Peacock
Peacock
Peacock. According to the KJV, Solomon imported peacocks from other nations for his royal courts in Israel (1Ki 10:22; 2Ch 9:21). A peacock, the male of the species, is about the size of a turkey, with feathers of brilliant blue, green, and purple. He parades in front of the female, spreading his train of gorgeous long plumes behind him like a huge fan. Some versions of the Bible translate this term as monkeys, peacocks, or baboons.
Fuente: Plants Animals Of Bible
Peacock
It is a question, perhaps, more of geographical and historical than of Biblical interest to decide whether . (tukkiyim; Sept. ; Vulg. parni. 1Ki 10:22, also written , 2Ch 9:21) denotes peacocks strictly so called, or some other species of animal or bird; for on the solution of the question in the affirmative depends the real direction of Solomon’s fleet; that is, whether, after passing the Strait of Bab-el-Mandeb, it proceeded along the east coast of Africa towards Sofala, or whether it turned eastward, ranging along the Arabian and Persian shores to the peninsula of India, and perhaps weirt onwards to Ceylon, and penetrated to the great Australian, or even to the Spice Islands. Bochart, unable to discover a Hebrew root in tukyim, rather arbitrarily proposes a transposition of letters by which he converts the word into Cuthyim, denoting, as he supposes, the country of the Cuthei, which, in an extended sense, is applied, in conformity with various writers of antiquity, to Media and Persia; and Greek authorities show that peacocks abounded in Babylonia, etc. (See AElian, Anim. 13:18; Curtius, 9:1, 13; Diod. Sic. 2:53. Peacocks are called Persian birds by Aristophanes, Aves, 484; see also Acharn. 63.)
This mode of proceeding to determine the species and the native country of the bird is altogether inadmissible, since Greek writers speak of Persian peacocks at a much later period than the age of Solomon; and it is well known that they were successively carried westward till they passed from the Greek islands into Europe, and that, as Juno’s birds the Romans gradually spread them to Gaul and Spain, where, however, they were not common until after the 10th century. They do not occur on the Assyrian or Egyptian monuments. But even if peacocks had been numerous in Media and Northern Persia at the time in question, how were they to be furnished to a fleet which was navigating the Indian Ocean, many degrees to the south of the colder region of High Asia? and as for the land of the Cuthei, or of Cush, when it serves their purpose writers remove it to Africa along with the migrations of the Cushites. The tukkyim have been presumed to derive their appellation from an exotic word implying tufted or crested, which, though true of the peacock, is not so obvious a character as that afforded by its splendid tail; and therefore a crested parrot has been supposed to be meant: so Hudt (Diss. de Nav. Psalms 7, 6) and one or two others. Parrots, though many species are indigenous in Africa, do not appear to have existed in ancient Egypt; they were unknown till the time of Alexander, and then both Greeks and Romans were acquainted only with species from Ceylon, destitute of crests, such as Psittacus Alexandri (see Antiphanes in Athen. 14:654; Horace, Sat. 2:2, 23; and esp. Bochart, Hieroz. 2:709 sq.); and the Romans for a long time received these only by way of Alexandria, though in the time of Pliny others became known. Keil (Diss. de Ophir, p. 104, and Comment. on 1Ki 10:22), with a view to support his theory that Tarshish is the old Phoenician Tartessus in Spain, derives the Hebrew name from Tucca, a town of Mauretania and Numidia, and concludes that the Aves Aumidicae (Guinea-fowls) are meant: which birds, however, in spite of their name, never existed in Numidia, nor within a thousand miles of that country. Again, the pheasant has been proposed as the bird intended; but Phas. Colchicus, the only species known in antiquity, is likewise without a prominent crest, and is a bird of the colder regions of the central range of Asiatic mountains. Following a line of latitude, it gradually reached westward to High Armenia and Colchis, whence it was first brought to Europe by Greek merchants, who frequented the early emporium on the Phasis. The center of existence of the genus, rich in splendid species, is in the woody region beneath the snowy peaks of the Himalayas, reaching also eastward to Northern China, where the common pheasant is abundant, but not, we believe, anywhere naturally in a low latitude. (Other interpretations are supported in Hase’s Biblioth. Brem. 2:468 sq.; Ugolino, Thesaur. vii.)
