Early Modern Philology, Scriptural Authority and the Enigma of the Cock’s Crow

This article explores the early modern scholarly debate over the cock’s crow in the New Testament account of Peter’s denial, focusing on theologians and savants such as Johann Georg Altmann (1697–1758), John Lightfoot (1602–75) and Adriaan Reland (1676–1718). What began as a narrow philological puzzle, whether the text referred to a rooster or a human herald, expanded into a broader debate over scriptural authority. Set within the intellectual context of the republic of letters, the article shows how efforts to reconcile Scripture with ancient Jewish law and classical sources could unwittingly sow the seeds of doubt and unbelief.