The mysterious hoopoe

There are some parts of the Bible which provoke questions that are clearly not essential for salvation.

The sort that, if mentioned in passing by a preacher, would distract me from the main point of the sermon, almost as if I spotted an extremely rare bird out of the window.

My Bible reading plan recently brought me to the list of clean and unclean food in Leviticus 11, where I got hopelessly distracted by the list of birds in verses 13 to 19. Ignoring the other provoking question of why the list ends with a bat, which is not a bird at all, the big question of course is why the hoopoe is regarded as unclean?

The hoopoe (usually pronounced hoo-poo) is a striking bird with a prominent crest, curved beak and, when flying, broad black-and-white wings that make it look rather like a giant moth or butterfly. Rather a favourite with birdwatchers, in 2008 after a public poll it was declared Israel’s national bird, despite not being kosher.

Now it has to be said that most of the birds in Leviticus may not be exactly what we think. As my NIV footnote states: ‘The precise identification of some of the birds, insects and animals in this chapter is uncertain.’ I would love to have been a fly on the wall in the translation committee and I hope they consulted an expert on the birds of the Middle East, but if you compare some English translations it’s clear that for many of the birds, we haven’t a clue.

I’m not a Hebrew scholar, but I’m pretty sure that when your translation says hoopoe, it really is a hoopoe. It’s hard to mistake for anything else and it was well-known in the ancient world. In fact, its scientific name Upupa epops is just its Latin and Greek names strung together (possibly onomatopoeic from its call).

Sign of spring

In many parts of Europe and the Middle East, the arrival of a hoopoe is a sign of spring. I first saw one on a playing field in Beirut in spring 1983, and ever since then I’ve associated it with Mediterranean countries, where it prefers grassy spaces. In the UK it’s a scarce spring visitor, mostly in southern counties of England. It has been said to have an inordinate preference for vicarage lawns, although I suspect there is some observer bias in that.

Unlike most of the other birds in the Levitical list, the hoopoe is not a bird of prey and does not eat carrion or fish, but mostly insects and worms. It does have a reputation for a smelly nest hole, and one of its archaic names was ‘dung bird’. This in itself may explain its inclusion as an unclean bird.

I wonder, though, if the hoopoe’s association with Egyptian religion was a factor. The hoopoe was sacred to the ancient Egyptians, who even used it as a hieroglyph. Remarkably realistic pictures of it appear on the walls of tombs and temples. The hoopoe has had many different associations in different cultures, including with magic and with death.

A chosen people

The hoopoe would have been a vivid illustration to the Israelites of what it means for God to set apart His people as holy. They had come out of Egypt, physically and spiritually, and were to put aside all their associations with its idolatry, including even the hoopoe. It played its part in teaching them what it meant to be a chosen people, a holy nation.

Christians can rejoice that Jesus declared all food clean (Mark 7:18-19). I guess hoopoes might have featured in Peter’s rooftop vision of unclean animals, reptiles and birds (Acts 10) when God declared them clean, driving home the message that the offer of the life-giving gospel was extended even to the Gentiles and so to most of us. What a privilege to us to be part of His chosen people.