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

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 October 2025

ULRICH GROETSCH*
Affiliation:
University of North Alabama

Abstract

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.

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Type
Research Article
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

Drafts and earlier versions of this article were presented at the 10th Annual Meeting on Christian Origins of the Italian Centre for Advanced Studies on Religions in October 2024, and at the Gotha Research Centre in June 2025. I am grateful to the librarians and staff of Collier Library at the University of North Alabama, who patiently responded to my queries and tirelessly fulfilled my requests – most notably Hunter Tinsley, Baylee Smith and Leigh Thompson Stanfield. I have also benefitted from the insights of friends and colleagues, including Miriam Benfatto, Asaph Ben-Tov and Sarah Franklin. Last but not least, I wish to thank the anonymous reviewer of this Journal for their encouraging and constructive comments.

References

1 Mare, W. Harold, The archaeology of the Jerusalem area, Grand Rapids, Mi 1987, 168–71Google Scholar; Smith, Mark D., The final days of Jesus: the thrill of defeat, the agony of victory: a classical historian explores Jesus’s arrest, trial, and execution, Cambridge 2018, 101–3Google Scholar; Broshi, Magen, ‘Excavations in the house of Caiaphas’, in Yabin, Yagel (ed.), Jerusalem revealed: archaeology in the Holy City, 1968–1974, New Haven, Ct 1976, 5760 Google Scholar.

2 Johnson, Inger Helene, ‘Reflections on the denial of the Apostle Peter – from the “Commodilla Master” to Rembrandt’, Det Kongelige Norske Videnskabers Selskab viii (1976), 130 Google Scholar; Hunter, Jefferson, ‘Three versions of Peter’s denial’, The Hudson Review xxxiii/1 (1980), 3957 10.2307/3850713CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Nicolson, Benedict, ‘Gerard Seghers and the “Denial of St Peter”’, Burlington Magazine 113/819 (1971), 304–9Google Scholar; Schmied, Wieland, Ochs und Esel und andere Tiere der Bibel. Meisterwerke der europäischen Malerei, Stuttgart 2011, 130–4Google Scholar.

3 See, for instance, Grabow, Eva, Der Hahn, Haustier oder Dämon? Studien zu griechischen Vasenbildern, Münster 2015 Google Scholar. More generally see Annie Potts, Chicken, London 2012, and Lawler, Andrew, Why did the chicken cross the world? The epic saga of the bird that powers civilization, New York 2014 Google Scholar.

4 Critici sacri sive annotata doctissimorum virorum in Vetus ac Novum Testamentum, Amsterdam 1698. By far the best comprehensive treatment of this era is Hardy, Nicholas, Criticism and confession: the Bible in the seventeenth-century republic of letters, Oxford 2017 Google Scholar. See also van Miert, Dirk, The emancipation of biblical philology in the Dutch Republic, 1590–1670, New York 2018 10.1093/oso/9780198803935.001.0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

5 Groetsch, Ulrich, ‘Digging without dirt: Adriaan Reland’s explorations of the Holy Land’, in Jaski, Bart, Lange, Christian, Pytlowany, Anna and van Rinsum, Henk J. (eds), The Orient in Utrecht: Adriaan Reland (1676–1718), Arabist, cartographer, antiquarian and scholar of comparative religion, Leiden 2021, 180 Google Scholar; Döring, Detlef, ‘Universitätsprofessoren um 1700 an den protestantischen Universitäten im Reich und ihr Anteil an der Entwicklung der modernen Wissenschaften’, in Bahlcke, Joachim and Garloff, Mona (eds), Studien zur Wissenschafts- und Bildungsgeschichte in Deutschland um 1700: Gelehrte Sozietäten – Universitäten – Höfe und Schulen, Wiesbaden 2015, 75–810.2307/j.ctvc16rrc.8CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Euler, Friedrich Wilhelm, ‘Entstehung und Entwicklung deutscher Gelehrtengeschlechter’, in Rössler, Helmut and Franz, Günther (eds), Universität und Gelehrtenstand, 1400–1800, Limburg/Lahn 1970, 183232 Google Scholar.

