
PRINTER 1849.


duv (תּור, tōr, יונה, yōnāh; περιστερά, peristerá; Latin Zenaedura carolinensis): A bird of the family Columbidae. Doves and pigeons are so closely related as to be spoken and written of as synonymous, yet there is a distinction recognized from the beginning of time. It was especially marked in Palestine, because doves migrated, but pigeons remained in their chosen haunts all the year. Yet doves were the wild birds and were only confined singly or in pairs as caged pets, or in order to be available for sacrifice. Pigeons, without question, were the first domesticated birds, the record of their conquest by man extending if anything further back than ducks, geese and swans. These two were the best known and the most loved of all the myriads of birds of Palestine. Doves were given preference because they remained wild and were more elusive. The thing that escapes us is usually a little more attractive than the thing we have. Their loving natures had been noted, their sleek beautiful plumage, their plump bodies. They were the most precious of anything offered for sacrifice. Their use is always specified in preference to pigeons if only one bird was used; if both, the dove is frequently mentioned first. Because of their docility when caged, their use in sacrifice, and the religious superstition concerning them, they were allowed to nest unmolested and, according to species, flocked all over Palestine. The turtle-dove nested in gardens and vineyards, and was almost as tame as the pigeons. The palm turtle-dove took its name from its love of homing in palm trees, and sought these afield, and in cities, even building near the temple in Jerusalem. It also selected thorn and other trees. It has a small body, about ten inches in length, covered with bright chestnut-colored feathers, the neck dappled with dark, lustrous feathers. The rock dove swarmed over, through, and among the cliffs of mountains and the fissures of caves and ravines. The collared turtle-dove was the largest of the species. It remained permanently and homed in the forests of Tabor and Gilead, around the Dead Sea, and along the Jordan valley. This bird was darker than the others and took its name from a clearly outlined collar of dark feathers encircling the neck, and was especially sought for caged pets on account of its size and beauty.
In all, the dove is mentioned about fifty times in the Bible. Many of these references are concerning its use in sacrifice and need not all be mentioned. The others are quoted and explained from a scientific standpoint and in accordance with the characteristics and habits of the birds. The first reference to the dove occurs in Gen_8:8-12, in the history of the flood; then follows its specified use in sacrifice; note of its migratory habits is made, and then in poetry, prophecy, comparison, simile and song, it appears over and over throughout the Bible.
In Gen_8:8-12, we read, ?And he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated.? Noah first sent out a raven, because it was a strong, aggressive bird and would return to its mate. But the raven only flew over the water and returned to perch on the ark. This was not satisfactory, so Noah in looking for a bird better suited to his purpose, bethought him of the most loving and tender bird he knew - the dove. It not only would return to the ark, but would enter and go to the cage of its mate, and if it found green food it would regurgitate a portion for her or its young, or if not nesting he could tell by its droppings if greenery had been eaten and so decide if the waters were going down. And this is precisely what happened. The dove came back, and the watching Noah saw it feed its mate little green olive leaves, for the dove never carries food in the beak, but swallows and then regurgitates it to mate and young. This first reference to birds was made on account of the loving, tender characteristics of the species; the next, because they were the most loved by the people, and therefore chosen as most suitable to offer as sacrifice (Gen_15:9). In Lev_1:14 f, doves are mentioned as sacrifice: ?And the priest shall bring it unto the altar, and wring off its head, and burn it on the altar; and the blood thereof shall be drained out on the side of the altar.? In Lev_5:7 the proper preparation of the sacrifice is prescribed. For method of handling sacrifice see Lev_5:8, Lev_5:9, Lev_5:10. In Lev_12:6 the law for a sacrifice for a mother is given, and Lev_12:8 of same chapter provides that if she be too poor to offer a lamb, doves or pigeons will suffice. In Lev_14:4-8 the reference for the sacrifice of a leper is merely to ?birds,? because it is understood that they are pigeons and doves, and it contains the specification that if the victim is too poor to afford so elaborate a sacrifice, a smaller one will suffice. The birds are named in Lev_14:22 : ?Two turtle-doves, or two young pigeons, such as he is able to get; and the one shall be a sin-offering, and the other a burnt-offering? (compare Lev_15:14, Lev_15:29; Num_6:10). When David prayed for the destruction of the treacherous, he used the dove in comparison, and because he says he would ?lodge in the wilderness? he indicates that he was thinking of the palm turtle.
?And I said, Oh that I had wings like a dove!
Then would I fly away, and be at rest? (Psa_55:6).
In chanting a song of triumph, David used an exquisite thought.
?When ye lie among the sheepfolds,
It is as the wings of a dove covered with silver,
And her pinions with yellow gold? (Psa_68:13).
