Mark 14:30 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Before the cock crow twice,—thou shalt— Thou wilt. See the note on Matthew 26:33; Matthew 26:75. Dr. Owen, in his Observations on the four Gospels, p. 56 has observed further, that as the Jews, in the enumeration of the times of the night, took notice only of one cock-crowing, which comprehended the third watch, (see on chap. Mark 13:35.) so St. Matthew, to give them a clear information that Peter would deny his Master thrice before three in the morning, needed only to say, that he would do it before the cock crew; but the Romans, for whom, and the other Gentiles, St. Mark wrote his Gospel, reckoning by a double crowing of the cock,—the first of which was about midnight, and the second at three,—stood in need of a more particular designation; and therefore St. Mark, to denote the same hour to them, was obliged to say, before the cock crew twice. Juvenal uses exactly the same phrase to specify the same hour. Sat. 9: ver. 107.