There's something strange in the canonicals:
Mark 4:31 ... καὶ (and) ποιεῖ (it produces) κλάδους (branches) μεγάλους (great), ὥστε (so that) δύνασθαι (are able) ὑπὸ (under) τὴν (the) σκιὰν (shadow) αὐτοῦ (of it) τὰ (the) πετεινὰ (birds) τοῦ (of the) οὐρανοῦ (air) κατασκηνοῦν* (to perch).”
Luke 13:19 ... καὶ (and) ηὔξησεν (it grew) καὶ (and) ἐγένετο (came) εἰς (into) δένδρον (a tree), καὶ (and) τὰ (the) πετεινὰ (birds) τοῦ (of the) οὐρανοῦ (air) κατεσκήνωσεν (encamped) ἐν (in) τοῖς (the) κλάδοις (branches) αὐτοῦ (of it).”
Matthew and Mark have an asterisk behind their verb, for good reasons:
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/tex ... askhno%2Fw
to pitch one's camp or tent, take up one's quarters, encamp, Xen.; generally, to rest, lodge, settle
Well, isn't that a remarkable word?
Needless to say, its only occurrence in the entire NT is in Matthew and Mark. I have never seen birds pitch a tent, but highly likely these two fellows did.
Luke's slightly different κατεσκήνωσεν is the same verb, and oddly, Acts 2:26 has the fourth and last occurrence of this verb, κατασκηνώσει: "will dwell (in hope)" is the translation, and the verse is a verbatim copy of Psalms 16:9.
σκηνή is the root word, tent. What a remarkably composite verb to use on this occasion, where birds do things in branches or trees or their shadow, isn't it?
46 occurrences of κατασκην in the Tanakh, and every single one of them is translated with "encamp": even said Psalms verse. The noun occurs a few dozen times in the NT and gets translated with tabernacle, mostly
Onto Thomas, and one single word: ⲥⲕⲉⲡⲏ
https://ccdl.claremont.edu/digital/coll ... 2899/rec/1
Third line from the bottom
It's a Greek loanword, and those have a metaphysical meaning in Thomas. Tufts has the following definition of its Greek equivalent http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/tex ... 3Dske%2Fph
a covering, shelter, protection, Xen.:—c. gen., ἐν σκέπῃ τοῦ πολέμου under shelter from war, Hdt.; ὑπὸ τὴν Ῥωμαίων σκέπην under their protection, Polyb.
The usual translations say "shelter (for birds of the sky)" and it is remarkable that this word is in this exact same spot, isn't it? It is the only time that it occurs in Thomas.
In the papyrus that we have, the Greek ⲛ and the ⲡ are not hard to keep apart, but I don't dismiss the possibility that the Greek was copied from a text where such was the case.
The word fits fine in Thomas who uses it in a double entendre: the branches might offer shelter to birds of the sky but they also might offer protection from them - and naturally, the second meaning is the vital one in Thomas: the whole story can be read in my Commentary.
But the canonicals? Granted, the application in Psalms 16:9 is fancy:
η σαρξ μου my flesh κατασκηνώσει shall encamp επ΄ in ελπίδι hope
But does the NT reach that literary level? Not by a mile, save for John perhaps.
Once again we see that the bible translations that we have are awfully free. Luke's one is actually "faithful" and perfectly in line with the Tanakh, but the different form in Matthew and Mark is yet another minor disagreement against Luke in a situation where the Synoptics are in major agreement
ⲥⲕⲏⲛⲏ is a Greek loanword in Coptic for tent, by the way.
This peculiar case is fairly different from the others, but I thought it would be amusing to dwell on one single word, for a change