He referred to the rock dove because the metallic luster on its neck would gleam like gold in sunshine, and the soft grayish-white feathers beneath the wings as he would see the bird above him in flight would appear silver-like. By this quotation David meant that in times of peace, when men slept contentedly at home among their folds, their life was as rich with love and as free in peace as the silver wing of the dove that had the gold feathers and was unmolested among the inaccessible caves and cliffs. In Psa_74:19 the term ?turtle-dove? is used to indicate people whom the Almighty is implored to protect: ?Oh deliver not the soul of thy turtle-dove unto the wild beast: forget not the life of thy poor for ever.?
Solomon uses the dove repeatedly in comparison or as a term of endearment. In Son_1:15; Son_4:1; Son_5:12, he compares the eyes of his bride full, tender, beautiful, with those of a dove. In Son_2:12 he uses the voice of the dove as an indication of spring. In Son_2:14 he addresses the bride as a rock dove, In Son_5:2 is another term of endearment, this time used in the dream of the bride (compare Son_6:9). Isa_38:14 has reference to the wailing, mournful dove note from which the commonest species take the name ?mourning dove.? The reference in Isa_60:8 proves that the prophet was not so good an observer, or so correct in his natural history as David, who may have learned from the open. As a boy, David guarded the flocks of his father and watched the creatures around him. When exulting over the glory of the church in the numerous accessions of Gentiles, Isaiah cried, ?Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows?? This proves that he confounded pigeons and doves. Doves were wild, mostly migratory, and had no ?windows.? But the clay cotes of pigeons molded in squares so that one large cote sheltered many pairs in separate homes had the appearance of latticed windows and were used as a basis in estimating a man's wealth. This reference should be changed to read, ?and as pigeons to their windows.? In Jer_8:7 the fact is pointed out that doves were migratory; and in Jer_48:28 people are advised to go live in solitary places and be peaceable, loving and faithful, like the rock doves. See also Eze_7:16 : ?But those of them that escape shall escape, and shall be on the mountains like doves of the valleys, all of them moaning, every one in his iniquity.? This merely means that people should be driven to hide among the caves and valleys where the rock doves lived, and that the sound of their mourning would resemble the cry of the birds. It does not mean, however, that the doves were mourning, for when doves coo and moan and to our ears grow most pitiful in their cries, they are the happiest in the mating season. The veneration cherished for doves in these days is inborn, and no bird is so loved and protected as the dove - hence, it is unusually secure and happy and its mournful cry is the product of our imagination only. The dove is the happiest of birds. Hos_7:11 and Hos_11:11 each compares people with doves; the first, because the birds at times appear foolishly trusting; the second, because, while no bird is more confiding, none is more easily frightened. ?And Ephraim is like a silly dove, without understanding: they call unto Egypt, they go to Assyria? (Hos_7:11). ?They shall come trembling as a bird out of Egypt, and as a dove out of the land of Assyria; and I will make them to dwell in their houses, saith Yahweh? (Hos_11:11). The reference in Nah_2:7 is to the voice of the birds.
New Testament references will be found in a description of the baptism of Jesus (Mat_3:16). People are admonished to be ?harmless as doves? (Mat_10:16). ?And Jesus entered into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the money-changers, and the seats of them that sold the doves? (Mat_21:12). This proves that these birds were a common article of commerce, probably the most used for caged pets, and those customarily employed for sacrifice.
Dove's Dung (חרי יונים, ḥărı̄ yōnı̄m, Kethibh for דּביונים, dibhyōnı̄m): 2Ki_6:25 : ?And there was a great famine in Samaria: and, behold, they besieged it, until an ass's head was sold for fourscore pieces of silver, and the fourth part of a kab of dove's dung for five pieces of silver.? This seems so repulsive that some commentators have tried to prove the name applied to the edible root of a plant, but the history of sieges records other cases where matter quite as offensive was used to sustain life. The text is probably correct as it stands.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.




There are probably several species of doves or pigeons included in the Hebrew name joneh. It may contain all those that inhabit Palestine, exclusive of the turtle-doves properly so called. Thus generalized, the dove is, figuratively, next to man, the most exalted of animals, symbolizing the Holy Spirit, the meekness, purity, and splendor of righteousness. By the Hebrew law doves and turtle-doves were the only birds that could be offered in sacrifice, and they were usually selected for that purpose by the less wealthy (Gen_15:9; Lev_5:7; Lev_12:6; Luk_2:24); and to supply the demand for them, dealers in these birds sat about the precincts of the Temple (Mat_21:12, etc.).
