“Five sparrows sold for two pennies”
Luke 12:6–7
Cultural referenceSettledJesus
Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. (Luke 12:6–7 BSB)
What it sounds like today
Sparrows as generic small creatures.
The cultural key
Sparrows were the cheapest flesh in the market, the protein of the destitute, sold skewered. The coin is the assarion, a sixteenth of a day's wage. Luke's parallel adds the market's own math: five sparrows for two pennies, with the fifth thrown in free: a creature so worthless it rounds to nothing. Luke preserves the market's own arithmetic: two pennies buys not four sparrows but five, the fifth thrown in free. The bird literally valued at nothing is the one 'not forgotten before God.'
Recovered meaning
The bird literally given away as a freebie does not hit the ground unnoticed by God. The argument runs to you: 'you are of more value than many sparrows.'
Parallels: Matthew 10:29