Matthew 6: The missing part worked out for the birds

In Matthew 6:26, the "birds of the air/heaven" do not sow, reap nor gather, but during the growing season they cause problems for the "kingdom of the air/heaven". God feeds those "birds" too. You are not "better" than those "birds", but you should be "different".

At one time, Angry Birds was a very popular game and mobile application that eventually had a movie named after it.

It is still popular.
Behind the scenes, the low level programming is in C/C++ and was scripted at the high level, in part, using the Lua programming language.

The English phrase "birdbrain" conveys the idea of being stupid or a "scatterbrain".

There are many jokes that a "birdbrain" might tell.

Jesus often uses nouns as code words. He defines some of them. Here are the four verses that mention "bird" or "fowl" which in Matthew is the same word in Greek. The last two of the four verses are in the first and third kingdom parables in Matthew 13.

More: Parables and secret codes used and explained by Jesus

The ancient Greek word "πετεινός" ≈ "fully fledged, able to fly" and is from the ancient Greek word "πέτομαι" ≈ "to fly".

The PIE (Proto Indo-European) root is "*PET" ≈ "spread out, fly". A related word is the English word "fathom".

The modern Greek word "πετεινός" (peh-tee-NOS) ≈ "rooster".

The following words are related and have the underlying idea of some distance between things.

• The ancient Greek word "πίπτω" ≈ "fall".
• The ancient Greek word "πέφτω" ≈ "fall, drop"
• The Old English word "fæþm" ≈ "fall" as a measurement as well as embrace (distance between), or grasp.
• The English word "fathom" as a measurement.
• The German word "Faden" ≈ "fathom" in a nautical sense.

There is another word for "bird" that is used by Matthew and Luke as "hen" and by John in Revelation is "bird". John apparently does not use the other Greek word for "bird".

The ancient Greek word "ὄρνεον" ≈ "bird" as in a generic bird and is the source of the Old English word "earn" ≈ "eagle" and the English word "ornithology" as the "study of birds" (coined in the 1600's).

The modern Greek word "όρνιο" (OR-nee-o) ≈ "vulture, bird of prey".

In the creation story in Genesis, birds are created of every sort.


The LXX (Septuagint) mentions the bird kind only once.

The creation account says that birds of every kind were created. There are non-flying birds, such as "Big Bird".

Here, we are only interested in certain types of bird references.

Let us first mention some of the bird types in which we are not interested in this discussion.

We are interested in the words used for generic birds and not the word for dove or pigeon. Most languages have only one word for this bird.

More: Flipping the pigeon bird as reality or perception

More: An unworldly thorny issue that is for the pigeon birds

More: Turtle doves are not turtles

We are not interested in "sparrows" although some of the verses are related to the current topic.

More: Matthew 10: 28-31 Taking care of the sparrows

We are not interested in birds such as "eagles" or, sometimes, "vultures", as in "birds of prey".

The Greek word for "eagle" appears many times in the LXX and GNT (Greek New Testament).

More: Eagles and woeful eagle sounds

We are not interested in "flying dragons" or "flying dinosaurs" such as a "pterodactyl", a name coined by French naturalist and zoologist Georges Cuvier (1769-1832) from two Greek words.

• The ancient Greek word "πτερόν" ≈ "feather, wing" which is cognate with the English word "feather". The Greek word forms the "pter" part of the English word "helicopter".
• The ancient Greek word "δάκτυλος" ≈ "finger, toe" and may be related to the Latin word "digitus" ≈ "finger, toe" which is the source of the English word "digit".

We are not interested in "hens" that brood and sit on nests or in "roosters" as associated with Peter's denial of Christ where Peter is targeted by Satan. Back to the generic "birds" of the Bible.

A few chapters later, birds are mentioned again twice.

The first of the four places that "birds" are mentioned by Jesus in Matthew is in Matthew 6:26. This verse was saved for last so that the background of all the other verses have already beet covered.
The full context in Matthew 6 is interesting and relevant but is beyond the scope of the current discussion. Let us look at the verse before and after this verse.