6 More generally, on the enterprise of New Testament scholarship utilising Rabbinic sources, see van Boxel, Piet and others (eds), The Mishnaic moment: Jewish law among Jews and Christians in early modern Europe, New York 2022 10.1093/oso/9780192898906.001.0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

7 See Newton E. Key, ‘Lightfoot, John (1602–1675)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, at <http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/16648>. See also Macfarlane, Kirsten, ‘John Lightfoot (1602–1675), the Westminster Assembly, and the Horae Hebraicae et Talmudicae ’, Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies liii/1 (2023), 87116 10.1215/10829636-10189029CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

8 The Mishnah: a new translation, ed. and trans. Jacob Neusner, New Haven, Ct 1988, 519. On roosters in rabbinic literature see Schochet, Elija Judah, Animal life in Jewish tradition: attitudes and relationships, New York 1984, 93–5Google Scholar, 125–6.

9 ‘Quoniam modo & praetextu cum Canone sit dispensatum, non disputamus; aderant certe galli gallinacei Hierosolymis aeque ac alibi. Et memorabilis est historia de gallo, ex sententia Synhedrii lapidato ob interfectum ab eo puerulum. Hieros. Erubhin fol. 26.I.’: Lightfoot, John, Horae hebraicae et talmudicae. impensae, I: In chorographiam adiquam terrae Israeliticae; II: In Evangelium S. Matthaei, Cambridge 1658, 302 Google Scholar.

10 ‘Controversia: de cantu galli gallinacci in aedibus pontificis non admittendo. primam ansam fecit Judaeus Amstelodamensis, vir doctus, rituum ac traditionum Judaicarum rigidissimus observator, religionis autem nostrae insensissimus hostis. Hic pro suo in sanctissimam doctrinam nostram livore, productam iam olim legem Judaicam de gallinaceis Hierosolymis non alendis non tantum recoxit, sed etiam variis fabulam anilem redolentibus figmentis ita exornavit, ut inde plurimis historiam Novi Foederis suspectam redderet. Hoc vero potissimum pugnabat argumento, quod Christiani equidem ad explanandam sacram scripturam V. & N. Testamenti scriptis Talmudicis & Rabbinicis uterentur, quoties ad rem nostram aut explanandam aut firmandam conducerent, in aliis autem rebus Christianos eandem illam auctoritatem Judaicam deprimerent & abjicerent; nostrum ergo esse, agnitam nobis illam veterum Judaeorum auctoritatem aut ubique spernere, aut vero debitam in rebus ritus Judaicos concernentibus fidem adhibere. Ut ergo Christianorum hac in re candorem suspectum redderet, citabat jam memoratam legem, quam eiusdem ponderis cum reliquis clamabat, quarum praesidio saepius contra Judaeos ipsos uteremur’: Altmann, Johann Georg, ‘Dissertatio de buccinatore vel cornicine stationario Hierosolymis a Petro in aedibus pontificis audito’, Tempe Helvetica iv/1, Zurich 1739, 45 Google Scholar.

11 ‘Haec etiam moverunt virum eruditissimum Hadrianum Relandum, ut in publica oratione, de cantu galli Hierosolymis audito, Judaeorum sententiam excuteret, et ad motas difficultates responderet, quae etiam prodiit Trajecti ad Rhenum 1708’: ibid. 5. See Adriaan Reland, Oratio de cantu Hierosolymis audito, habita publice in Academia Trajectina, Rotterdam 1719. On Reland as a Hebraist see Groetsch, ‘Digging without dirt’, 173–218.

12 ‘Multi sacrum codicem et legerunt et commentariis illustrarunt, quibus id nec mirandum adeo nec animadversione dignum videbatur, galli cantu Hierosolymis auditum fuisse …. Qua opera et lux aliqua inferetur sacris tabulis, et veritas rerum iis contentarum adversus Christiani nominis hostes firmabitur … Urbem Hierosolymam prae universo terrarum orbe a summe numine destinatam olim cultui Levitico ac solemnibus populi Judaici ceremoniis fuisse, et singulari sanctitate praeditam, res est notissima … Nonum, ad quod attendere vos volo, quum quaestionem, quae nunc in manibus est, maxime faciat, nullos in ea gallos nutriri … Quippe in eo legitur gallum, qui rostrum puero in caput infixerat, lapidibus obrutum fuisse Hierosolymis’: Reland, Oratio, 5.

