Markus 14:68-69

14:68 But he denied it: ¹  “I don’t even understand what you’re talking about!” ²  Then ³  he went out to the gateway, and a rooster crowed. ⁴  14:69 When the slave girl saw him, she began again to say to the bystanders, “This man is one of them.”

Lukas 22:58

22:58 Then ⁵  a little later someone else ⁶  saw him and said, “You are one of them too.” But Peter said, “Man, ⁷  I am not!”

Yohanes 18:25-27

Peter’s Second and Third Denials

18:25 Meanwhile Simon Peter was standing in the courtyard ⁸  warming himself. They said to him, “You aren’t one of his disciples too, are you?” ⁹  Peter ¹⁰  denied it: “I am not!” 18:26 One of the high priest’s slaves, ¹¹  a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, ¹²  said, “Did I not see you in the orchard ¹³  with him?” ¹⁴  18:27 Then Peter denied it again, and immediately a rooster crowed. ¹⁵ 

[14:68]  ¹ tn Grk “he denied it, saying.” The participle λέγων (legwn) is redundant in English and has not been translated.

[14:68]  ² tn Grk “I do not know or understand what you are saying.” In the translation this is taken as a hendiadys (a figure of speech where two terms express a single meaning, usually for emphatic reasons).

[14:68]  ³ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

[14:68]  ⁴ tc Several important witnesses (א B L W Ψ* 579 892 2427 pc) lack the words “and a rooster crowed.” The fact that such good and early Alexandrian witnesses lack these words makes this textual problem difficult to decide, especially because the words receive support from other witnesses, some of which are fairly decent (A C D Θ Ψ^c 067 Ë^1,13 33 [1424] Ï lat). The omission could have been intentional on the part of some Alexandrian scribes who wished to bring this text in line with the other Gospel accounts that only mention a rooster crowing once (Matt 26:74; Luke 22:60; John 18:27). The insertion could be an attempt to make the fulfillment of Jesus’ prophecy in 14:30 more explicit. Internally, the words “and a rooster crowed” fit Mark’s Gospel here, not only in view of 14:30, “before a rooster crows twice,” but also in view of the mention of “a second time” in 14:71 (a reading which is much more textually secure). Nevertheless, a decision is difficult.

[14:68]  tn A real rooster crowing is probably in view here (rather than the Roman trumpet call known as gallicinium), in part due to the fact that Mark mentions the rooster crowing twice. See the discussion at Matt 26:74.

[22:58]  ⁵ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

[22:58]  ⁶ sn In Mark 14:69, the same slave girl made the charge. So apparently Peter was being identified by a variety of people.

[22:58]  ⁷ tn Here and in v. 60 “Man” is used as a neutral form of address to a stranger.

[18:25]  ⁸ tn The words “in the courtyard” are not in the Greek text. They are supplied for the benefit of the modern reader, to link this scene to the preceding one in John 18:15-18.

[18:25]  ⁹ tn Questions prefaced with μή (mh) in Greek anticipate a negative answer. This can sometimes be indicated by using a “tag” at the end in English (here the tag is “are you?”).

[18:25]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “That one denied it and said”; the referent of the pronoun (Peter) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[18:26]  ¹¹ tn See the note on the word “slaves” in 4:51.

[18:26]  ¹² sn This incident is recounted in v. 10.

[18:26]  ¹³ tn Or “garden.”

[18:26]  ¹⁴ tn This question, prefaced with οὐκ (ouk) in Greek, anticipates a positive answer.

[18:27]  ¹⁵ tn It seems most likely that this refers to a real rooster crowing, although a number of scholars have suggested that “cockcrow” is a technical term referring to the trumpet call which ended the third watch of the night (from midnight to 3 a.m.). This would then be a reference to the Roman gallicinium (ἀλεκτοροφωνία, alektorofwnia; the term is used in Mark 13:35 and is found in some mss [Ì^37vid,45 ˹] in Matt 26:34) which would have been sounded at 3 a.m.; in this case Jesus would have prophesied a precise time by which the denials would have taken place. For more details see J. H. Bernard, St. John (ICC), 2:604. However, in light of the fact that Mark mentions the rooster crowing twice (Mark 14:72) and in Luke 22:60 the words are reversed (ἐφώνησεν ἀλέκτωρ, efwnhsen alektwr), it is more probable that a real rooster is in view. In any event natural cockcrow would have occurred at approximately 3 a.m. in Palestine at this time of year (March-April) anyway.

[18:27]  sn No indication is given of Peter’s emotional state at this third denial (as in Matt 26:74 and Mark 14:71) or that he remembered that Jesus had foretold the denials (Matt 26:75, Mark 14:72 and Luke 22:61), or the bitter remorse Peter felt afterward (Matt 26:75, Mark 14:72, and Luke 22:62).