Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. (Matthew 10:29)
I’ve been sitting at my desk wondering what to write about for tomorrow’s blog and watching House Sparrows coming and going from the bird feeder. I put the desk where it is so I could look out on my butterfly garden and bird feeder, but most of the time, what comes to the feeder are the House Sparrows. Little brown birds. I tend to call them flying pigs. I try to mean it affectionately, but sometimes, they’re really just little flying pigs. I often wish I had more interesting birds at my feeder. Buntings, Waxwings, Grosbeaks, or Orioles would be nice. It’s rather sad when a Cowbird generates excitement. I mean, House Sparrows are an invasive species!
Not so long ago, I described myself to someone as a House Sparrow – a boring little brown bird. Back in the first century, they were sold two for a penny. I tried to do research on the coin involved. One translation said “farthing.” The Greek word is riou. If the farthing translation is close, and I suspect it is, then two sparrows are sold for about a quarter of a penny or eight sparrows per penny. No matter how you say it, the little birds aren’t worth much. “Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care.”
On the other hand, if a female slave were gored by a bull, the bull’s owner had to pay the female slave’s owner thirty shekels of silver, or about fifteen ounces of silver. In terms of silver prices today, that means a payment of $226.50. Now, this isn’t a suggestion that human beings are worth only a couple hundred dollars but consider the comparison. Sparrows are worth an eighth of a cent, and humans are worth 22,650 cents. That means that a human is worth 181,200 times as much as a sparrow. even if you use the penny translation, a human is still worth 45,300 times as much. So if not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care, imagine how much more true that is of you, even if you think you're one of the sparrows of humanity.
Not so long ago, I described myself to someone as a House Sparrow – a boring little brown bird. Back in the first century, they were sold two for a penny. I tried to do research on the coin involved. One translation said “farthing.” The Greek word is riou. If the farthing translation is close, and I suspect it is, then two sparrows are sold for about a quarter of a penny or eight sparrows per penny. No matter how you say it, the little birds aren’t worth much. “Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care.”
On the other hand, if a female slave were gored by a bull, the bull’s owner had to pay the female slave’s owner thirty shekels of silver, or about fifteen ounces of silver. In terms of silver prices today, that means a payment of $226.50. Now, this isn’t a suggestion that human beings are worth only a couple hundred dollars but consider the comparison. Sparrows are worth an eighth of a cent, and humans are worth 22,650 cents. That means that a human is worth 181,200 times as much as a sparrow. even if you use the penny translation, a human is still worth 45,300 times as much. So if not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care, imagine how much more true that is of you, even if you think you're one of the sparrows of humanity.
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