Cockatrice – A fiery flying serpent.
God used this word 4 times in Scripture. Every instance is to Israel in their Masoretic Text Old Testament books of Isaiah and Jeremiah.
The description of the creature is from Isaiah 14:29 “… : for out of the serpent’s root shall come forth a cockatrice, and his fruit shall be a fiery flying serpent.” The cockatrice is a species of serpent that has offspring that are fiery flying serpents.
Men, in ignorance, and the wisdom of men, have attempted to define this word as …
Britannica defines it as “Cockatrice, also called basilisk, in the legends of Hellenistic and Roman times, a small serpent, possibly the Egyptian cobra, known as a basilikos (“kinglet”) and credited with powers of destroying all animal and vegetable life by its mere look or breath.”
Nowhere in Scripture is a cockatrice credited with destructive power on vegetation, or the ability to destroy anything with its look or gaze. And the basilisk is a lizard, not a serpent. Trying to make sense of something that they don’t understand, men have speculated that “maybe it is a baby cobra”.
Webster defines it as “A legendary serpent that is hatched by a reptile from a cock’s egg and that has a deadly glance.”
Nowhere in Scripture does it say that it is a chicken egg, hatched by a reptile, or has a deadly gaze. Even more ridiculous, a cock is a male chicken, and they don’t lay eggs. But Isaiah 59:1-8 does say that the people of Israel, that are wicked and corrupt, hatch the serpent’s eggs, which are called cockatrice’. Scripture also states that the serpent has a hole, and the cockatrice have nests.
So … what is the real answer?
- You have to understand that the passages in Isaiah and Jeremiah are prophecy to Israel: these references are yet to come: future tense for Israel. The creature is real, and the creature has a purpose; designed by God as an instrument of judgement.
- The serpent that laid the egg is Satan; the egg is iniquity; Israel’s iniquitous people hatch an offspring of Satan that will result in the destruction of the unfaithful of Israel.
- Jeremiah 8:14-17 prophecy, is also seen by John in Revelation 9:15-21, which provides more detail than given in Israel’s Masoretic Text Old Testament.
- If the cockatrice is mythical, so are serpents.
These creatures will not exist until after the Body of Christ is caught-up at the end of the Dispensation of Grace. Specifically, these creatures will fulfill their purpose at the end of the second-half of Israel’s 70th week disclosed by God in Daniel 9:27; at the end of Israel’s great tribulation.
See also Dispensation, Fable, Serpent