The dove appears in Scripture at key moments, most notably in the account of Noah and again at the baptism of Jesus. In all cases, it signals a turning point, marking peace, presence, and the beginning of something new.
These appearances are separated by time but united in meaning. The dove becomes a sign not only of what has ended, but of what has begun.
This essay reflects on the continuity of that image, and how it speaks to the presence of the Holy Spirit from the earliest pages of Scripture to the Church age.
The dove makes infrequent but significant appearances in the scripture. We should “be wise as serpents and innocent as doves” (Matthew 10:16), which indicates the purity and wisdom that comes through the Holy Spirit. The Beloved calls his Bride “my dove” (Song of Solomon 6:9) in the Song of Songs, indicating the intimacy in their relationship. Peace is associated with an image of a dove, as, “Oh, that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and be at rest” (Psalms 55:6). Noah sends one dove from the ark three times; in this, we see parallels to the Holy Spirit’s work in God’s plan of redemption.
The Holy Spirit is at Creation “hovering over the face of the waters” (Genesis 1:2). He is there when God says, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness” (Genesis 1:26). And as one of us creation, he is later “walking in the garden in the cool of the day” (Genesis 3:8). But when God expels Adam and Eve from the Garden, he becomes an intermittent presence in our world. God’s prophets are given the Holy Spirit for a time, but not permanently. The “Spirit of the LORD clothed Gideon” (Judges 6:34), Moses has the Spirit “on” him (Numbers 11:17), and the “Spirit entered into” Ezekiel (Ezekiel 2:2). But God’s great compassion would change the Holy Spirit’s occasional and transient presence into a permanent and indwelling one in us because of Jesus’ work on the cross.
First Trip
“And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” (Genesis 1:1–2)
“Then he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground. But the dove found no place to set her foot, and she returned to him to the ark, for the waters were still on the face of the whole earth.” (Genesis 8:8–9)
When Noah sends the dove out for the first time, it encounters a place similar to the one where the Holy Spirit hovered over at the start of Creation, but for a very different reason. The dove finds that all the living things God created are again absent. What happened? Because of sin, “the earth was filled with violence…for all flesh had corrupted their way,” so God would “destroy them with the earth” (Genesis 6:11-13).
The dove returns to Noah because there is nowhere to set down its feet and nest, just as the Holy Spirit does not have a home in our world after we were separated from it in Eden. God “drove out the man” and “placed the cherubim and a flaming sword” (Genesis 3:24) to isolate us from the Tree of Life and, consequently, the Holy Spirit.
In his Exposition of the Bible, John Gill reminds us that in Exodus, “between the two cherubim” (Exodus 25:22) is where God meets Moses. Hence, these Eden cherubim may have in them the presence of God, who “fixed his abode in a very awful manner at the entrance of the garden, to keep man out of it.” Since then, we have been “dead in our trespasses” (Ephesians 2:5) and unable to experience the joy of the Holy Spirit until Jesus sent us the Comforter.
Second Trip
“[H]e sent forth the dove out of the ark. And the dove came back to him in the evening, and behold, in her mouth was a freshly plucked olive leaf” (Genesis 8:10–11)
“The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy–the Son of God” (Luke 1:35)
“I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him.” (John 1:32)
Noah sends the dove out a second time, but something has changed, for it brings back a leaf plucked from the branch of an olive tree. Life springs from the ground, indicating that the waters of wrath are subsiding, giving hope to the travelers on the ark. Just as this olive tree is on a mountain revealed by receding waters, so on another mount, the Mount of Olives, rising water floods the Son of Man with sorrows before he is betrayed. Prophets speak of the “Branch” of David (Jeremiah 23:5, Isaiah 11:1), who would be the king and Savior of Israel. Deuteronomy says, “he who is hanged on a tree is cursed by God” (Deuteronomy 21:23). Although Jesus commits no crime, “he was killed by hanging him on a tree” (Acts 5:30). The dove clings to the olive leaf from such a tree just as the Holy Spirit remains with Jesus through these sorrows in Gethsemane.
Jesus is incarnated to redeem us, and although he is fully divine, he is also fully human and is comforted and strengthened by the Holy Spirit, just as we are. Hebrews says that “because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.” So, he can “sympathize with our weaknesses” but always “without sin” (Hebrews 2:18, 4:15). Although he is fully divine, he doesn’t use his divinity to minister to his humanity. He could call down “twelve legions of angels” (Matthew 26:53) to save him but does not. Instead, Jesus relies on no more than what we are given to rely on: the Word (as during his desert temptation), frequent prayer alone with the Father–and the Holy Spirit’s comfort and strength.
