Mark 14:69

ἡ παιδίσκη : the article naturally suggests that it is the same maid, and probably but for harmonistic interests there would have been no doubt on the subject. Yet the fact that Mt. makes it another obliges us to ask whether Mk.'s expression necessarily means the same person. Grotius, whom Rosenmüller follows, says ἡ may here, as occasionally elsewhere = τις. Of more weight is the suggestion that it means the maid on duty in that particular place, the forecourt (Schanz and Klostermann; the remarks of the latter specially worthy of notice). On first thoughts one might deem πάλιν decisive as to identity, but (1) it is wanting in [140], and (2) its most probable position is just before λέγειν, and the meaning, that Peter was a second time spoken to (or at) on the subject of his connection with Jesus, not that the same person spoke in both cases. On the whole a certain element of doubt remains, which cannot be eliminated by exegetical considerations. In favour of one maid is the consideration that two able to recognise Peter is more unlikely than one. Yet the two might be together when they saw Peter previously, or the one might point him out to the other that night. In Mt.'s narrative the standers-by seem also to have independent knowledge of Peter. In Mk. the maid gives them information. On the whole, Mk., as was to be expected, gives the clearer picture of the scene. τοῖς παρεστῶσιν, to those standing by; pointing to Peter, and speaking so that he could hear.

[140] Codex Vaticanus (sæc. iv.), published in photographic facsimile in 1889 under the care of the Abbate Cozza-Luzi.