KJV Says Cockatrice

Another of the enigmatic Biblical animals is the Cockatrice.  A supposed half chicken, half serpent, something which just does not exist.  Now all modern Bibles use the term Adder, but as you will see, that would incorrect, since the Adder never existed in the Holy Land ... so the Cockatrice must be something else ...

Isaiah 11:8 - "And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the Asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the Cockatrice den"

Isaiah 14:29 - "... for out of the serpents root shall come forth a Cockatrice, and his fruit shall be a fiery flying serpent"

Isaiah 59:5 - "They hatch Cockatrice eggs, and weave the spider's web: he that eateth of their eggs deith, that which is crushed breaketh out into a viper."

Jeremiah 8:17 - "... I will send serpents, Cockatrices, among you, which will not be charmed and they shall bite you ..."

Proverbs 23:32 - "At the last it biteth like a serpent ..."
(oddly KJV uses Adder here.)

 According to Alexander Neckam's, De naturis rerum (ca 1180), the cockatrice was supposed to be born from an egg laid by a chicken and incubated by a toad; a snake might be substituted in re-tellings.  Cockatrice became seen as synonymous with basilisk when the basiliscus in Bartholomeus Anglicus', De proprietatibus rerum (ca 1260) was translated by John Trevisa as Cockatrice (1397). A basilisk, however, is usually depicted without wings.  It is thought that a cock egg would birth a cockatrice, and could be prevented by tossing the yolkless egg over the family house, landing on the other side of the house, without allowing the egg to hit the house.

The Basilisk was first mentioned by Pliny the Elder, in his book Natural History (ca 79 AD): 
"There is the same power also in the serpent called the basilisk. It is produced in the province of Cyrene, being not more than twelve fingers in length. It has a white spot on the head, strongly resembling a sort of a diadem. When it hisses, all the other serpents fly from it: and it does not advance its body, like the others, by a succession of folds, but moves along upright and erect upon the middle. It destroys all shrubs, not only by its contact, but those even that it has breathed upon; it burns up all the grass, too, and breaks the stones, so tremendous is its noxious influence. It was formerly a general belief that if a man on horseback killed one of these animals with a spear, the poison would run up the weapon and kill, not only the rider, but the horse, as well. To this dreadful monster the crow of a rooster is fatal, a thing that has been tried with success, for kings have often desired to see its body when killed; so true is it that it has pleased Nature that there should be nothing without its antidote. The animal is thrown into the hole of the basilisk, which is easily known from the soil around it being infected. The weasel destroys the basilisk by its odour, but dies itself in this struggle of nature against its own self."

I think a strong case could be made that this snake Pliny is talking about is a cobra of some type and they mongoose has become a weasel in this telling.

Okay.  I am a firm believer that the Bible was written for people to understand and just because we are ignorant does not mean that prior generation were!  So, we need to dig into the world of snakes here to figure out what the Cockatrice could have been!

The snakes we know as Viper, Asp, and Adder are all names for the same snake.  However, there are varieties within the species.  Note that the Cockatrice is considered a separate creature.

So we have some clues here:
A snake
Venomous
Not a Viper, Asp or Adder
Laid by egg, so not a live birth
Range included the Middle East

And drum roll please!  We do have a snake which meets all of these conditions: the Cerastes gasperettii !

Known as the Arabian Horned Viper or more commonly as the Sidewinder there.  Its range was throughout the Middle East once, now limited to northern Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Northern Israel.  It is laid by egg, not similar with Vipers, very venomous.

Since it is a sidewinder, it does lay its eggs in a den (Isaiah 11:8),  "fly" up to 24 inches when it strikes and "fiery" due to its venom (Isaiah 14:29), the hatched babies are fully loaded with venom for hunting (Isaiah 59:5), the snake can not be charmed like a cobra or distracted (Jeremiah 8:17), and it will bite you! (Proverbs 23:32).

Another Biblical mystery solved!
Aren't you glad you asked!