Mat 26:69 | PNT | STEP | Now Peter sat without in the palace . While the preliminary examinations were being held before Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin, Peter and John entered the court of the palace. This court was an open square, enclosed by the palace which was built in a quadrangle all around it. From it doors and windows opened into the rooms built around it, so that Peter was "without the palace", yet in the interior court, where he could see and hear through the open door the proceedings in the hall. Oriental houses are still built with this interior court. And a maid came to him, saying . John speaks of her as "the damsel that kept the door" ( ) of the porch, or passage into the court. We are not told why she suspected him. He was at this time in the interior court, and is said by Luke to have been standing "among them" ( ) by the fire that had been kindled in the courtyard on account of the chilliness of the night.

Matthew 26:69

Now Peter sat without in the palace. While the preliminary examinations were being held before Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin, Peter and John entered the court of the palace. This court was an open square, enclosed by the palace which was built in a quadrangle all around it. From it doors and windows opened into the rooms built around it, so that Peter was "without the palace", yet in the interior court, where he could see and hear through the open door the proceedings in the hall. Oriental houses are still built with this interior court.

And a maid came to him, saying. John speaks of her as "the damsel that kept the door" (Joh 18:17) of the porch, or passage into the court. We are not told why she suspected him. He was at this time in the interior court, and is said by Luke to have been standing "among them" (Lu 22:55) by the fire that had been kindled in the courtyard on account of the chilliness of the night.