Cock

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COCK.—Mat_26:34; Mat_26:74, Mar_13:35; Mar_14:30; Mar_14:72, Luk_22:34; Luk_22:60-61, Joh_13:30; Joh_18:27. Cocks and hens were probably unknown in Palestine until from two to three centuries before Christ’s time. In the famous painted tomb at Marissa (see Mareshah), a work of about b.c. 200, we have the cock depicted. Cocks and hens were introduced from Persia. The absence of express mention of then from the Law, and the fact that it is a ‘clean’ bird, have made it possible for the Jews for many centuries to sacrifice, these birds on the eve of the Day of Atonement—a cock for each male and a hen for each female in the household. Talmudic tradition finds references to the cock in Isa_22:17, Job_38:36, and Pro_30:31, but all these are very doubtful. The ‘cock-crowing’ was the name of the 3rd watch of the night, just before the dawn, in the time of our Lord. During this time the cocks crow at irregular intervals.
E. W. G. Masterman.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909

"Cockcrowing" was the third watch of the four watches introduced by the Romans. (See WATCHES.) The Jews originally had but three. The first ended at 9, the second at 12, the third or" cockcrowing" at 3, and the fourth at 6 o'clock a.m. (Mar_13:35). The second cockcrowing (Mar_14:72), which marked Peter's third denial of Jesus, was probably at the beginning of the fourth watch between 3 and 4 in the morning, not long before the first day dawn, just when our Lord was being led bound to Caiaphas across the court where Peter was standing. The Mishna, states that "cocks were not bred at Jerusalem because of the holy things."
But Peter could easily hear their shrill crow on mount Olivet, only a half-mile off from where he was in the porch of the high priest's palace, in the stillness of night. Moreover, the restriction could only apply to the Jews, not to the Romans who used fowl for food. The first crowing being fainter in the distance did not awaken his slumbering conscience; but the second with its loud sound was the crowing which alone is recorded by Matthew (Mat_26:34), Luke (Luk_22:34), and John (Joh_13:38), being that which roused him to remember bitterly his Lord's neglected warning.
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.

Cock. Mat_26:34; Mar_13:35; Mar_14:30, etc. The domestic cock and hen were early known to the ancient Greeks and Romans, and as no mention is made in the Old Testament of these birds, and no figures of them occur on the Egyptian monuments, they probably came into Judea with the Romans, who, as is well known, prized these birds, both as articles of food and for cock-fighting.
Smith's Bible Dictionary
By Dr. William Smith.Published in 1863

αλεκτωρ, a well known domestic fowl. Some derive the Greek name from α, and λεκτρον, a bed, because the crowing of cocks rouses men from their beds; but Mr. Parkhurst asks, “May not this name be as properly deduced from the Hebrew אור הלכת , the coming of the light, of which this ‘bird of dawning,' as Shakspeare calls him, gives such remarkable notice, and for doing which he was, among the Heathen, sacred to the sun, who in Homer is himself called αλεκτωρ?” In Mat_26:34, our Lord is represented as saying, that before cock-crow, Peter should deny him thrice; so Luk_22:34, and John 13:39. But according to Mar_14:30, he says, “Before the cock crow twice thou shalt deny me thrice.” These texts may be very satisfactorily reconciled, by observing, that ancient authors, both Greek and Latin, mention two cock- crowings, the one of which was soon after midnight, the other about three o'clock in the morning; and this latter being most noticed by men as the signal of their approaching labours, was called by way of eminence, the cock-crowing; and to this alone, Matthew, giving the general sense of our Saviour's warning to Peter, refers; but Mark, recording his very words, mentions the two cock-crowings.
The rabbies tell us that cocks were not permitted to be kept in Jerusalem on account of the holiness of the place; and that for this reason some modern Jews cavil against this declaration of the Evangelists; but the cock is not among the birds prohibited in the law of Moses. If there was any restraint in the use and domestication of the animal, it must have been an arbitrary practice of the Jews, and could not have been binding on foreigners, of whom many resided at Jerusalem as officers or traders. Strangers would not be willing to forego an innocent kind of food in compliance with a conquered people; and the trafficking spirit of the Jews would induce them to supply aliens, if it did not expressly contradict the letter of their law. This is sufficient to account for fowl of this kind being there, even admitting a customary restraint. The celebrated Reland admits that it was not allowed to breed cocks in the city, but that the Jews were not prohibited from buying them to eat, and that therefore the cock mentioned in the Gospel might be in the house of a Jew who designed to kill it for his own table; or may have been kept in the precincts of Pilate, or of a Roman officer or soldier.
During the time of our Saviour, the night was divided into four watches, a fourth watch having been introduced among the Jews from the Romans, who derived it from the Greeks. The second and third watches are mentioned in Luk_12:38; the fourth, in Mat_14:25; and the four are all distinctly mentioned in Mar_13:35 : “Watch, therefore; for ye know not when the master of the house cometh; at even,” οψε, or the late watch, “or at midnight,” μεσονυκτιου, “or at the cock-crowing,” αλεκτοροφωνιας, “or in the morning,” πρωι, the early watch. Here, the first watch was at even, and continued from six till nine; the second commenced at nine, and ended at twelve, or midnight; the third watch, called by the Romans gallicinium, lasted from twelve to three; and the morning watch closed at six.
Biblical and Theological Dictionary by Richard Watson
PRINTER 1849.

