the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Bible Encyclopedias
Peacock
Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
or A good deal of discussion has token place respecting the precise meaning of the word which is thus rendered in the Authorized Version (; ). 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.
Public Domain.
Kitto, John, ed. Entry for 'Peacock'. "Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature". https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/kbe/p/peacock.html.
