poultry

• ghost cult origin of rooster on weather vane

87:6.11Ghosts were sup­posed to be dis­turbed and fright­ened by noise; shout­ing, bells, and drums drove them away from the liv­ing; and these an­cient meth­ods are still in vogue at “wakes” for the dead. Foul-smelling con­coc­tions were uti­lized to ban­ish un­wel­come spir­its. Hideous im­ages of the spir­its were con­structed so that they would flee in haste when they be­held them­selves. It was be­lieved that dogs could de­tect the ap­proach of ghosts, and that they gave warn­ing by howl­ing; that cocks would crow when they were near. The use of a cock as a weather vane is in per­pet­u­a­tion of this su­per­sti­tion.

• Jesus would gather brood like a hen

171:4.7Then turn­ing to his apos­tles, Je­sus said: “From olden times the proph­ets have per­ished in Je­ru­sa­lem, and it is only be­fit­ting that the Son of Man should go up to the city of the Fa­ther’s house to be of­fered up as the price of hu­man big­otry and as the re­sult of re­li­gious prej­u­dice and spir­i­tual blind­ness. O Je­ru­sa­lem, Je­ru­sa­lem, which kills the proph­ets and stones the teach­ers of truth! How of­ten would I have gath­ered your chil­dren to­gether even as a hen gath­ers her own brood un­der her wings, but you would not let me do it! Be­hold, your house is about to be left to you des­o­late! You will many times de­sire to see me, but you shall not. You will then seek but not find me.” And when he had spo­ken, he turned to those around him and said: “Nev­er­the­less, let us go up to Je­ru­sa­lem to at­tend the Pass­over and do that which be­comes us in ful­fill­ing the will of the Fa­ther in heaven.”

• Jesus would gather brood like a hen

175:1.23“O Je­ru­sa­lem and the chil­dren of Abra­ham, you who have stoned the proph­ets and killed the teach­ers that were sent to you, even now would I gather your chil­dren to­gether as a hen gath­ers her chick­ens un­der her wings, but you will not!

• cock did not crow until Peter denied Jesus

181:2.29As Pe­ter stood there be­fore his Mas­ter, all atrem­ble with in­tense emo­tion and over­flow­ing with gen­uine love for him, Je­sus looked straight into his moist­ened eyes as he said: “Pe­ter, ver­ily, ver­ily, I say to you, this night the cock will not crow un­til you have de­nied me three or four times. And thus what you have failed to learn from peace­ful as­so­ci­a­tion with me, you will learn through much trou­ble and many sor­rows. And af­ter you have re­ally learned this need­ful les­son, you should strengthen your breth­ren and go on liv­ing a life ded­i­cated to preach­ing this gospel, though you may fall into prison and, per­haps, fol­low me in pay­ing the su­preme price of lov­ing ser­vice in the build­ing of the Fa­ther’s king­dom.

• cock did not crow until Peter denied Jesus

184:2.8Pe­ter was so per­turbed that he sought to es­cape con­tact with his ac­cusers by go­ing away from the fire and re­main­ing by him­self on the porch. Af­ter more than an hour of this iso­la­tion, the gate-keeper and her sis­ter chanced to meet him, and both of them again teas­ingly charged him with be­ing a fol­lower of Je­sus. And again he de­nied the ac­cu­sa­tion. Just as he had once more de­nied all con­nec­tion with Je­sus, the cock crowed, and Pe­ter re­mem­bered the words of warn­ing spo­ken to him by his Mas­ter ear­lier that same night. As he stood there, heavy of heart and crushed with the sense of guilt, the palace doors opened, and the guards led Je­sus past on the way to Cai­a­phas. As the Mas­ter passed Pe­ter, he saw, by the light of the torches, the look of de­spair on the face of his for­mer self-con­fi­dent and su­per­fi­cially brave apos­tle, and he turned and looked upon Pe­ter. Pe­ter never for­got that look as long as he lived. It was such a glance of com­min­gled pity and love as mor­tal man had never be­held in the face of the Mas­ter.

• illegal to keep p. inside Jerusalem

184:2.10Pe­ter’s en­tire ex­pe­ri­ence oc­curred in the court­yard of the palace of An­nas on Mount Oli­vet. He did not fol­low Je­sus to the palace of the high priest, Cai­a­phas. That Pe­ter was brought to the re­al­iza­tion that he had re­peat­edly de­nied his Mas­ter by the crow­ing of a cock in­di­cates that this all oc­curred out­side of Je­ru­sa­lem since it was against the law to keep poul­try within the city proper.