-
CockInsight on the Scriptures, Volume 1
-
-
The most frequent references relate to Jesus’ prophecy concerning Peter’s denials of him, fulfilled on the night prior to Jesus’ death and recounted by all four writers of the Gospel accounts.—Mt 26:34, 74, 75; Mr 14:30, 72; Lu 22:34, 60, 61; Joh 13:38; 18:27.
While the Jewish Mishnah (Bava Kamma 7:7) contains a prohibition against the keeping of domestic fowl by the Jews, because of the probability of their causing ceremonial defilement, rabbinic sources indicate that they were kept as much by the Jews as by the Romans. An onyx seal bearing the figure of a cock was found near Mizpah and contains the inscription “belonging to Jaazaniah, servant of the king.” If, as some suggest, this Jaazaniah (Jezaniah) is the one mentioned at 2 Kings 25:23 and Jeremiah 40:8, this would indicate the keeping of cocks in Israel back in the seventh century B.C.E. The figure of a cock has also been found on a shard of a cooking pot excavated at ancient Gibeon.
Both the hen, with its chicks, and the egg are used by Jesus in his illustrations, indicating that the domestic fowl was well known to his listeners.—Mt 23:37; Lu 11:12; 13:34; see HEN, II.
-
-
CockcrowingInsight on the Scriptures, Volume 1
-
-
There has been some discussion of the subject of cockcrowing (Gr., a·le·kto·ro·pho·niʹa) owing to Jesus’ reference to it in connection with his prediction of Peter’s denying him on three occasions. (Mt 26:34, 74, 75; Mr 14:30, 72; Lu 22:34; Joh 13:38) On the basis of statements made in the Jewish Mishnah (Bava Kamma 7:7), some argue that cocks were not bred in Jerusalem, since they caused ceremonial uncleanness by their scratching up the ground. They say that the cockcrowing mentioned by Jesus actually refers to the Roman gallicinium, a time signal said to be made with bugles by the Roman guard stationed on the ramparts of the Tower of Antonia in Jerusalem that sounded out at the close of the third night watch.
However, Jewish Talmudic references indicate that cocks were bred in Jerusalem in those times. (For example, see The Mishnah, Eduyyot 6:1.) Further indication is that Jesus, when mourning over the city of Jerusalem, chose the simile of a ‘mother hen’s gathering her chicks under her wings’ to express the desire he had held toward it. (Mt 23:37) His choice of illustrations was always such as would readily be appreciated by his listeners. So, in his statement to Peter, there seems to be no good reason for assuming that Jesus meant anything other than a literal cockcrowing.
Others point out an apparent contradiction in the four accounts, since Matthew, Luke, and John mention only one cockcrowing, while Mark quotes Jesus as saying: “Truly I say to you, You today, yes, this night, before a cock crows twice, even you will disown me three times.” He repeats this statement in relating what happened later.—Mr 14:30, 72.
This is evidently a matter of one writer giving a more detailed account than the others rather than being a contradiction. The incident involves Peter, and since Mark was his close companion over a period of time and doubtless wrote his Gospel account with Peter’s aid or on the basis of his testimony, it is reasonable that Mark’s account would be the more detailed one. (At other times Matthew gave the more detailed description of certain events, as seen by a comparison of Mt 8:28 with Mr 5:2 and Lu 8:27, and of Mt 20:30 with Mr 10:46 and Lu 18:35.) So, while Mark quoted Jesus’ statement concerning the two cockcrowings, the other three writers mentioned only the second and last one, which provoked Peter’s giving way to tears; but by this they did not deny that there was an earlier cockcrowing.
It is generally agreed that cockcrowing has long been and still is a time indicator in the lands to the E of the Mediterranean, and that there is an early cockcrowing around midnight and a later one toward the dawning; while some indicate an additional one between these two. Concerning John 13:38, Clarke’s Commentary says: “The Jews, and some other nations, divided the cock-crowing into the first, the second, and the third times.” While it may not be possible now to assign specific times to these periodic cockcrowings, it is sufficient to know that they existed and that before two such cockcrowings Peter’s three denials took place.
-