Before the Cock Crowed

Jesus Christ famously predicted that Peter would deny him three times before the cock crowed (Mat. 26:34; KJV). What did He mean by this expression? The answer reveals itself once we learn the Bible’s methods of keeping time. In fact, a few other mysteries may resolve themselves as well.

Let’s back up a bit to get the whole picture.

In Bible days, centuries before the widespread use of mechanical clocks, people told time by the sun and other heavenly bodies, for God had set them up at Creation as a giant clock (Gen. 1:14). Over the centuries, the ancients built various devices to help, especially sundials, one of which the Bible mentions in the days of King Hezekiah (2 Kings 20:11).

Although it’s certainly possible that the Israelites always divided the day into hours, the Old Testament doesn’t mention it. Instead, it mentions three distinct periods of daylight: morning (mentioned frequently), the heat of the day (Gen. 18:1, 1 Sam. 11:11, 2 Sam. 4:5), and evening or afternoon (Jer. 6:4, Judg. 19:8), when the shadows are beginning to stretch out. 

Jer. 6:4-5 says, “Prepare war against her; arise, and let us go up at noon. Woe to us, for the day goes away, for the shadows of the evening are lengthening. Arise, and let us go by night, and let us destroy her palaces.” The only mention of “afternoon” in the NKJV is in Judg. 19:8, where the Hebrew phrase yom nata (Strong’s #H3117 and #H5186) literally means “stretching out of the day.” Again, this is evening, when the sun declines and the shadows lengthen. There is no “afternoon” in the Bible; evening, when the shadows are lengthening, corresponds to our “afternoon.”

The Israelites divided the night into three watches: the first watch or evening watch (Lam. 2:19), the middle watch (Judg. 7:19), and the morning watch (Ex. 14:24, 1 Sam. 11:11). In the middle watch, Gideon and his army attacked the Midianites (Judg. 7:19-22). The morning watch is noteworthy as the time when God destroyed the Egyptian army in the Red Sea (Ex. 14:24-27).

God’s Word sometimes mentions “morning” without distinguishing between the last hours of the night (morning watch) and the first hours after sunrise (morning). For example, Ruth rose early in the morning, but it was so long before sunrise and still so dark that it was “before one could recognize another” (Ruth 3:14). In another example, Jesus Christ rose in the morning, “a long while before daylight” (Mark 1:35). In both examples, “morning” would have been the morning watch.

In Jesus’ days, the Jews divided the daylight into twelve hours, beginning with sunrise and ending with sunset (John 11:9; Mat. 20:1-16). Jesus Himself said, “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. But if one walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him” (John 11:9-10). The last few hours of the day were still called evening, for Jesus died and was buried during the evening (Mat. 27:57) but before sunset (Luke 23:52-54).

The Romans posted four watches during the night, all of which Jesus mentioned in Mark 13:35: the evening watch, the midnight watch, the cock-crowing watch, and the morning watch. It was during the morning watch, the fourth watch, that Jesus walked on the Sea of Galilee (Mat. 14:25; Mark 6:48). 

The cock-crowing watch, then, was the third watch of the night. Peter’s denial of Jesus had nothing to do with roosters, but simply happened before the third watch.

Just as “morning” was both the last hours of the night and the first hours of the day, so “evening” was both the last hours of the day and the first hours of the night. This is why the Bible mentions two evenings and uses the phrase “between the two evenings.” But that’s a topic for another day!

Based on the Scriptures above, you’ll find diagrams below of timekeeping in the Old Testament (top) and the New Testament (bottom).