kok (ἀλέκτωρ, āléktōr; Latin gallus): There is no reference in the Old Testament to domesticated poultry, which was probably first introduced into Judea after the Roman conquest. See CHICKEN. The cock is several times mentioned in the New Testament and always with reference to its habit of crowing in eastern countries with such regularity as to be almost clocklike. The first full salute comes almost to the minute at half-past eleven, the second at half-past one, and the third at dawn. So uniformly do the cocks keep time and proclaim these three periods of night that we find cock-crowing mentioned as a regular division of time: ?Watch therefore: for ye know not when the lord of the house cometh, whether at even, or at midnight, or at cockcrowing, or in the morning? (Mar_13:35). Jesus had these same periods of night in mind when he warned Peter that he would betray Him. Mat_26:34; Luk_22:34; Joh_13:38, give almost identical wording of the warning. But in all his writing Mark was more explicit, more given to exact detail. Remembering the divisions of night as the cocks kept them, his record reads: ?And Jesus saith unto him, Verily I say into thee, that thou today, even this night, before the cock crow twice, shalt deny me thrice? (Mar_14:30). See CHICKEN. It is hardly necessary to add that the cocks crow at irregular intervals as well as at the times indicated, according to the time of the year and the phase of the moon (being more liable to crow during the night if the moon is at the full), or if a storm threatens, or there is any disturbance in their neighborhood.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.

It is somewhat singular that this bird and poultry in general should not be distinctly noticed in the Hebrew Scriptures. They were, it may be surmised, unknown in Egypt when the Mosaic law was promulgated, and, though imported soon after, they always remained in an undetermined condition, neither clean nor unclean, but liable to be declared either, by decisions swayed by prejudice, or by fanciful analogies; perhaps chiefly the latter; because poultry are devourers of unclean animals, scorpions, scolopendra, small lizards, and young serpents of every kind.
But although rearing of common fowls was not encouraged by the Hebrew population, it is evidently drawing inferences beyond their proper bounds, when it is asserted that they were unknown in Jerusalem, where civil wars, and Greek and Roman dominion, had greatly affected the national manners. In the denials of Peter, described in the four Gospels, where the cock-crowing is mentioned by our Lord, the words are plain and direct, not we think admitting of cavil, or of being taken to signify anything but the real voice of the bird, in its literal acceptation, and not as denoting the sound of a trumpet, so called, because it proclaimed a watch in the night; for, to what else than a real hen and her brood does our Savior allude in Luk_13:34, where the text is proof that the image of poultry was familiar to the disciples, and consequently that they were not rare in Judea? To the present time in the East, and on the Continent of Europe, this bird is still often kept, as amongst the Celt?, not so much for food as for the purpose of announcing the approach and dawn of day.
The Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
by John Kitto.