After this second time out, just as the dove returns to Noah with evidence that God’s wrath is subsiding, Jesus returns to the Father with evidence that his wrath could also subside: a bloodied cross and an empty tomb. Jesus gives a final blessing to his disciples before his ascension: “And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high…While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven” (Luke 24:49-51). Strong’s Concordance translates the word carried as “to carry up, to lead up.” Just as six times the “Spirit carried” Ezekiel from one place to another (Ezekiel 3:14, 8:3, 11:24, 37:1, 40:1, 43:5), and just as an olive leaf is carried to the ark by the dove, Jesus is carried up into heaven by and with the Holy Spirit, having assured the disciples this same Holy Spirit would soon return to them to stay, just as the dove does the third time it is sent out.
Third Trip
“[H]e waited another seven days and sent forth the dove, and she did not return to him anymore.” (Genesis 8:12)
“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever.” (John 14:15)
“When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place…And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 2:1–4)
Noah sends the dove out a third time, and it remains in the world, just as the Father sends out the promised Holy Spirit on Pentecost, who is now here with us. We can scarcely turn a page in the epistles without seeing the blessings of the Holy Spirit in the Church and our lives. The gifts of the Holy Spirit build up the Church. The fruits of the Holy Spirit empower us to overcome the desires of the flesh. But, most significant of all, our relationship with Jesus is sealed with the Holy Spirit for the day of redemption (Ephesians 1:13, 4:30). And what greater comfort could we have knowing that he will “never leave nor forsake us” (Hebrews 13:5).
“The Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away” (Acts 8:39) after he baptizes the Ethiopian official. John speaks of how an angel “carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God” (Revelation 21:10). Similarly, the Holy Spirit leads us through this life until we, too, will be carried away, “caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4:17).
The Raven
“At the end of forty days Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made and sent forth a raven. It went to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth.” (Genesis 8:7)
Noah sends a raven out before the dove. The raven is a scavenger, eating the carrion floating on the water. This may be why the Israelites are to detest and not eat “any kind of raven” (Leviticus 11:15, NIV). Noah releases it as the first animal he wants to be rid of. The raven “went to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth” (Genesis 8:7). The raven represents Satan’s presence in the world. In Job, God asks Satan what he’s been up to, and he replies, “going to and fro on the earth” (Job 1:7), like this raven. Unfortunately, as Peter says, he is still at it, “seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8).
The history of Satan’s rise and fall is described in Ezekiel: “You were the signet of perfection; You were in Eden, the Garden of God; your heart was proud because of your beauty; I cast you to the ground; you have come to a dreadful end and shall be no more forever” (Ezekiel 28). God gave us dominion over this earth, but we transferred it to Satan. “The prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience” (Ephesians 2:2), is sent off the ark and is still at work today. But we know that “the ruler of this world will be cast out” (John 12:31), when “The kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our Lord and his Christ [who] shall reign forever” (Revelation 11:15).
Seek Him
Some commentators say the raven going to and fro refers to it going to and from the ark. Others say the raven never returned to the ark but was going to and fro among the carcasses. Neither is necessary to understand how the raven’s flight differs from the dove’s because it’s not about a place but a person. The raven may or may not go back and forth to the ark, but with certainty, it never returns to Noah, the ship’s master. Proud in its glory and self-sufficiency, it is accountable only to itself. However, the dove, unlike the raven, “returned to him” after the first trip and “came back to him in the evening” (Genesis 8:9, 10) after the second trip. The dove is connected to Noah in a way the raven is not. As the birds of the air in the Sermon on the Mount rely on their heavenly Father, the dove is in relation with Noah just as the Holy Spirit is with the Father.
Also, the dove could have feasted on the animals as the raven did but did not. Later, God says to Moses, “You shall not eat the blood of any creature, for the life of every creature is its blood” (Leviticus 17:14). The dove observes this law of righteousness before God later formalizes it for Moses. The Holy Spirit is with God and from God and is God in the Trinity. As such, it has an intrinsic knowledge of God’s purity and holiness because these things are “written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God” (2 Corinthians 3:3).
The dove remains out in the world, bringing hope to the remnant on the ark that God’s wrath is subsiding. The Holy Spirit’s presence here means that the flood of God’s wrath is receding for people everywhere as the gospel is shared of another flood, that of a “fountain filled with blood, drawn from Immanuel’s veins,” as the hymnist William Cowper said, washing away our sins. When Jesus promises the disciples the Holy Spirit, he says, “You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you” (John 14:17). The Holy Spirit dwelt with them, for they had dwelt with Jesus for three years, but he lives forever in them and now in us.
Soon, we will again be with God in a new Garden in the cool of the day. This time, we will eat from a tree of life “for the healing of the nations” (Revelation 22:2). The raven and the dove are in this world now, but as John says, “he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4). The Holy Spirit in us is greater.
This essay is part of Shadows of Christ: Twelve Essays.
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