Mat 26:69-75 | 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 26:69-75

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. But he denied before [them] all. Denied that he "was with Jesus of Galilee" (Mt 26:69). But a few hours before Peter had asserted that though all others deserted the Lord he would not, and that he would die with him, and when Judas led the band into Gethsemane, Peter, refusing to consider the odds, flung himself upon them, valiant as a lion, struck and wounded Malchus, and would probably have slain him had he not swerved. He was a brave as a hero then--now is timid as a deer. The explanation is that his faith had failed when he saw his Master apparently helpless in the hands of his enemies. See Heb 11:32-35. When he had gone out into the porch. Alarmed by the accusation, he withdrew into the porch, an arched passage that led from without into the inner court.

This [fellow] was also with Jesus of Nazareth. It is another maid that follows him and makes the charge. In both cases the charges were based on conjecture. He denied with an oath, I do not know the man. Peter's second denial. He even denied knowing him, and that, too, with an oath. He had entered upon the downward road, and each step called for a deeper one. So it is always with sin. Thou also art [one] of them; for thy speech bewrayeth thee. Matthew says, "After awhile"; Luke says, "About an hour after" (Lu 22:59). John says that the third charge was made by a kinsman of Malchus, who asserted that he saw Peter in the garden (Joh 18:26). Mark says that they accused him of having a Galilean brogue (Mr 14:70). As most of the disciples of Jesus were Galileans, this draws attention to Peter. Different districts had their dialects, as in England, or the United States. Began he to curse and to swear. Peter's "third" denial. He not only, with an oath, repeats what he had said in the second, but he affirms it with imprecations of divine wrath on himself if he spoke not the truth. The gradations of guilt in the denials of Peter: (1) ambiguous evasion; (2) distinct denial with a false oath; (3) awful abjuration with solemn imprecations on himself.

Immediately the cock crew. This was at the opening of the fourth or morning watch, at about three o'clock. The cock often crows about midnight, or not long after; and again always about the third hour after midnight, or three o'clock. This shows that the second trial of Jesus took place before the dawn. Peter remembered the word of Jesus. It was at this point that the Lord turned and looked at Peter (Lu 22:61). The hall where Jesus was being tried was probably open toward the court, and Jesus may easily have heard all the denials of Peter. Now he turns and looks at Peter, and brings to his mind what he had few hours before foretold.

He went out, and wept bitterly. The look of Christ broke his heart. As the cock crew, his own confident assertions and the word of the Lord, "Before the cock crow twice (before the second cock crowing) thou shalt thrice deny me" rushed upon him (Mt 26:34 Mr 14:30 Lu 22:34). He rushed out into the darkness of the night to weep. Judas sinned, betrayed and sold the Lord from covetousness. Afterward he was sorry, but it was the sorrow of this world that worketh death (2Co 7:10). It was remorse, not repentance, and he went and hanged himself. Peter's repentance was attested (1) by the bitterness of his tears; (2) by his humble submission to his Lord's subsequent rebuke (Joh 21:15-17); (3) by his subsequent courage in confessing Christ in the face of threatening danger (Ac 4:8-12,19). THE ORDER OF EVENTS, after the prayer at Gethsemane, for this night were as follows: After the arrest, and its incidents, (1) Jesus was taken first to the house of Annas, ex-high priest (Joh 18:13). (2) Next, to the palace of Caiaphas, Peter and John following (Joh 18:15). (3) Here was a preliminary examination before Caiaphas (Joh 18:19-24). (4) The trial before the council illegal, because held at night--before three o'clock, the cock-crowing (Mt 26:59-65 Mr 14:55-64). (5) Peter's three denials during the trial (Mt 26:69-75 Mr 14:66-72). (6) After the Sanhedrin had pronounced him guilty it suspends its session till break of day (7) During this interval Jesus is exposed to the insults of his enemies (Mt 26:67-68 Lu 22:63-65). (8) At the dawn of day the Sanhedrin re-assembles (Mt 27:1 Mr 15:1 Lu 22:66). (9) After hearing Christ's confession again, he is formally condemned to death for blasphemy (Lu 22:66-71). (10) He is bound and sent to Pilate (Mr 15:1). ON THE ILLEGAL CONVICTION OF CHRIST, Prof. Greenleaf, a distinguished jurist, says: ``Throughout the whole course of the trial, the rules of the Jewish law of procedure were grossly violated, and the accused was deprived of rights belonging even to the meanest citizen. He was arrested in the night, bound as a malefactor, beaten before his arraignment, and struck in open court during the trial. He was tried on a feast-day, and before sunrise. He was compelled to criminate himself, and this under an oath of solemn judicial adjuration; and he was sentenced on the same day of conviction. In all these particulars the law was wholly disregarded.''