CHICKEN. ̓Ορνις, hen, all Eng. VSS; νοσσίον, G3800; νοσσιά, G3799, chickens, brood KJV, RSV (Matt 23:37; Luke 13:34). ̓Ορνις has also a wider connotation, but context confirms this tr. This is a striking simile, prob. spoken as our Lord indicated a hen urgently calling her little chicks to the safety of her wings as some danger—a hawk or crow—threatened. Apart from cock (q.v.) these are the only two Biblical passages where domestic chickens are positively identified, but it is interesting to consider whether they were known in Pal. in OT times. Philology does not help (see Fowl). Two passages merit attention. (1) 1 Kings 4:23, “Gazelles, roebucks and fatted fowl” (בַּרְבֻּר, H1350). This was part of a day’s provision at Solomon’s table, mid-10th cent. b.c. (2) Nehemiah 5:18, “fowls likewise were prepared for me” (צִפּﯴר֒, H7606). This refers to return from exile, mid-5th cent. b.c. These were obviously clean birds and the inference is that they were prepared in captivity, if not actually domesticated. The domestic fowl is derived from the jungle fowl (Gallus gallus) of India. Domestication in its homeland took place early; remains found in the Indus valley, c. 2,000 b.c., have bones much bigger than in the wild form, indicating that it was already modified. It appeared in Egypt before the 14th cent. b.c., brought by sea from the E, so the Israelites may have known it before the Exodus, and there is a remote possibility that it came to Pal. from Egypt. Chickens could perhaps have been imported directly from India along with apes and peacocks (1 Kings 10:22) for such lists were obviously not complete. From India the fowl was taken overland to the Euphrates-Tigris basin by about 800 b.c. and is shown on proto-Corinthian pottery dated some fifty years later. By 500 b.c. it was well-known through the Gr. world, with a variety of breeds. The earliest archeological evidence from Pal. so far is a seal showing a fighting cock, found at Tell el-Nasbeh, c. 600 b.c. It bears the name Jaazaniah, officer of the king (2 Kings 25:23), but this is not conclusive proof that chickens were being kept in Pal. (NBD [1962], 592). However, it is possible that they had come from one or other direction before Nehemiah or, more likely, been brought by returning exiles. Bodenheimer (Animals and Man in Bible Lands [1960], 190) points out that goose keeping is illustrated on ivories at Megiddo c. 1000 b.c. Geese had been domesticated much earlier in Egypt and elsewhere and it was usual to fatten them for the table. Heb. בַּרְבֻּר, H1350, could well refer to geese.