All pigeons in their true wild plumage have iridescent colors about the neck, and often reflected flashes of the same colors on the shoulders, which are the source of the silver and gold feathers ascribed to them in poetical diction; and thence the epithet of purple bestowed upon them all, though most applicable to the vinous and slaty-colored species. The coasts and territory of Syria are noted for the great number of doves frequenting them, though they are not so abundant there as in the Coh-i Suleiman chain near the Indus. Syria possesses several species of pigeon; the stock-dove, ring-dove, the common pigeon in several varieties, such as the Barbary, Turkish or Persian carrier, crisp, and shaker. These are still watched in their flight in the same manner as anciently their number, gyrations, and other maneuvers were observed by soothsayers. The wild species, as well as the turtle-doves, migrate from Palestine to the south; but stock and ring doves are not long absent.
The figure we give is that of the more rare species of white and pink carrier, and the Phoenician sacred ensign of the dove.
The Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
by John Kitto.


Dove
(יוֹנָה, yonah', prob. referring to the sexual warmth of that bird; περιστερά; both terms occasionally rendered "pigeon"). There are probably several species of doves or pigeons included in the Hebrew name with its Greek equivalent. It may contain all those that inhabit Palestine, exclusive of the turtle-doves properly so called. SEE TURTLE DOVE.
In modern systems, the doves are included in the natural family of Columbida, or pigeon tribe, which comprises the pigeons, doves, and turtles; but naturalists are still divided as to the proper place of the family, and the limits of the respective subdivisions (see Bochart, Hieroz. 2:542 sq.). Syria possesses several species of pigeon: the Columba enas, or stock-dove; C. palumbus, or ring-dove; C. domestica, lisia; the common pigeon in several varieties, such as the Barbary, Turkish or Persian carrier, crisp, and shaker. These are still watched in their flight in the same manner as anciently their number, gyrations, and other manoeuvres were observed by soothsayers. The wild species, as well as the turtle-doves migrate from Palestine to the south, but stock and ring-doves are not long absent. In the wild state, doves generally build their nests in the holes or clefts of the rocks, or in excavated trees, but they are easily taught submission and familiarity with mankind, and, when domesticated, build in structures erected for their accommodation, called "dove-cotes" (comp. Son_2:14; Jer_48:28; Isa_60:8). Doves are kept in a domesticated state in many parts of the East. The pigeoncot is a universal feature in the houses of Upper Egypt. In Persia pigeon-houses are erected at a distance from the dwellings, for the purpose of collecting the dung as manure. The allusion in Isa_60:8, is to the immense compact masses of these birds that Eastern travelers describe, as they are seen flying to their cotes or places of general resort. They sometimes resemble a distant heavy cloud, and are so dense as to obscure the rays of the sun. Stanley (Syr. and Pal. page 257), speaking of Ascalon as the haunt of the Syrian Venus, says: "Her temple is destroyed, but the sacred doves — sacred by immemorial legends on the spot, and celebrated there even as late as Eusebius still fill with their cooings the luxuriant gardens which grow in the sandy hollow within the ruined walls." See below. The dove has been by some considered (though in an obscure passage) as an early national standard (Psa_68:13), being likewise held in pagan Syria and Phoenicia to be an ensign and a divinity, resplendent with silver and gold, and so venerated as to be regarded as holy, and forbidden as an article of food. (See Engel, Kypros, 2:184; Creuzer, Symbol. 2:70-77.) It is supposed that the dove was placed upon the standards of the Assyrians and Babylonians in honor of Semiramis. This explains the expression in Jer_25:38, "from before the fierceness of the dove," i.e., the Assyrian (comp. Jer_46:16; Jeremiah 1, 16). There is, however, no representation of the dove among the sculptures of Nineveh, so that it could hardly have been a common emblem of the nation at the time when they were executed; and the word in the above three passages of Jeremiah admits another interpretation (Gesenius, Thesaur. page 601 a).
By the Hebrew law, however (see Mishna, Yom Tob, 1:3; Baba Bathra, 2:5 sq.; Bab-kamma, 7:7), doves and turtle-doves were the only birds that could be offered in sacrifice, and they were usually selected for that purpose by the less wealthy (Gen_15:9; Lev_5:7; Lev_12:6; Luk_2:24); and, to supply the demand for them, dealers in these birds sat about the precincts of the Temple (Mat_21:12, etc.). The brown wooddove is said to be intended by the Hebrew name; but all the sacred birds, unless expressly mentioned, were pure white, or with some roseate feathers about the wing coverts, such as are still frequently bred from the carrier-pigeon of Scandiroon. It is this kind which Tibullus notices (1:7). The carrier-birds are represented in Egyptian bas-reliefs, where priests are shown letting them fly on a message. All pigeons in their true wild plumage have iridescent colors about the neck, And often reflected flashes of the same colors on the shoulders, which are the source of the silver and gold feathers ascribed to them in poetical diction; and thence the epithet of purple bestowed upon them all, though most applicable to the vinous and slatycolored species. This beauty of plumage is alluded to in Psa_68:16, where the design of the Psalmist is to present, in contrast, the condition of the Hebrews at two different periods of their history: in the day of their affliction and calamity they were covered as it were with Shame and confusion, but in the day of their prosperity they should resemble the cleanest and most beautiful of birds. The dove was the harbinger of reconciliation with God (Gen_8:8; Gen_8:10, etc.), when Noah Sent one from the ark to ascertain if the waters of the Deluge had assuaged. The association of the dove and the olive is not only natural, but highly emblematical (Thomson, Land and Book, 1:69). The dove is frequently mentioned in the Scriptures as the emblem of purity and innocence, and so it doubtless was viewed by the Psalmist (Psa_55:6-8), although with a special allusion to the swiftness of that bird's flight (comp. Sophocl. (Ed. Colossians 1081; Eurip. Bacch. 1090).
