Cockcrowing
People's Dictionary of the Bible [1]
Cockcrowing. This word occurs in the New Testament to designate the third watch in the night, about equidistant from midnight and dawn. Matthew 26:34; Mark 13:35. This watch was called by the Romans Gallicinium . They divided the night into four watches of three hours each, that is, from six in the evening to nine; from nine to twelve; from twelve to three; and from three to six. The last two watches were both of them called "cock-crowings," because cocks usually crowed in that space of time. We have no evidence in support of the Rabbinical opinion that cocks were not permitted to be kept in Jerusalem on account of the holiness of the place.
Webster's Dictionary [2]
(n.) The time at which cocks first crow; the early morning.
Holman Bible Dictionary [3]
Mark 13:35
Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblial Literature [4]
The cock usually crows several times about midnight, and again about break of day. The latter time, because he then crows loudest, and his 'shrill clarion' is most useful by summoning man to his labors, obtained the appellation of the cockcrowing emphatically, and by way of eminence; though sometimes the distinctions of the first and second cockcrowing are met with in Jewish and heathen writers. These times, and these names for them, were, no doubt, some of the most ancient divisions of the night adopted in the East, where 'the bird of dawning' is most probably indigenous. In our Lord's time the Jews had evidently adopted the Greek and Roman division of the night into four periods, or watches; each consisting of three hours; the first beginning at six in the evening .
It has been considered a contradiction that Matthew records our Lord to have said to Peter, 'Before the cock crow thou shalt deny me thrice;' whereas St. Mark says, 'Before the cock crow twice.' But Matthew, giving only the general sense of the admonition (as also; ), evidently alludes to that only which was customarily called the cockcrowing, but Mark, who wrote under Peter's inspection, more accurately recording the very words, mentions the two cockcrowings.
