Bible animals

by J. G. Wood

Now the word which is here rendered as "fatted fowl" is in the Hebrew, barberim. Judging by the etymology of the word, which is derived from a root that signifies whiteness, or purity, it has been thought that the correct rendering would be "fattened white" (birds). Some Hebraists have conjectured that the white birds in question were geese, this term including various white birds, swans among the number.

Many persons think that the fatted fowl mentioned in the above-quoted passage were really Domestic Fowl, which Solomon had introduced into Palestine, together with various other birds and animals, by means of his fleet. There may be truth in this conjecture, but, as there can be no certainty, we will pass from the Old Testament to the New.

THE DOMESTIC FOWL.

"As a hen doth gather her brood under her wings."—Luke xiii. 34.

We are all familiar with the passages in which the Domestic Fowl is mentioned in the New Testament. There is, for example, that touching image employed by our Lord when lamenting over Jerusalem: "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not!" The reference is evidently made to the Domesticated Fowl, which in the time of our Lord was largely bred in the Holy Land.

Some writers have taken objection to this statement in consequence of a Rabbinical law which prohibited poultry from being kept within the walls of Jerusalem, lest in their search for food they should scratch up any impurity which had been buried, and so defile the holy city. But it must be remembered that in the time of Christ Jerusalem belonged practically to the Romans, who held it with a garrison, and who, together with other foreigners, would not trouble themselves about any such prohibition, which would seem to them, as it does to us, exceedingly puerile, not to say unjustifiable. Whether the Jews obeyed or disregarded the prohibition, it is evident that it would have been binding on the Jews alone, and that all Gentiles were exempt from it. Some commentators have even thought that the Domestic Fowl was not known in Palestine until imported by the Romans.

That the bird was common in the days of our Lord is evident from the reference to the "cock-crowing" as a measure of time.

Even on this subject there has been much controversy, some persons thinking that the words are to be understood in their literal sense, and others that they are merely metaphorical, and refer to the divisions of time under the Romans, which were marked by the blowing of trumpets, conventionally termed cock-crowings. There is, however, no necessity to search for a metaphorical meaning when the literal interpretation is clear and intelligible. At the present day, as in all probability in the time of our Lord, the crowing of the cocks is employed as a means of reckoning time during the night, the birds crowing at certain hours with almost mechanical regularity.