[B-Greek] John 18.27

Maurice A. O'Sullivan mauros at iol.ie
Wed Apr 16 09:49:46 EDT 2003


At 05:24 16/04/2003, Steven Lo Vullo wrote:


>Raymond E. Brown mentions this interpretation of ALEKTWR EFWNHSEN in 
>volume 2 of his commentary on John (p. 828)

Brown develops this further on pp.605-7 of his: The Death of the Messiah: 
 From Gethsemane to the Grave, vol. 1  (New York: Doubleday, 1994).
He ends his survey of commentaries on this particular point by summing up:
 >> Consistently the Gospels refer to _a_ cock crowing; the lack of a 
definite artlcle suggests that if the original reference was to the watch 
of cockcrow, all the evangelists misunderstood it.<<<


>and Leon Morris adds this footnote in his commentary (p. 760, n. 55):
>
>< snip>
>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)."

As Brown rightly remarks of citations from the Talmud ( whether Tb or Tj 
): >> None of this evidence is particularly pertinent for the Jerusalem of 
Jesus' time <<


>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.

Would the technical term not be the _verb_ KOKKUZEIN ? As BDAG and Brown 
point out, this verb appears only in the Fayum fragment of Mark.

Brown's concluding paragraph illustrates the dafter side of even the most 
renowned scholars:

 >>> When did cocks normally crow at this time of the year? It is humorous 
to think of scholars sitting up at night in 20th-cent. Jerusalem listening 
for cocks to crow, but that has been done! M. J. Lagrange experienced the 
earliest cockcrow in April at 2:30 A.M., with most of the cries coming 
between 3:00 and 5:00 A.M.<<<

and he ends by drily remarking:
 >>Despite all this, Cicero (De Divinatione 2.26.56) may well be right: "Is 
there any time, night or day, that cocks do not crow?" The evangelists are 
imagining the early hours of the morning before dawn; nothing more definite 
can be concluded. <<

Regards


Maurice A. O'Sullivan  [ Bray, Ireland ]
mauros at iol.ie




More information about the B-Greek mailing list