Cock (Hastings' Dictionary)

The domestic fowl may be the bird mentioned 1 K 4^, c-ii-13 bnr- hurim, and tran.'slated in AV and HY fatted fotcts. It is not unlikely that Solomon, who had com- merce with the far E., and inijjorted peacocks and apes from Ophir ( 1 K 10'-"-), might have brought barn- yard fowls from the same direction. The original stock of these fowls is usually supposed to be indigen- ous in farther India and China.

Gnlhis gignnteits, of Malacca, seems to be the feral state of some of the larger tame breeds, and G. hnnkiva, of Java, which is regarded by many as specifically the same as G. ferriiffineit.1, the juvrjle fowl, is supposed to be the parent of our ordinary poultry. In India, poultry have been domesticatea from the earliest times. But no representation of them is found on the Egj'ptian monuments. Pindar mentions the cock, and Homer names a man 'AX^/crwp, the word for a cock.

Aristophanes calls it a Persian bird. It may have been introduced into Pal. before it came to Greece. Nevertheless, unless in this doubtful passage, it is not mentioned in OT. Commen- tators have tried various other renderings ol barbiirSm, as swcns, guinea fowls, geese, capons, and flitted fish. But these are pure conjectures. The Konians were very mucdi given to raising fowls, both for food ana for cock-fighting. The Mishna states that cocks were not allowed in Jerus.

, for fear of polluting the holy things. But there is rabbinic evidence that the Jews kept fowls. The Romans and other foreigners also kept them. The cock is mentioned in NT in connexion with Peter's denial of Christ (Mt 26"-" etc.) Cock- crowing (Mk 13^) refers to the habit of crowing before the dawn. This is the second cock-crowing (Mk 14*"), the first being at midnight, but less certain or less heard than the second.

Hence the other evangelists speak of the crowing of the cock without specifying tliat it was to be a second one (Mt 26**, Lk'22^, Jn 135^). In point of fact, cocks crow somewhat irregularly at intervals in the night. The hen is alluded to (Lk 13") with reference to her motherly care of her brood, with which the Saviour compares his solicitude for Jerusalem. G. E. Post.