Another opinion prevails regarding the signal to which the four Evangelists allude in connection with Peter's denial of our Lord. It is held that it was the voice of the trumpet which announced the closing of one watch and the beginning of an other.
In our Lord's time the Jews had adopted the Roman division of time by which the night was measured with four watches; these were some times designated by the terms, "even, midnight, cock-crowing, and morning" (see Mark xiii:35)• Jerusalem being at that time a Roman military station, the placing and relieving of the guard was in force, and the changes of the watch were indicated at regular intervals by the sounding of a trumpet.
The first watch was from six until nine, the second from nine until twelve, the third from twelve until three, the fourth from three until six in the morning. The third watch, which terminated at three in the morning, was signaled at its close by three peals of the trumpet with a little interval between them, and this threefold signal was termed by the Romans. gallicinium.
A recognition of this fact explains the apparent discrepancy between Mark and the other Evangel ists, three of whom speak only of the cock crow, including in that term the whole of the threefold signal, while Mark, who is more explicit, speaks of two of these trumpet peals belonging to the close of the third watch of the night (Mark xiv :68-72).
That this cock-crowing could not have been the voice of the barnyard fowl is evident from a consideration of the above facts, and also in view of the testimony of the Talmud to the effect that neither the pl icsthood nor the laymen were allowed to keep hens in Jerusalem.
The priests who ate of holy things were not al lowed to raise them anywhere in Palestine, but the common people could keep them outside the Holy City. This was not because the fowls were considered unclean and therefore unfit for food. They could be eaten, and could be brought into the city after they were dressed ; but the commen tators upon the Talmud explain the interdiction as follows: "They do not breed cocks and hens in Jerusalem because of the holy things—that is, these fowls by scratching are continually bringing up insects, and reptiles which are unclean, by which the sacrifices which are eaten as food might be polluted." (See .11ishna, Baba Kama, vii:7).
E. A. R.