Text -- Matthew 26:68-75 (NET)

26:68 saying, “Prophesy for us, you Christ! Who hit you?”

Peter’s Denials

26:69 Now Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard. A slave girl came to him and said, “You also were with Jesus the Galilean.” 26:70 But he denied it in front of them all: “I don’t know what you’re talking about!” 26:71 When he went out to the gateway, another slave girl saw him and said to the people there, “This man was with Jesus the Nazarene.” 26:72 He denied it again with an oath, “I do not know the man!” 26:73 After a little while, those standing there came up to Peter and said, “You really are one of them too– even your accent gives you away!” 26:74 At that he began to curse, and he swore with an oath, “I do not know the man!” At that moment a rooster crowed. 26:75 Then Peter remembered what Jesus had said: “Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.” And he went outside and wept bitterly.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Mat 26:68

¹ tn Or “Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”

sn See the note on Christ in 1:16.

² tn Grk “Who is the one who hit you?”

sn Who hit you? This is a variation of one of three ancient games that involved blindfolds.

NET Notes: Mat 26:69

¹ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated.

² tn The Greek term here is παιδίσκη (paidiskh), referring to a slave girl or slave woman.

NET Notes: Mat 26:70

¹ tn Grk “he denied it…saying.” The participle λέγων (legwn) is redundant in English and has not been translated.

NET Notes: Mat 26:71

¹ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

² tn The words “slave girl” are not in the Greek text, but are implied by the feminine singular form ἄλλη (allh).

NET Notes: Mat 26:73

¹ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

² tn Grk “your speech.”

NET Notes: Mat 26:74

¹ tn It seems most likely that this refers to a real rooster crowing, although a number of scholars have suggested that “cockcrow” is a technical term referring to the trumpet call which ended the third watch of the night (from midnight to 3 a.m.). This would then be a reference to the Roman gallicinium (ἀλεκτοροφωνία, alektorofwnia; the term is used in Mark 13:35 and is found in some mss [Ì^37vid,45 ˹] in Matt 26:34) which would have been sounded at 3 a.m.; in this case Jesus would have prophesied a precise time by which the denials would have taken place. For more details see J. H. Bernard, St. John (ICC), 2:604. However, in light of the fact that Mark mentions the rooster crowing twice (Mark 14:72) and in Luke 22:60 the words are reversed (ἐφώνησεν ἀλέκτωρ, efwnhsen alektwr), it is more probable that a real rooster is in view. In any event natural cockcrow would have occurred at approximately 3 a.m. in Palestine at this time of year (March-April) anyway.

NET Notes: Mat 26:75

¹ sn When Peter went out and wept bitterly it shows he really did not want to fail here and was deeply grieved that he had.