The Spirit descended as a dove on Jesus

[otrrl]

are we to understand that a bird landed on Jesus at his baptism? The Holy Spirit is so often depicted as a bird, a dove ( I suppose), in paintings and stained glass windows, etc.

I wonder if something has been lost in the translation or meaning.

A dove was important in the Genesis account of Noah’s ark and the flood. “Jonah” is the English form of the Hebrew “Yonah” which means “dove.” Jesus, like Jonah, was sent by God to preach the gospel of repentance: Jonah was sent to Ninevah, and Jesus was sent, first, to Israel, to preach repentance.

I can understand the scene of Jesus’ baptism in terms of Jesus’ mission to Israel, but I think we’re misdirected by all these representations of a bird.

 

[Fauken]

are we to understand that a bird landed on Jesus at his baptism?

If by “a bird” you mean the Holy Spirit, then yes.

 

[otrrl]

Oh, I believe the Spirit descended on Jesus, but what I want to know is if there was a literal, physical bird on Jesus’ shoulder.

 

[Fauken]

We are told it looked like a bird, not that it was one. I doubt it was an actual physical bird, but something that looked very similar to one in shape, yet infinitely more majestic.

 

[Seeksadvice]

My two cents is this: the author(s) did not have the means to fully describe what they actually observed, as they had never seen something like that before. When people are faced with situations that they haven’t seen before, they try to use things they are familiar with to describe them. Or, the other possibility is that while the author(s) did understand, they needed to express it in such a way that their audience would understand.

Now, nearly a couple of thousand years later, we still have the imagery of the bird because that is what has been left to us.

 

[Hereiam]

I want to know is if there was a literal, physical bird on Jesus’ shoulder.

Sure, why not?

God can manifest himself as anything he wants. This is referred to as a theophany.

We see this throughout the Bible. More often than not it is the Holy Spirit; we see the Spirit not only as a dove, but a cloud, a columns of smoke and fire, tongues of fire, etc. Even God himself appeared to Abraham as a man (see Genesis 18:1-15). Christ, walking on the earth was the result of the incarnation (God becoming man), not a theophanic manifestation.

 

[theMadJW]

are we to understand that a bird landed on Jesus at his baptism?

Only when not paying attention to biblical detail do such concepts emerge~

Mat 3:16- And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending >>> like <<< a dove and coming to rest on him; 17 -and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased.”

Doves, being white, glow in the sunlight.
John was describing the Glowing Light he saw; since it is “the Power of the Most High” as Gabriel described it to Mary, it usually was seen as a light- as at Pentecost.

 

[hymin]

“The dove. At the end of the flood, whose symbolism refers to Baptism, a dove released by Noah returns with a fresh olive-tree branch in its beak as a sign that the earth was again habitable.58 When Christ comes up from the water of his baptism, the Holy Spirit, in the form of a dove, comes down upon him and remains with him.59 The Spirit comes down and remains in the purified hearts of the baptized. In certain churches, the Eucharist is reserved in a metal receptacle in the form of a dove (columbarium) suspended above the altar. Christian iconography traditionally uses a dove to suggest the Spirit.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 701)