13 See M. Tamid 1.1–2; ‘Ego vero numquam mihi persuadere potui pulcherrimum illum sacrorum ordinem, qui tanta cum diligentia observabatur, a re tam lubrica et incerta, ac galli cantus est, fuisse suspensum. Quid enim, si contingeret gallum non cecinisse, ideone nec sacerdotes nec Levitas tempore legitimo sacris operatos credemus?’: Reland, Oratio, 11.

14 ‘Primo, voci Hebraea גבר, quae Latine reddita gallum significat, etiam haud vim subesse, ut virum notare possit. Et profecto inter ipsos Hebraeorum doctores inveniuntur, qui omnibus illis locis, quae commemoravimus, ea verba non per cantum galli, sed clamorem viri exprimenda esse contendunt. In ipsa Gemara, ut pateat hanc opinionem novam non esse aut recentem, haec verba קרא הגבר explanari videmus per illa כרז כרוזא clamavit praeco. Sic ut putent virum aliquem fuisse, qui id habuerit muneris, ut voce sua admoneret sacerdotes appropinquantis aurorae, quique fortasse etiam a similitudine quadam, quae illi hac parte cum gallo erat, galli nomen invenerit. Firmat hanc sententiam praefectum portis atrii aperiendis nomine בן גבר, filii galli esse nuncupatum, uti liquet ex codice, in quo agitur de siclis’: Reland, Oratio, 13.

15 ‘Mihi tamen, ut verum fatear, non placet haec responsio. Quamvis enim inficiari non possem vocem גבר virum quandoque significare, non tamen arbitror in iis, quae a me statim ex Talmude prolata sunt, hanc notionem illi esse subjectam. Si enim clamor viri intelligendus est, qui certo tempore mane audiebatur, quidni dicunt initium sacrorum factum esse, aut praefectum ad conclave, in quo sacerdotes errant, advenisse, simul ac vocem illius viri audiverant …? Quod tam dubio temporis intervallo circumscribi non debuisset, si ad vocem hominis isti negotio praefecti fuisset dirigendum … In Babylonico codice Joma dissuadentur iter susceptum ante cantum galli, קריאת הגבר, quo loco et secundus (cuius Marcus quoque meminit) et tertius cantus distincte commemorantur, quos diversis temporum intervallis galli edunt … Manifestum est, inquiunt, nullam fidem habendam esse patribus Talmudicis, quum gallos Hierosolymis fuisse negant. Contrarium enim docet historia mortis Christi et aperte indicat Petrum illic gallum cantantem audivisse’: ibid. 14–16.

16 Adriaan Reland, Palaestina ex monumentis veteribus, Utrecht 1714. See Groetsch, ‘Digging without dirt’, 188–97.

17 Juan Bautista Villalpando, In Ezechielem explanationes et apparatus urbis ac templi Hierosolymitani: commentariis et imaginibus illustratus opus tribus tomis distinctum, Rome 1596–1604. On Villalpando see, for instance, Kravtsov, Sergey R., ‘Juan Bautista Villalpando and sacred architecture in the seventeenth century’, Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians lxiv (2005), 312–3910.2307/25068167CrossRefGoogle Scholar; ‘Quacunque enim in regione urbis aedes pontifices maximi Cajaphae fuisse credantur, propiores certe fuerunt moenibus urbis, quam Asia Constantinopoli. Quod si in monte Zion eo loco fuerint sitae, qua eas collocat diligentissimus investigator antiquitatis Judaicae Villalpandus, qui triginta annos describendo templo et urbi Hierosolymitanae impendit, vix tribus stadiis a turri Hippico, ipsisque muris civitatis abfuerunt’: Reland, Oratio, 22.

18 ‘Quod si a moribus domesticis Romanorum ad disciplinam augurum nos transferamus, inde quoque aliquid peti potest, quod huic materiae lucem foeneratur. Romani bellicam rem administrari nisi auspicato noluerunt. Quapropter illi, qui ad provincias mittebantur, solebant, ut ubique auspiciis uti possent, pullos secum ferre caveae inclusos’: Reland, Oratio, 23–4.

