Eagle or vulture? (Ex 19:4)

Abstract

The first words that the Lord, God of Israel, addresses on Mount Sinai to his people through Moses, involve an image or metaphor. God affirms that “having borne” his people “over the wings” of a certain species of birds, “bringing them” in this way “to himself” (Ex 19,4). Most Bible translations convey the Hebrew word in question – nəšārim, plural of nešer – as eagles. However, this option seems to be the result of current reflections on aesthetic and/or moral values, without sufficiently recognizing the historical-cultural context of the narrated world. In view of this, the study presented here proposes to revisit the twenty-six presences of nešer in the Hebrew Bible and some images pertaining to the cultures of Egypt and Ancient Near East, because such iconographic studies can become an important aid to biblical exegesis.