{"id":73881,"date":"2020-04-28T15:12:49","date_gmt":"2020-04-28T12:12:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=73881"},"modified":"2020-04-28T15:12:49","modified_gmt":"2020-04-28T12:12:49","slug":"when-is-an-eagle-not-an-eagle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/when-is-an-eagle-not-an-eagle\/","title":{"rendered":"When Is An Eagle Not An Eagle?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[],"acf":{"old_id":"73881","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":64450,"related_cahpter":"469","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"When it\u2019s a vulture of course","content":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In chapter 17, God tells Ezekiel to tell a riddle to the House of Israel. The riddle describes two eagles. The first in verse 3:\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cSay: Thus said the Lord GOD: The great eagle with the great wings and the long pinions, with the full plumage and the brilliant colors, came to the Lebanon range and seized the top of the cedar.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And the second in verse 7:\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cBut there was another great eagle with great wings and full plumage; and this vine now bent its roots in his direction and sent out its twigs toward him, that he might water it more than the bed where it was planted.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">From the remaining verses in the chapter, we see that these two eagles represent the kings of Babylon and Egypt, respectively.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Hebrew word for both of these eagles is <\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">nesher<\/span><\/em><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> The word <\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">nesher<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> appears 26 times in the Bible, perhaps most famously in the image of God carrying the Israelites on \u201cthe wings of eagles\u201d in Exodus 19:4.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, many say that translation is incorrect. According to them, the <\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">nesher<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of Exodus 19, as well as in many other biblical verses, are in fact griffon vultures. This is based on a number of factors:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In Arabic, the related word <\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">nesr<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> refers to the griffon vulture.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Despite the current association of the eagle as noble and the vulture as loathsome, in ancient times, the vulture was revered.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">nesher<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is described as eating carrion in Job 39:27-30 and Proverbs 30:17, which fits a vulture, not an eagle.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">An additional proof is that the <\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">nesher<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0is described as bald in Micah 1:16, which matches vultures, not eagles.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, the <\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">nesher<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0we saw in Ezekiel\u2019s riddle has \u201cgreat plumage.\u201d This phrase describes an eagle much better than a vulture, and the commentaries and translations agree \u2013 Ezekiel was talking about eagles.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How could the same word describe two entirely distinct species of birds? That is a bias of our modern times. The science of taxonomy that we are familiar with (dividing organisms into species, genus, etc) only began in the 18<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">th<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> century. In biblical times, different types of impressively large birds of prey could both have been called <\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">nesher<\/span><\/em><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That said, it is difficult for people today to live with that level of ambiguity. And so we have the unusual situation where native English speakers (who know biblical Hebrew) will generally say that <\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">nesher<\/span><\/em><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">means \u201ceagle,\u201d but Israelis identify the <\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">nesher<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0with vultures.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Image: Black vulture and bald eagle (with armadillo)<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":73882,"id":73882,"title":"ez17-vulture eagle","filename":"ez17-vulture-eagle.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez17-vulture-eagle.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/when-is-an-eagle-not-an-eagle\/ez17-vulture-eagle\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"ez17-vulture-eagle","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":73881,"date":"2020-04-28 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