By an almost anthropomorphic extension of this idea, the dove is, figuratively, next to man, the most exalted of animals, symbolizing the Holy Spirit, a sentiment that appears to be couched in the description of creation (Gen_1:2), where the Spirit is represented as brooding ("moved") over the surface of chaos. (See treatises on this point by Augusti, Die Taube, in Gieseler and Lucke's Zeitschr. 3:56-64; Moller, De columba, Frib. 1721; Schmid, De columbis, Helmst. 1711, 1731; Schwebel, De columbarum cultu, Onold. 1767; E. F. Wernsdorf, De simulacro columbae,Viteb. 1773; Id. De columba sancta Syrorum, Helmst. 1761; J. C. Wernsdorf, De columba, Helmst. 1770; Ziebich, De columba pentecostali,Viteb. 1737.) The Holy Spirit descended, as a dove descends, upon our Savior at his baptismvisibly with that peculiar hovering motion which distinguishes the descent of a dove (Mat_3:16; Mar_1:10; Luk_3:22; Joh_1:32). (See the treatises on this incident, in Latin, by Adler [Sorav. 1822], Bohmer [Jen. 1727], Christ [Jen. 1727], Riess [Marb. 1736], Kechenberg [Cob. 1741], Varemus [Kil. 1671; Viteb. 1713, 1728], Ziebich [Ger. 1772]; in German by Schulthess [in Winer's Krit. Jour. 4:257-294].) The dove is also a noted symbol of tender and devoted affection, especially in the Canticles (1:15; 2:14, etc.). The conjugal fidelity of the dove has been celebrated by every writer who has described or alluded to her character (Son_1:15). She admits but of one mate, and never forsakes him until death puts an end to their union. The black pigeon, when her mate dies, obstinately rejects another, and continues in a widowed state for life. Hence among the Egyptians a black pigeon was the symbol of a widow who declined to enter again into the marriage relation. These facts have been transferred, by later authors, to the widowed turtle, which, deaf to the solicitations of another mate, continues, in mournful strains, to deplore her loss until death puts a period to her sorrows. (On the emblematical uses of the dove, see further Wemyss, Symbol. Dict. s.v.) The cooing of the dove, when solitary, is often alluded to in Scripture (Isa_38:14; Isa_59:11; Nah_2:7). SEE PIGEON.
In Christian art, the dove is employed as the emblem of the Holy Ghost, following the literal interpretation, which is doubtless the true one, of Mat_3:16. After images and pictures began to be allowed in churches, the Holy Ghost was represented by the effigies of a silver dove hovering over the altar, and the baptistery had the same. The place over the altar where it was suspended was called peristerion, from περιστερά, a dove (Bingham, Orig. Ecclesiastes book 8, chapter 6, § 19).
"From the dove being a symbol of purity, it is generally represented white, with its beak and claws red, as they occur in nature. In the older pictures, a golden nimbus surrounds its head, the nimbus being frequently divided by a cross, either red or black. In stained-glass windows we see the dove with seven rays proceeding from it, terminating in seven stars, significative of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. Holding an olive-branch, the dove is an emblem of peace. When seen issuing from the lips of dying saints and martyrs, it represents the human soul purified by suffering. A dove with six wings is a type of the Church of Christ; and when so employed, it has the breast and belly of silver, and the back of gold, two wings being attached to the head, two to the shoulders, and two to the feet. The pyx or box for containing the Host (q.v.) in Roman Catholic churches is sometimes made in the form of a dove, and suspended over the altar, and the dove is often placed on the covers of fonts. In this position it may still be seen in parish churches in England" (Chambers, Encyclopaedia, s.v.). See also Martigny, Dict. des Antiquites Chretiennes (Paris, 1865, page 164; Didron, Christian Iconography (Bohn), page 451; Jehan, Dict. des Origines du Christianisme (Paris, 1856), art. Colombe.

CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.





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