All versions and comments agree that after the Cebi or apes (probably Cercopithecus Eantellus, one of the sacred species of India), some kind of remarkable bird is meant; and none are more obviously entitled to the application of the name than the peacock, since it is abundant in the jungles of India, and would be met with, both wild and domesticated, by navigators to the coasts from Camboge to Ceylon, and would better than any of the others bear a long sea voyage in the crowded ships of antiquity. Moreover, we find it still denominated togei in the Malabaric dialects of the country, which may be the source of thuki, as well as of the Arabic tawas and Armenian taus. Gesenius (Thesaur. p. 1502) cites many authorities to prove that the tucci is to be traced to the Tamul or Malabaric toyei, peacock; which opinion has recently been confirmed by Sir E. Tennent (Ceylon, 2:102, and i, p. 20, 3d ed.), who says, It is very remarkable that the terms by which these articles (ivory, apes, and peacocks) are designated in the Hebrew Scriptures are identical with the Tamil names, by which some of them are called in Ceylon to the present day tukeyim may be recognized in tokei, the modern name for these birds. Thus Keil’s objection that this supposed togei is not vet itself sufficiently ascertained (Comment. on 1Ki 10:22) is satisfactorily met. With regard to the objection that the long ocellated feathers of the rump, and not those of the tail, as is commonly believed, are the most conspicuous object offered by this bird, it may be, answered that if the name togei be the original, it may not refer to a tuft, or may express both the erectile feathers on the head of a bird and those about the rump or the tail; and that those of the peacock have at all times been sought to form artificial crests for human ornaments. One other point remains to be considered, namely, whether the fleet went to the East, or proceeded southward along the African shore? No doubt, had the Phoenician trade guided the Hebrews in the last-mentioned direction, gold and apes might have been obtained on the east coast of Africa, and even some kinds of spices in the ports of Abyssinia; for all that region, as far as the Strait of Madagascar, was at that early period in a state of comparative affluence and civilization. But in that case a great part of the commercial produce would have been obtained within the borders of the Red Sea, and beyond the Strait; the distance to be traversed, therefore, being but partially affected by the monsoons, never could have required a period of three years for its accomplishment; and a prolonged voyage round the Cape to the Guinea and Gold Coast is an assumption so wild that it does not merit serious consideration; but intending to proceed to India, the fleet had to reach the Strait of Bab-el-Mandeb in time to take advantage of the western monsoon; be in port, perhaps at or near Bombay, before the change; and after the storms accompanying the change it had to proceed during the eastern monsoon under the lee of the land to Coodramalli, or the port of Palesimundus in Taprobana, on the east coast of Ceylon; thence to the Coromandel shore, perhaps to the site of the present ruins of Mahabalipuram; while the return voyage would again occupy one year and a half. The ports of India and Ceylon could furnish gold, precious stones, Eastern spices, and even Chinese wares; for the last fact is fully established by discoveries in very ancient Egyptian tombs. Silks, which are first mentioned in Pro 31:22, could not have come from Africa, and many articles of advanced and refined social life, not the produce of Egypt, could alone have been derived from India. SEE OPHIR.
