Matthew 26:69

FIRST DENIAL; Matthew 26:69-70.

Matthew 26:69. Now Peter was sitting without in the court, the interior court enclosed by the house. Mark: ‘below in the court,' i.e. below the room (probably on the ground-floor) where the examination was going on. If this room were open towards the court, as was sometimes the case, then Peter could see something of the trial. John tells (Matthew 18:15-16) how he gained admission. But warming one's self with Christ's enemies has its dangers.

A maid. Mark: ‘one of the maids of the high-priest,' probably the one who kept the door, mentioned by John, since he connects with this denial Peter's standing by the fire in the court, expressly mentioned by Mark and Luke. But two maid-servants may have made a similar charge on this occasion.

Jesus the Galilean. Probably contemptuous banter, or light ridicule, not with a view to serious accusation. The maid seems to have followed him into the court, repeating the banter, which he repelled in the different words recorded by the different Evangelists.