Here is the verse before the verse with "birds of the air".

Details are left as a future topic.

Here is the verse after the verse with "birds of the air" in Matthew.


The Greek for "stature" has a meaning of "age". The word "cubit" can be taken in the sense of time as in extending the span of life.

More: Luke 19: A short discussion on stature

Let us return to Matthew 6:26 and the "fowls of the air".

Luke uses "ravens" for "birds of the air". This is the only place "raven" is used in the GNT.


Since Luke, a Greek, interviewed people and wrote the book of Luke many years later, while Matthew was an eye witness who, as a tax collector, could read, write, take detailed notes in shorthand (as required for his work), etc., Matthew is often taken as being more exact as to what Jesus actually said.

The Greek word for "raven", like the English word for "crow" is onomatopoeic in that it sounds like the sound that the bird makes as a call.

The ancient Greek word "κόραξ" ≈ "raven, crow". The modern Greek word "κόρακας" (KO-ra-kas) ≈ "raven". The Latin word "corvus" ≈ "raven".

The Greek word is onomatopoeic in that it sounds like what it represents.

Quoth the Raven : "Nevermore." From the poem "The Raven", 1845, by Edgar Allen Poe (1809-1849) who attended West Point (but did not graduate).

The "birds" do not do the following.

• sow
• reap
• gather into barns

When Jesus talks, what is not said can be as important as what is said.

What step in the literal process is missing that the birds appear to then do?

The first step is sowing the seed. The "seed" is the word and Jesus in the parable of the sower "sows" the "seed". This is the first kingdom parable in Matthew 13.

The "birds" do not "sow" in this good sense. They could sow "weeds" as in the second kingdom parable. When might they do this?

Let us leave the second step for last.

The third step is to "reap". In the second kingdom parable in Matthew 13, Jesus says that the "angels" are the reapers.

More: A hot time to harvest - now and later

The "birds" do not "reap" in this sense but they have pecked away "seeds" and sown "weeds". This can be reflexive in that the birds can sow themselves as weeds.

The fourth step is to "store" into "barns".

This comes after the "reaping" of the "harvest" at the "end of the age".

More: Luke 12: Barn-burner storage

The "birds" do not "store" into "barns" in this sense.

That leaves the second step which is to work what grows until the harvest. This is done by the "workers" or "laborers".


Note that the "workers" help to "grow" the "fruit" for the "harvest". A reflexive relationship exists in that the "workers" are also part of the "harvest" as "fruit".

More: A hot time to harvest - now and later

More: Reflexive relationships in the Bible

The "ask", "seek" and "knock" sequence can be seen in the "sow", "grow" and "harvest" sequence.

The "Holy Spirit" is part of the "worker" process as in the "kingdom of heaven" or the "kingdom of the air" where one must deal with the "birds of the air".

Let us return to Matthew 6:26.
The "Father" feeds the "birds" even though they sow "weeds". The "birds" appear to "work" but do not do useful "work".

The "laborers" are needed for the future "harvest". We see other verses where the "Father" feeds both the "birds" and the others.

More: Building a house on sand

More: Building a house on sand continued

More: Building a house

More: Tower of Babel: Two houses attempted using sand

Let us return to Matthew 6:26.
What does it mean to be "better" or "much better" than the "birds"?

If the "birds" are the "evil ones", we find other verses in the previous chapter, Matthew 5, that describe this idea that we should be "different" than "birds". Two successive verses in Matthew 5:13-14 (the previous chapter and part of the same discourse) appear to refer to how we are to be "different" than "birds".

In the Bible, the generic terms "birds" and "birds of the air" are not used an a nice sense.

It appears that when Jesus uses the word "birds" a secondary meaning can be inferred in addition to the first more literal meaning.

It appears we are to be "different" than the "birds".