griffin vulture

Whenever you read the English Bible and it says eagle or eagles, the actual Hebrew, and Greek words refer to the griffin vulture.

The simple explanation for this is that there are no vultures in England, and when the translators came to the word they picked the closest bird they did have, an eagle.  Both birds soar through the air with very little effort, which is the main point usually being made in the text.

Bald Eagle

“On Vultures Wings” is a Hebrew idiom for something that moves fast, very much like the English idiom “Faster than Lightning”.  But because we have a lot of iconic use of the eagle, we tend to think of a great noble bird of prey, not a carrion feeder.

I have heard sermons that interpret this or that eagle reference to prophetically indicate the United States of America, and therefore fulfillment will include the United States.  Do not be fooled by these preachers who can’t even be bothered to look up words in a Bible dictionary, the eagles in the bible are always griffin vultures.

Try not to think about it the next time you sing “Rise up with wings as eagles”.

griffin vulture