Matthew 26:63-75

26:63 But Jesus was silent. The ¹  high priest said to him, “I charge you under oath by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, ²  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 ³  of the Power ⁴  and coming on the clouds of heaven.” ⁵  26:65 Then the high priest tore his clothes and declared, ⁶  “He has blasphemed! Why do we still need witnesses? Now ⁷  you have heard the blasphemy! 26:66 What is your verdict?” ⁸  They ⁹  answered, “He is guilty and deserves ¹⁰  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! ¹¹  Who hit you?” ¹² 

Peter’s Denials

26:69 Now Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard. A ¹³  slave girl ¹⁴  came to him and said, “You also were with Jesus the Galilean.” 26:70 But he denied it in front of them all: ¹⁵  “I don’t know what you’re talking about!” 26:71 When ¹⁶  he went out to the gateway, another slave girl ¹⁷  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 ¹⁸  a little while, those standing there came up to Peter and said, “You really are one of them too – even your accent ¹⁹  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. ²⁰  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. ²¹ 

[26:63]  ¹ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated.

[26:63]  ² tn Or “Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”

[26:64]  ³ 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]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ sn An allusion to Dan 7:13 (see also Matt 24:30).

[26:65]  ⁶ tn Grk “the high priest tore his clothes, saying.”

[26:65]  ⁷ 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]  ⁸ tn Grk “What do you think?”

[26:66]  ⁹ 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]  ¹⁰ 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]  ¹¹ tn Or “Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”

[26:68]  ¹² tn Grk “Who is the one who hit you?”

[26:69]  ¹³ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated.

[26:69]  ¹⁴ tn The Greek term here is παιδίσκη (paidiskh), referring to a slave girl or slave woman.

[26:70]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “he denied it…saying.” The participle λέγων (legwn) is redundant in English and has not been translated.

[26:71]  ¹⁶ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[26:71]  ¹⁷ tn The words “slave girl” are not in the Greek text, but are implied by the feminine singular form ἄλλη (allh).

[26:73]  ¹⁸ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[26:73]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “your speech.”

[26:74]  ²⁰ 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]  ²¹ 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.