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T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
February, 1939
"Before the Cock Crow Twice"
By ALVA J. M cCLA IN * Akron, Ohio
E VER since God gave the Scriptures, perfect as they are, men have been discovering difficulties in them. Many of these difficulties have been largely imaginary, and have vanished before a sin cere and devout study. Others have been very real and stubbornly have resisted the attempts to explain and solve them. Infi delity has made a great deal over these problems, and often Christian believers have been quite disturbed because of an inability to solve them. When I first became a Christian, these things disturbed me not a little. It was not that I have ever doubted the infallibility of the Word. But when I found an appar ent contradiction, I felt that it had to be solved immediately for my own comfort. Thus when a new problem was discovered in my reading of the Bible, I scarcely would sleep until I had a solution which seemed adequate. As I look back now, I have no doubt that my feeling was providentially used of God to urge me on in searching His Word. Today I have come to face these matters more composedly. I still search the Word. In fact, this practice has now become a habit. But the discovery of an apparent discrepancy or any other problem, I con fess, disturbs me not at all. In the' few years of my study, I have seen so many of these alleged problems disappear in the light of more complete knowledge that I have become confident that all of them will be solved when we know enough about the Book, its interpretation, and the universe of which it speaks. It is only in our younger and rasher days that we fear for “the ark of God.” As the years pass, we come to re gard the Bible as an old and trusted friend whose words we may firmly believe even though we may not fully understand them at the moment. W e may still bestir our selves to “beat off attacks,” as Sir Robert Anderson puts the matter, but we have no inner fears as to the outcome. “For ever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven”! The Problem One of the Biblical problems with which not a few Christians have wrestled is that which involves the denials of Peter and the crowing of the cock. The records include both our Lord’s prophecy of these events and the narrative of their fulfillment. All four Gospel writers agree as to the prophecy of a threefold denial (Mk. 14: 30; Matt. 26:34; Lk. 22:34; John 13:38). Matthew, Mark, and Luke record three de nials in the fulfillment (Matt. 26:70-74; Mk. 14:68-72; Lk. 22:57-60). John records but ■two (John 18:25-27). This variation, how ever, does not involve any necessary con tradiction. John does not say there were only two, though he mentions but two. * President, Grace Theological Seminary.
thing which is not there. Suppose that two men today were predicting an event which would take place before three o’clock in the morning. One might say the event would occur “before the clock strikes the hour o f three.” The other might conceiv ably place it before “the clock strikes three times.” The first man would be thinking merely of the hour of the event, while the other might be interested in both the exact hour and also the number of times the clock struck to indicate that hour. Thus, Matthew, Luke, and John tell us that Peter's denials took place before the end of the third watch called “cockcrow ing” and which was not ended until the cocks had finished crowing. But Mark describes the event more minutely, declar ing that Peter had finished three denials be fore the cock had crowed twice. All the former three writers had to do, in order to fulfill their apparent purpose, was to record the denials and then point out that they were followed by the cock crowing. In their accounts, it would not mat ter whether it was the first, second, or tenth time the cock sounded, just so the three de nials were finished before the cock finished crowing. As long as the cocks were sound ing, popularly the third watch was not ended. I am not an expert in law, but I believe that if a man should guarantee to finish a certain piece of work before the clock strikes twelve, the law would regard him as having fulfilled his promise if he finished the task before the final stroke of twelve. No Contradictions There is no contradiction between the Gospel writers. The difficulties arise be cause one writer fills in details omitted by the others. These very problems demon strate that in the four Gospels we have four independent accounts by independent in vestigators and eye-witnesses. If they had sat down to invent the story of the gospel, such apparent difficulties would have been eliminated in advance. But the Gospel writers set out to make a record of historical events, each guided by a certain definite purpose of God, and according to this pur pose each selected or omitted details. They were historians, not harmonizers. Personally, I am convinced that some of the problems in the four Gospels will never be completely solved until we stand in the presence of the Lord Himself and hear from His own lips an account of many things which the Gospel writers were led of the Holy Spirit to leave out If you do not believe there are some things left un recorded, read John 21:24, 25. In the meantime let us not forget that we have enough in Scripture to make us wise unto salvation which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. What more could we ask?
The real problem has to do with the num ber of times the cock crowed, and also the exact time of his crowing in relation to the denials of Peter. Matthew, Luke, and John describe the denials and then tell us that "straightway” (Matthew and John, R. V .) or "immediately" (Luke) the “cock crew." They say nothing about how many times the cock sounded. But Mark mentions two cock-crowings in both the prophecy and its fulfillment, putting the first after the first denial and the second after the last denial. W e come now to the crux of the supposed problem: Mark 14:30—“Before the cock crow twice, thou shalt deny me thrice.” Matthew 26:34—"Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice." Luke 22:34, R. V.—-“The cock shall not crow this day, until thou shalt thrice deny that thou knowest me.” John 13:38—“The cock shall not crow, till thou hast denied me thrice.” To put the matter in a sentence: Mark very definitely in the record of fulfillment (14:68) puts one cock-crowing before the last two denials. The other three Gospels seem to say that the cock would not crow at all until after the thrice-repeated denial. The Possible Solution As usual the solution is found in the Bible itself. In Mark 13:35 we read, “Watch ye therefore : for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at mid night, or at the COCKCROW ING , or in the morning.” We have here the popular names for the four watches of the night which the Jews had adopted after Pom- pey’s conquest. You will recall that Christ came to the disciples during the storm about the “fourth watch of the night.” Just as the second watch took its name from the time it ended at "midnight,” so the third watch took its name from the time it ended, called popularly “the cockcrowing,” be cause the crowing of the cocks took place at about this time. Now when Mark says "before the cock crow twice,” he refers to exactly the same time that is in the minds of the other three writers when they write "before the cock crow,” namely, before the end of that watch which closed with the crowing of the cocks. The only difference is that Mark has caught a detail which the others pass over, that is, the number of times the cock would crow on this particular morning. The other three make no attempt to relate how many times the cock crowed. They do not say, as some seem to assume, "before the cock crows once,” but simply make the gen eral statement, “before the cock crows,” having in mind not the number of times, but the period o f cockcrowing which marked the end of the third watch. W e have a tendency to read into the records of Matthew, Luke, and John, some
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