John 18:27

John 18:27. Again therefore Peter denied. Nothing is said of the adjurations mentioned by the first two Evangelists

And immediately the cock crew. All else recorded in the earlier Gospels is omitted.

We are now in a position to look back upon the whole narrative from John 18:12 to the present point, with the view of endeavouring to meet the difficulties presented when we compare it with the narratives of the first three Evangelists. As to those connected with the three denials of Peter, it seems unnecessary to add much to what has been already said on John 18:25. We may only notice that a use of the pronoun ‘they' exactly similar to its use in that verse meets us in Matthew 26:73 and Mark 14:70 when compared with Luke 22:59 and John 18:26. In these passages the third denial is in question, and in the first two Evangelists it is drawn forth by ‘them that stood by, in the last two by a single person. The solution depends upon the same principle as that of which we have spoken with regard to the second denial in John. Not one only but many of the eager and excited spectators would ask the question, and of that number Luke and John might easily single out the person peculiarly prominent. All three denials took place in the court of the high priest's house, and within the range of both the light and the heat of the fire that had been kindled there, the first, immediately after Peter had been brought into the court; the second, when he had retired into the opening of the porch but was still within hearing of remarks made around the fire (Matthew 26:71); [1] the third, when he was again more fully within the court.

[1] The first impression produced by this verse is that the word ‘there' in it relates to the interior of the porch. But it is absolutely impossible to think that many would be standing in such a place. They may have been around it, even within it, where it opened into the ‘court:' in its deeper recesses they certainly would not be. In this point of view great interest and importance attach to an alternative reading of Matthew 26:71, which is very probably the true reading. not ‘and saith unto them.' There this fellow was with Jesus of Nazareth.' but ‘and saith unto them, There this fellow also was with Jesus of Nazareth.'

From the denials of Peter we pass to the nature of the trial of Jesus here recorded and to the judge before whom it took place. Is the trial described by John the same as that of which an account is given us by Matthew (chap. Matthew 26:57-68)? or is it a preliminary examination, having the nature of a precognition, and instituted for the purpose of laying a foundation for the more formal trial before the Sanhedrin? The impression produced by the narrative is that it was the latter; that it is a record of the proceedings taken before Annas ‘first,' and that at it therefore Annas presided. Yet two difficulties stand in the way of this interpretation, the first, that Caiaphas, not Annas, appears to be the high priest so repeatedly mentioned in John 18:15-22; the second, that in Matthew's Gospel the first denial of Peter is related after the public trial is finished, while here, on the supposition of which we speak, it will be distinctly stated to have taken place before that trial began. As to the first of these, it is at least possible that Annas may be ‘the high priest' of John 18:15-22. Though he had been deposed by the Roman authorities, the office was, according to the provision of the Old Testament, for life; and a Jew like John might well speak of him as still the rightful possessor of the title (comp. Luke 3:2). But if this solution is not very probable, there is another which fairly meets the case. Annas and Caiaphas may have occupied apartments in the same house surrounding the ‘court' of our narrative. The structure of higher-class houses in Palestine, the relationship of the persons themselves, and the customs of the East, lead not unnaturally to such a view; and it was very early entertained. But if so, though Jesus was really taken to Annas, Caiaphas would in all probability be present at the examination; and, thus present, his more youthful years and the passionateness of his rage against Jesus would lead him to act the prominent part which is assigned to him. The second difficulty is still more easily met. We have to bear in mind the peculiar structure of the first Gospel, and the tendency of its author (of which we had a marked illustration in considering the supper at Bethany in chap. 12) to group his particulars according to their substance, rather than in strict chronological arrangement. Such may well be his object in chap. Matthew 26:69-75, where the three denials are obviously brought into the closest proximity to each other. We seem even to be furnished with a hint to this effect by the words of Matthew 26:69, ‘Now Peter sat without in the porch.' It is not at all likely that, at the close of the trial, amidst the confusion and bustle of the moment, and when the enemies of Jesus were hurrying Him away, after having so far accomplished their object, a person of Peter's impetuous disposition would continue sitting in the porch. There is indeed another difficulty, connected with John 18:24 of our passage; where, after Caiaphas has taken the part of which we have spoken, Annas is said to have ‘sent' Jesus to him. This difficulty cannot be overcome by the rendering of the Authorised Version, ‘had sent;' and the particle connecting the verse with those preceding it is undoubtedly not ‘now' but ‘therefore.' Yet we may well suppose that the reference is to the public trial which was yet to take place before Caiaphas as high priest by law: in this capacity, and not in the more private one in which he had been acting at the investigation before Annas, he is now to have Jesus sent to him. If to these considerations we add the fact that we are ignorant of many of those details which would throw light upon the customs of the time, we shall, while not denying that some difficulty still remains, be able to rest with perfect confidence in the general faithfulness of the narrative.

One word more may be permitted in regard to the mode in which the three denials of Peter are presented to us by John. It will be observed that they are given in two groups, and that between the two there is advance; the effect is heightened as we proceed. Thus, in the first group there is only one denial: in the second there are two. The first takes place at a moment when Jesus has passed out of Peter's sight: the second and third at a moment when Jesus is under Peter's eye, bound, yet patient and submissive. The first is made when Peter is as yet with John: the second and third when he has associated himself with the enemies of Jesus. At the moment of the first Peter is in the ‘cold;' at that of the second and third he has seated himself at the fire of charcoal. The first is expressed by ‘Peter saith:' the second and third are much more emphatic, ‘he denied and said,' ‘he denied again.' So many particulars warrant the inference that here, as in various other passages of his Gospel, John sees the historical facts with which he deals presenting themselves in two pictures, both unfolding the same truth, but in a climactic form.