John 18:25-27

Peter’s Second and Third Denials

18:25 Meanwhile Simon Peter was standing in the courtyard ¹  warming himself. They said to him, “You aren’t one of his disciples too, are you?” ²  Peter ³  denied it: “I am not!” 18:26 One of the high priest’s slaves, ⁴  a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, ⁵  said, “Did I not see you in the orchard ⁶  with him?” ⁷  18:27 Then Peter denied it again, and immediately a rooster crowed. ⁸ 

[18:25]  ¹ tn The words “in the courtyard” are not in the Greek text. They are supplied for the benefit of the modern reader, to link this scene to the preceding one in John 18:15-18.

[18:25]  ² tn Questions prefaced with μή (mh) in Greek anticipate a negative answer. This can sometimes be indicated by using a “tag” at the end in English (here the tag is “are you?”).

[18:25]  ³ tn Grk “That one denied it and said”; the referent of the pronoun (Peter) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[18:26]  ⁴ tn See the note on the word “slaves” in 4:51.

[18:26]  ⁵ sn This incident is recounted in v. 10.

[18:26]  ⁶ tn Or “garden.”

[18:26]  ⁷ tn This question, prefaced with οὐκ (ouk) in Greek, anticipates a positive answer.

[18:27]  ⁸ 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.