[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":379},["ShallowReactive",2],{"app.vue-ogimage-/blog/the-birds-of-the-heaven-from-mark-4":3,"/blog/the-birds-of-the-heaven-from-mark-4":239},{"id":4,"title":5,"body":6,"description":229,"extension":230,"meta":231,"navigation":234,"path":235,"seo":236,"stem":237,"__hash__":238},"content/blog/the-birds-of-the-heaven-from-mark-4.md","The birds of the heaven from Mark 4",{"type":7,"value":8,"toc":220},"minimark",[9,14,18,21,28,31,35,43,52,55,58,64,67,74,78,85,92,99,109,112,115,122,125,128,132,141,144,150,153,165,168,174,180,186,189,195,204,208,211,214,217],[10,11,13],"h2",{"id":12},"the-parable-of-the-mustard-seed","The Parable of the Mustard Seed",[15,16,17],"p",{},"Tonight, while I was having a not-so-great-night, I decided to read through five chapters of Hebrews and five chapters of the gospel of Mark. I figured it was better to put my mind to work than to slouch or mope around - perhaps Scripture reading could further renew my mind tonight, tamper my emotions down, and inspire me to do something useful for the kingdom. Which is where this article is coming from.",[15,19,20],{},"So while I was reading, a curious little parable from Jesus caught my attention in Mark 4, specifically vv. 30-32. In these verses, whose subheading reads \"The Parable of the Mustard Seed\" in my ESV, Jesus makes a comparison to the kingdom of God and how to best describe it - as he does in several other places throughout the four gospels. In this instance, he compares the kingdom of God to that of a mustard seed:",[22,23,25],"bible-verse",{"reference":24},"Mark 4:30-32 ESV",[15,26,27],{},"And he said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown on the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth, yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts out large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.”",[15,29,30],{},"There are several important observations to make about these verses.",[10,32,34],{"id":33},"the-trees-and-the-garden","The trees and the garden",[15,36,37,38,42],{},"First off, notice that Jesus states that the tiny mustard seed, though miniscule at the genesis of its journey, grows into a great, large tree, larger than all of the other plants ",[39,40,41],"em",{},"in the garden",".",[15,44,45,48,49,42],{},[39,46,47],{},"In the garden",". ",[39,50,51],{},"Trees in the garden",[15,53,54],{},"This is deeply spiritual/pneumatic imagery and should invoke callouts in your memory to Genesis 1-2, the ending of Revelation, and Ezekiel who references \"the garden of God\".",[15,56,57],{},"There's even a strange little story elsewhere in Mark about Jesus doing a \"two-phase\" (for lack of a better term) healing on a blind man, and when the \"first phase\" of his healing occurs, he sees people walking around who look like trees:",[22,59,61],{"reference":60},"Mark 8:22-26 ESV",[15,62,63],{},"And they came to Bethsaida. And some people brought to him a blind man and begged him to touch him. And he took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village, and when he had spit on his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him, “Do you see anything?” And he looked up and said, “I see people, but they look like trees, walking.” Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again; and he opened his eyes, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. And he sent him to his home, saying, “Do not even enter the village.”",[15,65,66],{},"Verse 24 records that the blind man said he saw τοὺς ἀνθρώπους (\"the men\") walking around, but they looked like trees. The Greek word ἀνθρώπους, whose lemma transliteration is \"anthropos\", is a general word referring to mankind. In other words, \"anthropos\" means human beings in Scripture. I think this odd little story ties in very nicely to the parable from Mark 4.",[15,68,69,70,73],{},"We human beings of the kingdom of God are the trees in this parable. We start out as small mustard seeds and grow into nice, large trees in the garden. ",[39,71,72],{},"But why?"," Why should I want to grow into a tree?",[10,75,77],{"id":76},"the-birds-and-a-mistranslation","The birds and a mistranslation",[15,79,80,81,84],{},"That brings me