Cockcrow

The Cockcrow isn’t a Rooster

In 2nd Temple time the cockcrow that Peter would have heard that was recorded in Mark 15:72, Matthew 26:74, Luke 22:60 & John 18:27 was not a chicken. Chickens were banned from the city of Jerusalem and Priests couldn’t raise them anywhere in all the land of Israel.

 

One may not raise chickens in Jerusalem, due to the sacrificial meat that is common there. There is a concern that chickens will pick up garbage that imparts ritual impurity and bring it into contact with sacrificial meat, thereby rendering it ritually impure. And priests may not raise chickens anywhere in Eretz Yisrael, because of the many foods in a priest’s possession that must be kept ritually pure, e.g., teruma.

-Mishnah Bava Kamma 7:7

The Cockcrow was a Horn Blast

The cockcrow that the New Testament is mentioning in the 2nd Temple is the morning shofar blast made up of three notes, a sustained note (tekiah), followed by a quivering note (teruah), and then another sustained note (tekiah).

 

“They would blow a tekiah, a teruah, and a tekiah to announce the opening of the gates [of the Temple].”

-Mishnah Tamid 7:3

The cockcrow was the bugle Reveille call of its day that would announce to all that the temple was open for sacrifices and had been cleaned from the day prior. Jesus the Messiah was at that time under trial with the High Preist.

 

End of the Study