Matthew 26:58-75

26:58 But Peter was following him from a distance, all the way to the high priest’s courtyard. After ¹  going in, he sat with the guards ²  to see the outcome. 26:59 The ³  chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were trying to find false testimony against Jesus so that they could put him to death. 26:60 But they did not find anything, though many false witnesses came forward. Finally ⁴  two came forward 26:61 and declared, “This man ⁵  said, ‘I am able to destroy the temple of God and rebuild it in three days.’” 26:62 So ⁶  the high priest stood up and said to him, “Have you no answer? What is this that they are testifying against you?” 26:63 But Jesus was silent. The ⁷  high priest said to him, “I charge you under oath by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, ⁸  the Son of God.” 26:64 Jesus said to him, “You have said it yourself. But I tell you, from now on you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand ⁹  of the Power ¹⁰  and coming on the clouds of heaven.” ¹¹  26:65 Then the high priest tore his clothes and declared, ¹²  “He has blasphemed! Why do we still need witnesses? Now ¹³  you have heard the blasphemy! 26:66 What is your verdict?” ¹⁴  They ¹⁵  answered, “He is guilty and deserves ¹⁶  death.” 26:67 Then they spat in his face and struck him with their fists. And some slapped him, 26:68 saying, “Prophesy for us, you Christ! ¹⁷  Who hit you?” ¹⁸ 

Peter’s Denials

26:69 Now Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard. A ¹⁹  slave girl ²⁰  came to him and said, “You also were with Jesus the Galilean.” 26:70 But he denied it in front of them all: ²¹  “I don’t know what you’re talking about!” 26:71 When ²²  he went out to the gateway, another slave girl ²³  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 ²⁴  a little while, those standing there came up to Peter and said, “You really are one of them too – even your accent ²⁵  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  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. ²⁷ 

[26:58]  ¹ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated.

[26:58]  ² sn The guards would have been the guards of the chief priests who had accompanied Judas to arrest Jesus.

[26:59]  ³ tn Grk “Now the.” Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[26:60]  ⁴ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[26:61]  ⁵ tn Grk “This one.”

[26:62]  ⁶ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so” to indicate the implied result of the false testimony.

[26:63]  ⁷ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated.

[26:63]  ⁸ tn Or “Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”

[26:64]  ⁹ sn An allusion to Ps 110:1. This is a claim that Jesus shares authority with God in heaven. Those present may have thought they were his judges, but, in fact, the reverse was true.

[26:64]  ¹⁰ sn The expression the right hand of the Power is a circumlocution for referring to God. Such indirect references to God were common in 1st century Judaism out of reverence for the divine name.

[26:64]  ¹¹ sn An allusion to Dan 7:13 (see also Matt 24:30).

[26:65]  ¹² tn Grk “the high priest tore his clothes, saying.”

[26:65]  ¹³ tn Grk “Behold now.” The Greek word ἰδού (idou) has not been translated because it has no exact English equivalent here, but adds interest and emphasis (BDAG 468 s.v. 1).

[26:66]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “What do you think?”

[26:66]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “answering, they said.” This is somewhat redundant and has been simplified in the translation. Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[26:66]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “he is guilty of death.” L&N 88.313 states, “pertaining to being guilty and thus deserving some particular penalty – ‘guilty and deserving, guilty and punishable by.’ οἱ δὲ ἀποκριθέντες εἶπαν, ᾿Ενοχος θανάτου ἐστίν ‘they answered, He is guilty and deserves death’ Mt 26:66.”

[26:68]  ¹⁷ tn Or “Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”

[26:68]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “Who is the one who hit you?”

[26:69]  ¹⁹ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated.

[26:69]  ²⁰ tn The Greek term here is παιδίσκη (paidiskh), referring to a slave girl or slave woman.

[26:70]  ²¹ tn Grk “he denied it…saying.” The participle λέγων (legwn) is redundant in English and has not been translated.

[26:71]  ²² tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[26:71]  ²³ tn The words “slave girl” are not in the Greek text, but are implied by the feminine singular form ἄλλη (allh).

[26:73]  ²⁴ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[26:73]  ²⁵ tn Grk “your speech.”

[26:74]  ²⁶ 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.

[26:75]  ²⁷ 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.