to the birds in Mark 4:32. Notice that the English translation for the birds renders them \"birds of the air\". I want to make a strong contention against the ESV rendering that this ",[39,82,83],{},"should absolutely not"," say \"the air\" and should instead say \"the heaven\".",[15,86,87,88,91],{},"I checked the Greek word that this was rendered from in Logos, and sure enough, its lemma is οὐρανός which in pretty much ",[39,89,90],{},"every other place I've seen in Scripture"," is rendered to \"heaven\". And notice that there is also the Greek definite article in front of the word, so it's not just \"heaven\", it's \"the heaven\".",[15,93,94],{},[95,96],"img",{"alt":97,"src":98},"mark-4-birds-of-the-air-bad-translation","/mark-4-birds-of-the-air-bad-translation.png",[15,100,101,102,105,106,42],{},"\"The heaven\". That is an extremely important phrase that you'll see throughout the gospels and the epistles. Think of Paul, for example, being called up - in the body or out of the body, he didn't know for sure - into the third heaven. All throughout Scripture, if you check the Greek closely, \"the heaven\" is the specific realm where God the Father resides. It is the highest, the most supreme place in all of the cosmos. It's not just ",[39,103,104],{},"any heaven",", it is ",[39,107,108],{},"the heaven",[15,110,111],{},"I, therefore, think it is extremely important to retranslate the English here to \"the birds of the heaven\".",[15,113,114],{},"OK, sure, but what exactly are the birds anyways?",[15,116,117,118,121],{},"Well, answering my previous question as to ",[39,119,120],{},"why"," we should grow into nice, big, beautiful trees, Jesus makes it clear in Mark 4:32 that we should do this so that \"the birds of the heaven\" (using my translational suggestion) can come make their nests with us.",[15,123,124],{},"Hmm... that's interesting. So we want the birds to come make their nests with us? OK, but still, do the birds represent something?",[15,126,127],{},"I want to posit the incredible thought that, yes, they absolutely do, and the answer is beautiful, wonderful, and mysterious. First, we need to backtrack for a moment to the beginning of Mark and revisit Jesus' baptism.",[10,129,131],{"id":130},"the-spirit-descending-like-a-dove","The Spirit descending like a dove",[15,133,134,135,140],{},"Each gospel records slightly different details of Jesus' baptism by John the Baptist and, very importantly, different Greek constructions of the term \"Holy Spirit\". I cannot emphasize enough how important the various Greek constructions of the Holy Spirit are. My entire life has been centered around researching this since early 2026 after I woke up one Monday morning thinking about ",[136,137,139],"a",{"href":138},"/blog/peters-angel-and-pneumatology","Peter's angel",", and I have some profound things to share with you soon.",[15,142,143],{},"Let's see what Mark has to say about Jesus' baptism:",[22,145,147],{"reference":146},"Mark 1:9-11 ESV",[15,148,149],{},"In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”",[15,151,152],{},"Did you catch it? Read it again.",[15,154,155,156,159,160,164],{},"The heavens were \"torn open\" - what an interesting phrase to inspire the author to write - and the Spirit \"descended ",[39,157,158],{},"on him"," like a\"... ",[161,162,163],"strong",{},"dove",". Apparently, when Jesus was baptized, this sort of bird imagery was used for him, as well.",[15,166,167],{},"Is it far-fetched, then, to suggest that Jesus was \"the tree\" here in the sense that he was the resting place for the bird? I don't think so, not at all. Actually, I think it's a model for us. What I think occurred here is that Jesus had his spirit, the-double-definite-article Holy Spirit (Greek: \"the spirit the holy\" in Luke 3:22 ESV), descend onto him. The other gospels say that the Spirit dwelt on him bodily:",[22,169,171],{"reference":170},"Matthew 3:16-17 ESV",[15,172,173],{},"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; and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”",[22,175,177],{"reference":176},"Luke 3:21-22 ESV",[15,178,179],{},"Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heavens were opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”",[22,181,183],{"reference":182},"John 1:32-34 ESV",[15,184,185],{},"And John bore witness: “I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.”",[15,187,188],{},"Does this sound familiar? It should remind of you Colossians:",[22,190,192],{"reference":191},"Colossians 2:9 ESV",[15,193,194],{},"For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.",[15,196,197,48,200,203],{},[39,198,199],{},"Dwells",[39,201,202],{},"Bodily",". After having descended like a dove, identically recorded in John's gospel.",[10,205,207],{"id":206},"love-story","Love story",[15,209,210],{},"In other words, what I am suggesting is that this image is a beautiful little love story. The week of August 9th, 2026, a great deal of this hit me like a freight train, and I'm still reeling from it all - in a good way. Because of that, this garden-tree-bird imagery jumped out at me from the text for the very first time.",[15,212,213],{},"I want to grow into a big, beautiful tree for my precious Holy Spirit. It's like an entirely-new perspective for good works: to do so out of love for your Holy Spirit, to attract the Spirit and make a beautiful resting place. I can barely even put these feelings into words. Are you following? Think of 1 Corinthians 13, the famous chapter on love, and follow the breadcrumbs.",[15,215,216],{},"The bird nesting with the tree is a little love story between the human being and the spirit. Jesus and his Spirit, translated to me and my spirit. That's the story I want for my life.",[15,218,219],{},"And yes, my blogs are going to get even weirder from here. Buckle up.",{"title":221,"searchDepth":222,"depth":222,"links":223},"",2,[224,225,226,227,228],{"id":12,"depth":222,"text":13},{"id":33,"depth":222,"text":34},{"id":76,"depth":222,"text":77},{"id":130,"depth":222,"text":131},{"id":206,"depth":222,"text":207},"Mark 4's parable of the mustard seed is a beautiful pneumatological image of our union with the Holy Spirit modeled directly after Jesus' baptism.","md",{"author":232,"date":233},"Daniel Miradakis","2026-08-17",true,"/blog/the-birds-of-the-heaven-from-mark-4",{"title":5,"description":229},"blog/the-birds-of-the-heaven-from-mark-4","jmBagRM_14-mWIimyWwEDweEoR8YkW6vCZx2LQMEsAk",{"id":240,"title":5,"author":232,"body":241,"date":233,"description":229,"extension":230,"meta":376,"navigation":234,"path":235,"seo":377,"stem":237,"__hash__":378},"blog/blog/the-birds-of-the-heaven-from-mark-4.md",{"type":7,"value":242,"toc":369},[243,245,247,249,253,255,257,261,267,269,271,275,277,281,283,287,291,295,301,303,305,309,311,313,315,319,321,325,327,333,335,339,343,347,349,353,359,361,363,365,367],[10,244,13],{"id":12},[15,246,17],{},[15,248,20],{},[22,250,251],{"reference":24},[15,252,27],{},[15,254,30],{},[10,256,34],{"id":33},[15,258,37,259,42],{},[39,260,41],{},[15,262,263,48,265,42],{},[39,264,47],{},[39,266,51],{},[15,268,54],{},[15,270,57],{},[22,272,273],{"reference":60},[15,274,63],{},[15,276,66],{},[15,278,69,279,73],{},[39,280,72],{},[10,282,77],{"id":76},[15,284,80,285,84],{},[39,286,83],{},[15,288,87,289,91],{},[39,290,90],{},[15,292,293],{},[95,294],{"alt":97,"src":98},[15,296,101,297,105,299,42],{},[39,298,104],{},[39,300,108],{},[15,302,111],{},[15,304,114],{},[15,306,117,307,121],{},[39,308,120],{},[15,310,124],{},[15,312,127],{},[10,314,131],{"id":130},[15,316,134,317,140],{},[136,318,139],{"href":138},[15,320,143],{},[22,322,323],{"reference":146},[15,324,149],{},[15,326,152],{},[15,328,155,329,159,331,164],{},[39,330,158],{},[161,332,163],{},[15,334,167],{},[22,336,337],{"reference":170},[15,338,173],{},[22,340,341],{"reference":176},[15,342,179],{},[22,344,345],{"reference":182},[15,346,185],{},[15,348,188],{},[22,350,351],{"reference":191},[15,352,194],{},[15,354,355,48,357,203],{},[39,356,199],{},[39,358,202],{},[10,360,207],{"id":206},[15,362,210],{},[15,364,213],{},[15,366,216],{},[15,368,219],{},{"title":221,"searchDepth":222,"depth":222,"links":370},[371,372,373,374,375],{"id":12,"depth":222,"text":13},{"id":33,"depth":222,"text":34},{"id":76,"depth":222,"text":77},{"id":130,"depth":222,"text":131},{"id":206,"depth":222,"text":207},{},{"title":5,"description":229},"egcgfEJ5xd7qRA7woAm_17BTgkzQpfo3tBeNI78TXIk",1787040609277]