Though in this short abstract of the arguments respecting the direction of Solomon’s fleet there may be errors, none, we believe, are of sufficient weight to impugn the general conclusion which supports the usual rendering of tukyim by peacocks; although the increase of species in the West does not appear to have been remarkable till some ages after the reign of the great Hebrew monarch, when the bird was dedicated to Juno, and reared at first in her temple at Samos. There are only two species of true peacocks, viz. that under consideration, which is the Pavo cristatus of Linn.; and another, Pavo Muticus, more recently discovered, which differs in some particulars, and originally belongs to Japan and China. Peacocks bear the cold of the Himalayas; they run with great swiftness, and where they are serpents do not abound, as they devour the young with great avidity, and, it is said, attack with spirit even the cobra de capello when grown to considerable size, arresting its progress and confusing it by the rapidity and variety of their evolutions around it, till, exhausted with fatigue, it is struck on the head and dispatched. The ascription of the quality of vanity to the peacock is as old as the time of Aristotle, who says (Hist. An. 1:1, 15), Some animals are jealous and vain like the peacock.
The A.V. in Job 39:13, speaks of the goodly wings of the peacocks; but there the Hebrew words are different ( , the wing of the renanim is lifted up, or flutters joyously), and have undoubted reference to the ostrich (q.v.). SEE ADRAMMELECH.
PEACOCK in Christian symbolism was an emblem of the resurrection. It is well known that this bird loses its brilliant plumes every year at the approach of winter (annuis vicibus, as Pliny expresses it, Hist. Nat. 10:22), and renews them in spring, when nature seems to reissue from the tomb. Hence interpreters of Christian archeology regard this bird as an unequivocal type of the resurrection (Bosio, Sotl. p. 641; compare Aringhi, Rom. subter. c. 36, p. 612); although Mamachi (Antiq. Christ. 3:92) observes that this opinion rests solely upon the authority of the fathers. Anthony of Padua has made the same representation (Serm. fer. 5 post Trinit.). St. Augustine finds another token of the resurrection in the incorruptibility which his age attributed to the flesh of the peacock (De Civit. Dei, 21:4). These references are corroborated by the figures of this bird found in early Roman cemeteries. We figure one of these from the cemetery of Sts. Marcellin and Peter (Bottari, vol. 2, pl. 97), of a peacock rising from a globe as an emblem of this world. For others, see Boldetti (Civit. p. 163), Lupi (Dissert. II, 1:204); D’Agincourt (Peinture, pl. 2, No. 9), Polidori (Sopra alcuni sepolcri, etc., p. 57).
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Peacock
(Heb. tuk, apparently borrowed from the Tamil tokei). This bird is indigenous to India. It was brought to Solomon by his ships from Tarshish (1 Kings 10:22; 2 Chr. 9:21), which in this case was probably a district on the Malabar coast of India, or in Ceylon. The word so rendered in Job 39:13 literally means wild, tumultuous crying, and properly denotes the female ostrich (q.v.).
Fuente: Easton’s Bible Dictionary
Peacock
pekok (, tukkym (plural); Latin Pavo cristatus): A bird of the genus Pavo. Japan is the native home of the plainer peafowl; Siam, Ceylon and India produce the commonest and most gorgeous. The peacock has a bill of moderate size with an arched tip, its cheeks are bare, the eyes not large, but very luminous, a crest of 24 feathers 2 inches long, with naked shafts and broad tips of blue, glancing to green. The neck is not long but proudly arched, the breast full, prominent and of bright blue green, blue predominant. The wings are short and ineffectual, the feathers on them made up of a surprising array of colors. The tail consists of 18 short, stiff, grayish-brown feathers. Next is the lining of the train, of the same color. The glory of this glorious bird lies in its train. It begins on the back between the wings in tiny feathers not over 6 inches in length, and extends backward. The quills have thick shafts of purple and green shades, the eye at the tip of each feather from one-half to 2 inches across, of a deep peculiar blue, surrounded at the lower part by two half-moon-shaped crescents of green. Whether the train lies naturally, or is spread in full glory, each eye shows encircled by a marvel of glancing shades of green, gold, purple, blue and bronze. When this train is spread, it opens like a fan behind the head with its sparkling crest, and above the wondrous blue of the breast. The bird has the power to contract the muscles at the base of the quills and play a peculiar sort of music with them. It loves high places and cries before a storm in notes that are startling to one not familiar with them. The bird can be domesticated and will become friendly enough to take food from the hand. The peahen is smaller than the cock, her neck green, her wings gray, tan and brown – but she has not the gorgeous train. She nests on earth and breeds with difficulty when imported, the young being delicate and tender. The grown birds are hardy when acclimated, and live to old age. By some freak of nature, pure white peacocks are at times produced. Aristophanes mentioned peafowl in his Birds, II. 102, 269. Alexander claimed that he brought them into Greece from the east, but failed to prove his contention. Pliny wrote that Hortensius was the first to serve the birds for food, and that Aufidius Lurco first fattened and sold them in the markets. It was the custom to skin the bird, roast and recover it and send it to the table, the gaudy feathers showing.
