The Church of St.Peter in Galligantu.

 6^th May,2006

We visited the above mentioned church which was rebuilt in 1930’s for the Assumptionist Fathers. It is believed that the house of the High Priest ‘Caiaphas once stood there. As the ancient foundation stones of a Byzantine church was unearthed. Under this church are series of cellars, cisterns cut out of solid rocks. It is possible that they were once used by the Romans as prisons. It is also known as the ‘Church of St. Peter at the crowing of the cock’.

phas once stood there. As the ancient foundation stones of a Byzantine church was unearthed. Under this church are series of cellars, cisterns cut out of solid rocks. It is possible that they were once used by the Romans as prisons. It is also known as the ‘Church of St. Peter at the crowing of the cock’.

Church of St. Peter in Galligantu (bronze statues of Roman soldiers)

Interior of the church/the altar

The Cellar underneath the church

Mk 14:66-72 Peter’s Denial of Jesus (NAB). While Peter was below in the courtyard, one of the high priest’s maids came along. Seeing Peter warming himself, she looked intently at him at him and said, “You too were with the Nazarene, Jesus. But he denied it saying, “I neither know nor understand what you are talking about.” So he went out into the outer court. (Then the cock crowed.) The maid saw him and began again to say to the bystanders, “This man is one of them” Once again he denied it. A little later the bystanders said to Peter once more, surely you are a Galilean”. He began to curse and swear, “I do not know this man about whom you are talking. And immediately a cock crowed a second time. Then Peter remembered the word that Jesus had said to him, “Before the cock crows twice you will deny me three times.” He broke down and wept.

In (Jn 18: 27) ‘Again Peter denied it. And immediately the cock crowed.

*Footnote: 18,27 Cockcrow was the third Roman division of the night, lasting from midnight to 3am.

The division of four quarters of 3 hours each for the night watch and the same for the daylight hours. The announcing of by sounding of trumpet blasts by the Roman guards. This military tradition still practice to present times as buglers blow the ‘morning call’, the ‘Last Post’ for the lowering of the flag at sunset.

Mk 13:35 Watch, therefore; you do not know when the Lord of the house is coming, whether in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning.

Remember clocks has not been invented then and time was calculated accordingly by measuring of the rising and setting of the sun. A complete day began with the setting of the sun, from the preceding night. Daylight has 12 hours as quoted by Jesus in Jn 11:9 “Are there not twelve hours in a day? That is to say from sunrise 6.00am to sunset 6.00pm. In Genesis 1:6, ‘God called the light ‘Day’ and the darkness he called ‘night’. Thus evening came and morning followed – the first day.’

Day

Descriptions as found in Bible passages pertaining to time.

1^st hour: sunrise 6.00 am – (until 9.00am) sometimes called “early in the day” (Mk 16:9) 3^rd hour: 9.00 – 12,00am (Mk 14:25) It was nine o’clock in the morning when they crucified him. 6^th hour: 12,00am -3.00pm. (Mk 15:33) At noon darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, also mentioned in (Matt 27:45) 9^th hour: 3.00pm – 6.00pm (Matt 27:46) And about three o’clock Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?. Which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? 10^th hour: 4.00pm (Jn 1:39) He said to them, “Come, and you will see.” So they went and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day. It was about four in the afternoon. 11^th hour: 5.00pm (Matt 20:6) Going out about five o’clock, he found others standing around, and said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’

Night (hour of darkness)

The ‘night’ is divided into 4 ‘watches’ as below:- 1^st watch in the ‘evening’ from 6.00pm – 9,00pm 2^nd watch ‘midnight’ from 9.00pm – 12,00pm 3^rd watch ‘cockcrow’ from 12.00 mn – 3,00am 4^th watch ‘dawn’ from 3,00 – 6.00am

So was there a cockerel in the high priest courtyard? or was it a figure or style of speech at that era pertaining to a division of time.