Mark 14:29-30

‘But Peter said to him, “Although all will desert you in fear (‘be caused to stumble') yet I will not.” And Jesus says to him, “Truly I say to you that you today, even this night, before the cock crows twice will three times deny me.” '

There can be no doubt about Peter's goodness of heart. Nor about his sincerity. Nor about his self-confidence. And when the opportunity came to fight for Jesus he would willingly have died for Him. But he had not allowed for the combined effects of the shock of seeing Judas, his friend, acting as betrayer, the eeriness of the night, the clang of Roman arms, being forbidden to defend Jesus when he wanted to fight, Jesus' submission to His enemies, being left behind helpless and in hiding in the Garden, the nerve tingling journey to where Jesus was taken, and what it would be like with nerves stretched to the full to be challenged as to his relationship with Jesus in the very heart of the enemy's territory. Peter did not realise that he was a bull not a fox.

“Truly I say to you that you today, even this night, before the cock crows twice will three times deny me.” Jesus knew Peter's heart better than he knew it himself, and while he was no doubt hurt by Jesus' words, later in a perverse way it might bring him some comfort to know that Jesus had known what he would do and had still loved him. ‘Before the cock crows twice.' The early morning activity of cockerels did not occur only once. There could be a brief interlude between crowings (and it did not have to be the same cockerel). It may also be that ‘before the cock crows twice' was a well known way of indicating a brief period.

Note the narrowing down of the time. First ‘today', any time up to sunset. Then ‘this night', before dawn. Then ‘before the cock crows twice'.