19 ‘Ea erat conditio perditorum illorum temporum, ut hi ipsi inter Judaeos, quorum erat se gentes patrias et consuetudines tueri, reges nimirum, pontifices maximi et senatores, qui plerumque haec magna nomina nundinabantur, eas turpiter neglexerint. Scilicet illi, qui contra Dei ipsius voluntatem in homines rerum omnium rudes, sceleratos, nec ex legitima stirpe profectos pontificatum conferebant, qui circos et amphitheatra ad cursus et venationes in illa urbe, quam summum numen prae omnibus totius universi civitatibus suo cultui sacraverat, erigebant; qui incestis coniugiis et libidinibus se inquinabant, quibus denique nihil umquam nefas erat, dummodo potentiam aut opes consequerentur — illi (quis credat?) legem de non alendis in urbe gallinaceis sanctius observarunt?’: ibid. 23.

20 For an overview of these ‘heterodox’ figures see Groetsch, Ulrich, Hermann Samuel Reimarus (1694–1768): classicist, Hebraist, Enlightenment radical in disguise, Leiden 2015, 116–76Google Scholar; on La Peyrère see Pietsch, Andreas Nikolaus, Isaac La Peyrère: Bibelkritik, Philosemitismus und Patronage in der Gelehrtenrepublik des 17. Jahrhunderts, Berlin 2012 10.1515/9783110261813CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

21 Ulrich im Hof, ‘Hohe Schule–Akademie–Universität, 1528–1805–1834–1984’, in Scandola, Pietro and others (eds), Hochschulgeschichte Berns, 1528–1984: Zur 150-Jahr-Feier der Universität Bern 1984, Bern 1984, 2557 Google Scholar; Braun-Bucher, Barbara, ‘Die Hohen Schulen’, in Holenstein, André (ed), Berns mächtige Zeit: das 16. und 17. Jahrhundert neu entdeckt, Bern 2006, 274–80Google Scholar.

22 The most comprehensive biographical information available on Altmann is Ischer, Rudolf, Johann Georg Altmann (1695–1758): die Deutsche Gesellschaft und die moralischen Wochenschriften in Bern, Bern 1902 Google Scholar. For a more abbreviated version see Ischer, Rudolf, ‘Johann Georg Altmann. 1695–1758’, in Sammlung Bernischer Biographien, v, Bern 1904, 161–4Google Scholar.

23 See Ischer, Altmann: Gesellschaft, 4–34.

24 Altmann, Johann Georg, ‘Observatio philologica de gallicinio Hierosolymis in aedibus pontificis audito’, Bibliotheca historico-philologico-theologica v/2, Bremen 1721, 451–6Google Scholar.

25 ‘Ex his, ut spero, planum erit buccinatores saepius gallos vocari, rationem addit ὁ πανυ Casaubonus, in animadversionibus ad Athen. p. 200. Ion Chius inquit, tibiam et buccinam vocavit ἀλέκτορα isto versu. Ἐπὶ δ’ αὐλὸς ἀλέκτωρ Λύδιον ὕμνον Ἀχαιῶν. In promptu causa est: nam et gallus gallinaceus, et tibia cantu dormientes excitant’: ibid. 454–5. On Casaubon’s work as a biblical scholar and Christian Hebraist see Grafton, Anthony and Weinberg, Joanna, ‘I have always loved the holy tongue’: Isaac Casaubon, the Jews, and a forgotten chapter in Renaissance scholarship , Cambridge, Ma 2011 10.2307/j.ctv1bzfppsCrossRefGoogle Scholar.

26 ‘Notandum etiam vocem φωνὴν non gallinaceorum, sed hominum et buccinarum vel tubarum proprium esse’: Altmann, ‘Observatio philologica’, 455.

27 ‘Buccinam enim commitebant distinguebantque vigilias, unde boni scriptores ipsas vigilias buccinas appellant, ut ad primam, secundam, tertiam, quartam buccinam, id est, ad vigiliam. Ac minime probabile est post illam qua vigilia prima denunciabatur, iterum buccinam dixisse ante secundam vigiliam: vitabant enim tunc quicquic errori etiam minimo locum posset dare. Nemo discurrere per castra, nemo egredi temere tabernaculis’: Rabobus Schelius, Hygini Gromatici, et Polybii Megalopolitani, de castris Romanis, quae exstant, Amsterdam 1660, 192. See also ‘Schelius, Rabod Herman’, in Johann Heinrich Zedlers Grosses vollständiges Universal-Lexicon aller Wissenschafften und Künste, xxxiv, Leipzig–Halle 1742, 1188–9.

