The cock usually crows several times about midnight, and again about break of day. The latter time, because he then crows loudest, and his 'shrill clarion' is most useful by summoning man to his labors, obtained the appellation of the cockcrowing emphatically, and by way of eminence; though sometimes the distinctions of the first and second cockcrowing are met with in Jewish and heathen writers. These times, and these names for them, were, no doubt, some of the most ancient divisions of the night adopted in the East, where 'the bird of dawning' is most probably indigenous. In our Lord's time the Jews had evidently adopted the Greek and Roman division of the night into four periods, or watches; each consisting of three hours; the first beginning at six in the evening (;;; ).
It has been considered a contradiction that Matthew () records our Lord to have said to Peter, 'Before the cock crow thou shalt deny me thrice;' whereas St. Mark () says, 'Before the cock crow twice.' But Matthew, giving only the general sense of the admonition (as also; ), evidently alludes to that only which was customarily called the cockcrowing, but Mark, who wrote under Peter's inspection, more accurately recording the very words, mentions the two cockcrowings.
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John Kitto was an English biblical scholar of Cornish descent.Born in Plymouth, John Kitto was a sickly child, son of a Cornish stonemason. The drunkenness of his father and the poverty of his family meant that much of his childhood was spent in the workhouse. He had no more than three years of erratic and interrupted education. At the age of twelve John Kitto fell on his head from a rooftop, and became totally and permanently deaf. As a young man he suffered further tragedies, disappointments and much loneliness. His height was 4 ft 8 in, and his accident left him with an impaired sense of balance. He found consolation in browsing at bookstalls and reading any books that came his way.
From these hardships he was rescued by friends who became aware of his mental abilities and encouraged him to write topical articles for local newspapers, arranging eventually for him to work as an assistant in a local library. Here he continued to educate himself.
One of his benefactors was the Exeter dentist Anthony Norris Groves, who in 1824 offered him employment as a dental assistant. Living with the Groves family, Kitto was profoundly influenced by the practical Christian faith of his employer. In 1829 he accompanied Groves on his pioneering mission to Baghdad and served as tutor to Groves's two sons. In 1833 Kitto returned to England via Constantinople, accompanied by another member of the Groves mission, Francis William Newman. Shortly afterwards he married, and in due course had several children.
A London publisher asked Kitto to write up his travel journals for a series of articles in the Penny Magazine, a publication read at that time by a million people in Britain, reprinted in America and translated into French, German and Dutch. Other writing projects followed as readers enquired about his experiences in the East amidst people living in circumstances closely resembling those of Bible times.
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