The first appearance of the bird in the Bible occurs in a summing-up of the wealth and majesty of Solomon (1Ki 10:22 : For the king had at sea a navy of Tarshish with the navy of Hiram: once every three years came the navy of Tarshish, bringing gold, and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks). (Here the Septuagint translates , peleketo (s.c. , lthoi), = (stones) carved with an ax.) The same statement is made in 2Ch 9:21 : For the king had ships that went to Tarshish with the servants of Huram; once every three years came the ships of Tarshish, bringing gold and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks Septuagint omits). There is no question among scholars and scientists but that these statements are true, as the ships of Solomon are known to have visited the coasts of India and Ceylon, and Tarshish was on the Malabar coast of India, where the native name of the peacock was tokei, from which tukkym undoubtedly was derived (see GOLD, and The Expository Times, IX, 472). The historian Tennant says that the Hebrew names for ivory and apes were also the same as the Tamil. The reference to the small, ineffectual wing of the peacock which scarcely will lift the weight of the body and train, that used to be found in Job, is now applied to the ostrich, and is no doubt correct:
The wings of the ostrich wave proudly;
But are they the pinions and plumage of love?
(Job 39:13).
While the peacock wing seems out of proportion to the size of the bird, it will sustain flight and bear the body to the treetops. The wing of the ostrich is useless for flight.
Fuente: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Peacock
A good deal of discussion has token place respecting the precise meaning of the word which is thus rendered in the Authorized Version (1Ki 10:22; 2Ch 9:21). Some have supposed that a crested parrot is meant, others that the pheasant is the bird intended, but the weight of evidence is in favor of the usual rendering.
There are only two species of true peacocks, viz., that under consideration, which is the Pavo cristatus of Linn.; and another, Pavo muticus, more recently discovered, which differs in some particulars, and originally belongs to Japan and China. Peacocks bear the cold of the Himalayas: they run with great swiftness, and where they are, serpents do not abound, as they devour the young with great avidity, and, it is said, attack with spirit even the cobra de capello when grown to considerable size, arresting its progress and confusing it by the rapidity and variety of their evolutions around it, till exhausted with fatigue it is struck on the head and dispatched.
A detailed description of a species so well known, we deem superfluous.
Fuente: Popular Cyclopedia Biblical Literature
Peacock
1Ki 10:22; 2Ch 9:21; Job 39:13
Fuente: Nave’s Topical Bible
Peacock
, 1Ki 10:29; 2Ch 9:21; a bird distinguished by the length of its tail, and the brilliant spots with which it is adorned; which displays all that dazzles in the sparkling lustre of gems, and all that astonishes in the rainbow. The peacock is a bird originally of India; thence brought into Persia and Media. Aristophanes mentions Persian peacocks; and Suidas calls the peacock the Median bird. From Persia it was gradually dispersed into Judea, Egypt, Greece, and Europe. If the fleet of Solomon visited India, they might easily procure this bird, whether from India itself, or from Persia; and certainly the bird by its beauty was likely to attract attention, and to be brought among other rarities of natural history by Solomon’s servants, who would be instructed to collect every curiosity in the countries they visited.