28 ‘Audivit vero Christo et Petrus hunc buccinatorem stationarium vel ad proximam turrim vigiliam committentem, nam ex Villalpandi aliorumque doctorum sententia domus Caiaphae, proxime adfixa erat parti antiquae urbis Jebusaeorum [sic], in monte Sioni, ubi perpetuae vigiliae habebantur, inde enim ad reliquam urbem latissimus patebat prospectus’: Altmann, ‘Observatio philologica’, 456.

29 On van der Hardt’s biblical criticism see, for instance, Mulsow, Martin, ‘The Bible as secular story: the Northern War and King Josias as interpreted by Hermann van der Hardt (1660–1746)’, in van Miert, Dirk and others (eds), Scriptural authority and biblical criticism in the Dutch Golden Age: God’s word questioned, New York 2017, 351–73Google Scholar.

30 Johann Christian Biel, Novus thesaurus philologicus; sive lexicon in LXX et alios interpretes et scriptores apocryphos Veteris Testamenti, ed. E. H. Mutzenbacher, The Hague 1779–80.

31 Idem, ‘De purpura Lydia ad illustrandum locum Act. XVI, 14. Dissertation’, Bibliotheca historico-philologico-theologica iii/3, Bremen 1719, 409–31Google Scholar.

32 ‘Animadversiones ad Jo. Georgii Altmanni de Lydia Thyatirensi et gallicinio Hierosolymis in aedibus pontificis audito observationes’, Bibliotheca historico-philologico-theologica vi/6, Bremen 1721, 1041–69.

33 ‘Quare, etiamsi Judaeis non licuerit gallos Hierosolymnis alere, hoc ad Romanos, quibus eo tempore Judaei paruerint, non pertinuisse. Metum non fuisse, si vel Pilatus, vel alius quispiam Romanorum gallos, in cavea inclusos, aluerit, inde cibos sacros Judaeorum immunditiem contracturos’: ibid. 1059.

34 ‘Atque adeo minus credibile esse, quod illi … legem de non alendis in urbe gallinaceis sanctius observasse’: ibid. 1060–1.

35 ‘Sicuti autem iam omnis difficultas, quam vulgaris sententia de gallo a Petro audito habere videbatur, evanuit, ita nova Altmanni explicatio pluribus et longe maioribus difficultatibus circumsepta est. Nam licet apud poetas quosdam ἀλέκτωρ de tibia usurpetur, tamen apud historicos et alios scriptores vox de illa non legitur. Non autem credibile est, quod, cum historici et rerum praesertim Romanarum scriptores buccinam et buccinatores aliis semper vocabulis exprimant, historici sacri, qui alias simplici ubique et plana dictione utuntur, soli improprie ita locuti sint, ut buccinatorem ἀλέκτορα vocaverint. Sane speciem quandam nova Altmanni explicatio haberet, si vel unicum ex historicis profanis locum produxisset, ubi ἀλέκτωρ buccinam vel buccinatorem significet’: ibid. 1064–5.

36 ‘Nam φωνὴν in genere significat sonum, qui ab aliquo in aere excitatur, et hinc speciatim tam de voce humana, quam de brutorum, imo et rerum inanimatarum voce usurpatur. Sic apud Alexandrinos interpretes φωνὴ, Hebr. קול respondens, tribuitur gregi et bobus 1 Sam. XV.14, leonibus Jer. II.15 … et, si res inanimatas spectemus … fluviis et aquis multis Ps. XCIII.3–4’: ibid. 1066.

37 ‘Non id esse illud vocabulum, quod adhibuit Servator lapsum praedicens Petri Matth. 26.34, Marc. 14.30, Luc. 22.34, Joh. 13.38, cum non Graeca lingua sed, ut probabile sit, dialecto Aramaea fuerit usus, quo successu ergo horum locorum explication ab ambigua Graecae vocis significatione deducatur, nemini, ut quidem puto, obscurum est’: ‘Αλεκτροφωνιας Evangelicae significatio genuine defense’, ibid. vi/5, Bremen 1721, 1071–2.

38 ‘Haud dubie enim prius demonstrandum fuisset auctori vel haberi in lingua, quam Christo vernaculam fuisse dicimus, verbum eiusdem cum Graeco homonymiae, vel adhibuisse servatorem tale vocabulum, quod buccinam vel buccinatorem praecise denotet, et si hoc, qui factum fuerit, ut omnes IV evangelista solo hoc verbo aequivoco neglectis ceteris clarioribus et propriis usi fuerint’: ibid. 1072.

