[B-Greek] John 18.27

Steven Lo Vullo slovullo at mac.com
Wed Apr 16 00:24:06 EDT 2003


On Tuesday, April 15, 2003, at 10:27 PM, Gordon Goltz wrote:

>   I had a friend ask me a question today about John 18.27: "and at 
> once the cock crowed" (KAI EUQEWS ALEKTWR EFWNHSEN). The materials he 
> is using for a Bible study say that this was not the actual crowing of 
> a male fowl, but that it was a military signal that the particular 
> watch had ended.
>   I checked my lexicons (DBAG, ALGNT, Mounce, and my commentaries WBC, 
> Pillar, Westcott), and I could not find any evidence for such a 
> suggestion. Is there something in classical Greek that would support 
> such a view, or is this just someone's speculation?

Hi Gordon:

Raymond E. Brown mentions this interpretation of ALEKTWR EFWNHSEN in 
volume 2 of his commentary on John (p. 828) and Leon Morris adds this 
footnote in his commentary (p. 760, n. 55):

"A number of scholars think that not an actual cock's crow is meant, 
but the bugle call that ended the third watch of the night, the 
*gallicinium*, or in Greek, ALEKTOROFWNIA. This would give a precise 
time by which Jesus prophesied the denials. Bernard points out that the 
four watches of the night were called OYE, MESONUKTION, ALEKTOROFWNIA 
and PRWI, so that if the trumpet sound were meant there would be 
singular appropriateness in the use of PRWI in verse 28. The events of 
that verse would then take place during the period technically known as 
PRWI. As noted there, however, this is not likely. It is better to take 
PRWI in the non-technical sense. In any case it is not certain that the 
Jews (as opposed to the Romans) divided the night into four watches. 
The Talmud describes a dispute as to whether there were three or four 
watches, and seems to favor the view that there were three (Ber. 3a)."

I only have two comments. On the one hand, whether or not the Jews 
divided the night into four watches doesn't seem to me to be relevant, 
since there doesn't seem to be any compelling reason to rule out the 
possibility that Jesus was referring to Roman custom, which presumably 
would have been well known to the Jews. On the other hand, the use of 
the noun and the verb (ALEKTWR EFWNHSEN) rather than the technical term 
(the noun ALEKTOROFWNIA) seems to favor the view that a literal crowing 
of a cock is in view.
============
Steven R. Lo Vullo
Madison, WI



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