Symbol of the Dove at Jesus' Baptism

Mark Chapter 1 tells us that when Jesus was baptised by John, the Spirit of God descended as a dove and landed on Jesus. A friend of mine asked what this means. Was it an actual dove or a symbol used to describe something else?

When I was younger, I had this vision of a dove landing on Jesus’ shoulder. But…when I go to the Greek text and look at this passage in linguistical and cultural context, I see a completely different picture.

The word “as” would be better translated “as if it were” or “as if it were like.” The author is describing movement, not an animal, per say. You have to understand how the writer thought, so consider the following: if you take a horse, a bird, and a cow, and you ask a modern native English speaker which two are most alike, the response will be the horse and the cow because of the way they look. If you ask a native Hebrew or Greek speaker, the answer will be the horse and the bird because of the way they move. This passage causes the native English speaker to picture the bird because of the way it looks, but that is not the case for a native Hebrew or Greek speaker - they are more open to realizing it is a description of movement.

Also, the word for Spirit is literally “life-breath” which is so cool to think of the Spirit of God as the life-breath of God! So now I have a new picture in my mind. First, I think this life-breath must have had some visibility – think of when you breathe out on a cold day and you can see your breath. This breath might have had form - something like that (or like a wisp of cloud) - and it descended down from the Heavens and floated on the air currents the way a dove flies on the air currents, until it landed on Jesus. And when it landed it didn’t sit there looking like a bird on His shoulder dear native English speaker; it probably just looked like that breath described (or wisp of cloud) and dissipated as it landed.

So my translation for this passage after reading the Greek is "the life-breath (Spirit) of God descended as if it were a dove and came to rest (or landed) upon Jesus."