39 ‘Et quod speciatim Taciti locum attinet Annal. L. XV.30, cur ab auctore adductus fuerit, divinare nequeo, non enim de vigiliis per stationes ebuccinandis ibi sermo est, sed de dimissione conviviorum, quae tuba fiebat, ex inspectione eius auctoris patet’: ibid. 1074.

40 ‘Confessus eorum feralis noctu itidem susceptus, quod alias nefas erat, ut docet ex Codice Sanhedrin cap. 4 Lightfootus ad Matth. cap. 2.7.1, quod certe non alio fine factum fuisse videtur, quam ut Christus, antequam proximus dies cruentum eorum consilium proderet, in hoc eorum confessu iudiciali ascites testibus blasphemiae convinceretur, facillime postea apud populum, quem demum postero die concitasse leguntur ad πραιτοριον confluentem, veniam et approbationem inventuros sese sperantes’: ibid. 1077.

41 ‘So sich nun die Anzahl dieser Schriften täglich wie das Unkraut auf dem Acker vermehret, so hat man sich nicht zu beschwehren, wo man hingegen trachtet, auch solche Bücher bekannt zu machen, dadurch die Gottseligkeit und der Wachsthum in der Erkanntniß kan gepflanzet werden, und die Pflicht der Knechten unsers Heylandes in seiner Kirche erfodert [sic] ohne Zweifel alles vorzukehren, damit das Licht die Geheimnisse der Gottseligkeit könne angezündet und vermehret werden’: Johann Georg Altmann, Sammlung auserlesener: Canzel-Reden, über wichtige Stücke der Lehre Jesu Christi, aus den Beyträgen gottesgelahrter Männer in der Schweitz an das Licht gestellt, und mit einer Vorrede versehen, i, Zurich 1741, ‘Vorrede’ (unpaginated).

42 In a later treatise entitled Larva Graeca detracta Georgio Altmanno (n.p., n.d.), the anonymous author defends the earlier anonymous attack on Altmann from nearly four decades prior. This treatise has been attributed to Nicolaus Engelhard (1696–?), who studied theology in Bern, likely alongside Altmann, and later became a professor of philosophy in Groningen. See ‘Engelhard, Nicolaus’, in Fortsetzung und Ergänzungen zu Christian Gottlieb Jöchers allgemeinem Gelehrten-Lexico, ii, Hildesheim 1960, 897–8.

43 Altmann, ‘Dissertatio de buccinatore’, 8–11.

44 ‘Cum ergo in aula Caiaphae esset cohors Romana, una cum centurione, facile est colligere, etiam vigilias ibi more Romano fuisse cornu ac buccina commistas … Altera autem haec est, quod Petrus hunc galli cantum ante mediam noctem finitam, qua galli ordinario nondum cantare solent, audiveri’: ibid. 12.

45 ‘Nec pugnat contra hanc nostram assertionem ipsa etymologia vocis ἀλέκτωρ, quae sua naturali significatione rem quamcunque homines ex lecto suscitantem denotat. Hinc Etymologus pag. 60: ῥηματικὸν ὄνομα ἀλέκτωρ ἀπὸ τῶν λέκτρων, τουτέστι τῶν κοιτῶν, ἡμᾶς διεγείρων. Τοῦ ἀλέκτωρ rem ipsam denotat, quia ex lecto suscitat dormientes’: ibid. 16.

46 Aristophanes, Wasps, lines 100–3.

47 Altmann, ‘Dissertatio de buccinatore’, 17–19.

48 ‘Immo communi nomine hoc hominum genus Aeneatorum nomine veniebat, cuius rei testes sunt lapides antiqui, apud Gruterum in Corp. inscriptionum, p. 264’: ibid. 26.

49 ‘Iterum ergo dicendum est, quod cornicen Romanus in aula Caiaphae non ante cantaverit, quam milites stationarii ibi essent constituti. Ibi autem illos, adducto demum Christo, media nocte iam iam appropinquante, excubias agere incepisse, manifestum est. Et exinde nemo non concludet, quod cornicen signum dimittendorum militum tempore mediae noctis edens, referendus sit ad primum illud signum monitorium Petro praedictum, vel si mavis ad primum gallicinium a Petro auditum’: ibid. 29.

