Quote:
Originally Posted by Kätzchen
A Single Sparrow in the Hand is much better than a Thousand Sparrows Flying
This idiom is much older than the "Bird in the hand" cultural idiom in modern day terms. Back in the 6th century (BCE), according to the Proverbs of Ahiquar, this phrase means that it's better to have an small certain advantage rather than an MERE POTENTIAL of many uncertain advantages.
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I did a bit more of a search on this and came up with the correct time for which this happened: Ancient Egyptian Papri from Elephantine, an island off the coast of Egypt, inhabited by Jews, Syrians and Egpytians, was back in the
5th century before Christ (BCE).
Here is a set of background information to read, in order of appearance, for those interested. Check out the page about Proverbs of Ahiqar first, then all others in order as listed:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stor...ar?wprov=sfla1
http://jewishchristianlit.com/Texts/...es/Ahiqar.html
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elep...ri?wprov=sfla1
http://www.egyptianmyths.net/elephant.htm
https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/elephantine
http://www.elephantineblog.com/2017/...ort-story.html