John 18:25 - Exposition

ἠν δέ . In startling contrast to this scene, and while Annas had completed his bad-hearted but foiled inquisition, possibly even while our Lord was being transferred from the one court to the other—an event which provided an opportunity for the searching, loving, compassionate glance which broke Peter's heart—the second and third denials of Peter were also being enacted. Now Simon Peter , who had been challenged by the doorkeeper, was standing and warming himself (a form of verbal construction of auxiliary verb with participle to which John is addicted, and especially in those portions of his Gospel which represent his personal composition; John 1:6 , John 1:9 , John 1:24 , John 1:27 ; John 3:24 , John 3:27 )—"standing," not "sitting," as Luke describes his position at the first denial, having, we might suppose, impetuously changed his position. They said therefore unto him, Art thou also one of his disciples? This sentence of John really gathers up another moment of Peter's terrible fall, variously and even discrepantly put by the synoptic narrative, and is virtually accordant with them all three. According to Matthew "another maid," according to Mark "the maid" who had first challenged him, returned to the assault. Nothing more likely than that what was said by one woman should be eagerly taken up by another, and therefore that both statements are true. Luke, however, describes the event thus: ἑτερος , "another man" (perhaps "a different person") saw him and said, "Thou art one of them." John's statement embraces the substance of all three statements, "They said unto him." The general resemblance of the second charge brought against the apostle, as stated by all four evangelists, is remarkable. The different personages by whose lips the charge was urged can best be explained by the occurrence of simultaneous and widely spreading conviction, instead of an unnecessary multiplication of the denials themselves. Matthew and Mark represent Peter as overhearing the conversation of the maids with those who were there ( ἐκεῖ ), showing the obvious occasion for some eager ἕτερος to take up their statement as an accusation. The difficulty of place is not so easily resolved, for Matthew and Mark speak of the "gate," πυλών , or προαύλιον , "porch," outer hall of the court, and John of the fire where Peter first sat in apparent unconcern. We do not know how near the fire was to the πυλών , whether it was not indeed between the θύρα and the πυλών , in the προαύλιον £ . According to Matthew he was moving towards the πυλών , probably in the stir of the procession from the house of Annas to the court of Caiaphas. The four evangelists agree in the declaration made by Peter. He denied, and said, I am not ; i.e. I am not one of the disciples concerning whom Annas asks. "I do not know the Man."