Cock
(ἀλέκτωρ, literally wakeful). It is somewhat singular that this bird (and poultry in general) should not be distinctly noticed in the Hebrew Scriptures, especially as rearing gallinaceous fowls was an object of considerable economical importance in Egypt, and their flesh one of the principal resources for the table in every part of Southern and Western Asia. It is true, the date when the practice of obtaining them by artificial heat commenced in Egypt is sufficiently disputable, and birds of the genus Gallus, properly so called, are not indigenous in Western Asia, but belong in their original condition to lower India, Indo-China, and the great islands of Austral-Asia. Several species, apparently distinct, are still found wild in the forests and jungles of India, and two at least, Gallus Sonneratii and G. Stanleyi, are abundant in the woods of the Western Ghauts, to which our familiar fowl bear so close a resemblance that naturalists consider the former to be their original. Domestic poultry have existed in Hindoostan from the remotest antiquity; probably much earlier than the twelfth century B.C.; for in the Institutes of Menu, which Sir William Jones assigns to that age, we read of “the breed of the towncock,” and of the practice of cock- fighting (5:12; 9:222).
When the cock found its way to Western Asia and Europe we have no record. Fowl of plumage so gorgeous, of size so noble, of flesh so sapid, of habits so domestic, of increase so prolific, would doubtless early be carried along the various tracks of Oriental commerce. There is no trace of it, so far as we are aware, on the monuments of Pharaonic Egypt, but we find the cock figured in those of Assyria. In a hunting and shooting scene depicted at Khorsabad (Botta, pl. 108-114), the scene is laid in a forest whose characteristics seem to indicate a mountain region, such as Media or Armenia. Much game is represented, including many kinds of birds, one of which seems to be the pheasant. But the most interesting, is a large bird, which appears from its form, gait, and arching tail to be our common cock; it is walking on the ground amidst the trees. So far as this is evidence, it would go to prove that the fowl, in a wild state, existed at that period in Western Asia, though now unknown on this side the Indus. The cock and hen are distinctly represented in the Xanthian sculptures, of an era probably contemporaneous with the Khorsabad palace of Nineveh. They appear also on Etruscan paintings, having probably a much higher antiquity (Mrs. Gray's Etruria, p. 28, 45).
The early Greeks and Romans figure them on their coins and gems, and speak of them as perfectly familiar objects, with no allusion to their introduction. They had even found their way into Britain at some unknown period long anterior to the Roman invasion; for Caesar tells us with surprise that the Britons did not think it right to eat the goose or the hen, though they bred both for the pleasure of keeping them (Bell. Gall. lib. 5). This is a very interesting allusion, since we are compelled to refer their introduction into that island to the agency of the Phoenicians, who traded to Cornwall for tin centuries before Rome was built. Under these circumstances, their absence from Egypt, where in modern times they have been artificially bred to so immense an extent, becomes a remarkable and unaccountable fact. They were, indeed, it may be surmised, unknown in Egypt when the Mosaic law was promulgated, and, though imported soon after, there always remained in an undetermined condition, neither clean nor unclean, but liable to be declared either by decisions swayed by prejudice, or by fanciful analogies; perhaps chiefly the latter; because poultry are devourers of unclean animals, scorpions, scolopendra, small lizards, and young serpents of every kind. But, although the rearing of common fowls was not encouraged by the Hebrew population, it is evidently drawing inferences beyond their proper bounds when it is asserted, SEE COCK-CROWING, that they were unknown in Jerusalem, where civil wars and Greek and Roman dominion had greatly affected the national manners. SEE FOWL.
In the denials of Peter, described in the four Gospels, where the cock- crowing (see below) is mentioned by our Lord, the words are plain and direct; not, we think, admitting of cavil, or of being taken to signify anything but the real voice of the bird, the ἀλεκτοροφωνία, as it is expressed in Mar_13:35, in its literal acceptation, and not as denoting the sound of a trumpet, so called because it proclaimed a watch in the night; for to what else than a real hen and her brood does our Savior allude in Luk_13:34, where the text is proof that the image of poultry Was familiar to the disciples, and consequently that they were not rare in Judaea? To the present time in the East, and on the Continent of Europe, this bird is still often kept, as amongst the Celtes (Caesar, Bell. Gall. 4, 12), not so much for food as for the purpose of announcing the approach and dawn of day. SEE HEN.

CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.

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