50 Larva Graeca detracta Georgio Altmanno: eiusque buccinator Romanus ex historia passionis dominicae expulsus, n.d.

51 ‘At boni illi patres praeceptore Altmanno indiguerunt, qui ipsos docere potuissent, et rectius sentire de genio linguae Graecae et rectius scriber’: ibid. 7.

52 ‘Cum enim historiam veri gallicinii apud evangelistas obviam tam audacter neget Altmannus, ut in praefatione haud erubescat sententiam totius ecclesiae Christianae ioco excipere, ipso glacie Scythica frigidiore’: ibid. 13.

53 ‘Cur vero Altmannus non unico saltem testimonio probavit, primo auctores, qui de militia Romana Graece scripserunt, cornicini vel buccinatori hoc nomen vel semel imposuisse; deinde substantivum ἀλέκτωρ pro buccinatore sumptum cum verbo φωνέω umquam construxisse’: ibid. 34.

54 ‘At, inquit Altmannus, centurio adfuit in aedibus Caiaphae: sit ita, quid inde? fieri ergo potuit, ut Petrus, accentum huius centurionis audiverit. Hic vero iterum rogamus Altmannum, quis auctor umquam eiusmodi accentum ἀλεκτρυών aut ἀλέκτωρ appellaverit?’: ibid. 36.

55 Ugolino, Blasius, Thesaurus antiquitatum sacrarum, xxvii, Venice 1763, 234 Google Scholar.

56 Much like today, the pressure to accelerate graduation rates led to a more condensed curriculum by the late eighteenth century, a trend lamented by the German Lutheran theologian Georg Lorenz Bauer (1755–1806): ‘Es ist zu beklagen, daß, wenn das Studium der hebr. Alterthümer vormals auf Universitäten mit zu großem Eifer ist getrieben worden, selbiges jetzt zu sehr vernachlässiget wird. Kaum findet man in den gewöhnlichen Lectionsverzeichnissen hie und da noch einen Lehrer, der sie auszubieten waget, und noch seltner mag der Fall seyn, daß sie wirklich gelehrt werden. Dieses rührt aber von der jetzigen Art des Studirens und besonders von der Art, wie man Theologie studirt, her. In zwey oder höchstens drey Jahren will der studirende Jüngling seinen cursum absolviren’: Kurzes Lehrbuch der hebräischen Alterthümer des Alten und Neuen Testaments, Leipzig 1797, iii.

57 Adriaan Reland, Antiquitates sacrae veterum Hebraeorum, Utrecht 1708; Groetsch, ‘Digging without dirt’, 197–208.

58 Siegfried, Simonis, Johann’, in Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie xxxiv (1892), 379–80Google Scholar, at <https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/pnd100409067.html#adbcontent>.

59 Simonis, Johann, Vorlesungen über die jüdischen Alterthümer nach Anleitung Hadr. Relands Antiquitatum sacr. veterum Hebraeorum, ed. Mursinna, Samuel, Halle 1769, 3941 Google Scholar.

60 See Mulsow, Martin, Radikale Frühaufklärung in Deutschland, 1680–1720, I: Moderne aus dem Untergrund , Göttingen 2018, 143–94Google Scholar.

61 On Reimarus see Groetsch, Reimarus; on Edelmann see Schaper, Annegret, Ein langer Abschied vom Christentum: Johann Christian Edelmann (1698–1767) und die deutsche Frühaufklärung, Marburg 1996 Google Scholar.

62 Wright, Walter L. Jr., ‘English, George Bethune’, in Dictionary of American Biography iii, New York 1929, 165 Google Scholar.

63 George Bethune English, The grounds of Christianity examined, in Richard Popkin (ed.), Disputing Christianity: the 400-year-old debate over Rabbi Isaac ben Abraham of Troki’s classic arguments, intr. and pref. Jeremy Popkin, New York 2007, 181–2. On the anti-Christian tractate of Isaac ben Avraham of Troki see Benfatto, Miriam, Gesù frainteso: la polemica ebraica anticristiana nel ‘Sefer ḥizzuq emunah’ di Yiṣḥaq ben Avraham Troqi (c. 1533–1594), Rome 2022 Google Scholar.