Again therefore Peter denied. St John Chapter xviii. 22-27

St John Chapter xviii : Verses 22-27

Contents

• St John Chapter xviii : Verses 22-27
   Douay-Rheims (Challoner) text, Greek (SBLG) & Latin text (Vulgate); 
• Annotations based on the Catena Aurea of St Thomas Aquinas

St John Chapter xviii : Verses 22-27

Again therefore Peter denied; and immediately the cock crew.
 J-J Tissot. Brooklyn Museum.

22 And when he had said these things, one of the servants standing by, gave Jesus a blow, saying: Answerest thou the high priest so?  

23 Jesus answered him: If I have spoken evil, give testimony of the evil; but if well, why strikest thou me?  

24 And Annas sent him bound to Caiphas the high priest.  

25 And Simon Peter was standing, and warming himself. They said therefore to him: Art not thou also one of his disciples? He denied it, and said: I am not.

26 One of the servants of the high priest (a kinsman to him whose ear Peter cut off) saith to him: Did I not see thee in the garden with him?  

27 Again therefore Peter denied; and immediately the cock crew.

22 ταῦτα δὲ αὐτοῦ εἰπόντος εἷς ⸂παρεστηκὼς τῶν ὑπηρετῶν⸃ ἔδωκεν ῥάπισμα τῷ Ἰησοῦ εἰπών· Οὕτως ἀποκρίνῃ τῷ ἀρχιερεῖ;

22 Haec autem cum dixisset, unus assistens ministrorum dedit alapam Jesu, dicens : Sic respondes pontifici?  

23 ἀπεκρίθη ⸀αὐτῷ Ἰησοῦς· Εἰ κακῶς ἐλάλησα, μαρτύρησον περὶ τοῦ κακοῦ· εἰ δὲ καλῶς, τί με δέρεις;

23 Respondit ei Jesus : Si male locutus sum, testimonium perhibe de malo : si autem bene, quid me caedis?  

24 ἀπέστειλεν ⸀οὖν αὐτὸν ὁ Ἅννας δεδεμένον πρὸς Καϊάφαν τὸν ἀρχιερέα.

24 Et misit eum Annas ligatum ad Caipham pontificem.  

25 Ἦν δὲ Σίμων Πέτρος ἑστὼς καὶ θερμαινόμενος. εἶπον οὖν αὐτῷ· Μὴ καὶ σὺ ἐκ τῶν μαθητῶν αὐτοῦ εἶ; ⸀ἠρνήσατο ἐκεῖνος καὶ εἶπεν· Οὐκ εἰμί.

25 Erat autem Simon Petrus stans, et calefaciens se. Dixerunt ergo ei : Numquid et tu ex discipulis ejus es? Negavit ille, et dixit : Non sum. 

26 λέγει εἷς ἐκ τῶν δούλων τοῦ ἀρχιερέως, συγγενὴς ὢν οὗ ἀπέκοψεν Πέτρος τὸ ὠτίον· Οὐκ ἐγώ σε εἶδον ἐν τῷ κήπῳ μετ’ αὐτοῦ;

26 Dicit ei unus ex servis pontificis, cognatus ejus, cujus abscidit Petrus auriculam : Nonne ego te vidi in horto cum illo?  

27 πάλιν οὖν ⸀ἠρνήσατο Πέτρος· καὶ εὐθέως ἀλέκτωρ ἐφώνησεν.

27 Iterum ergo negavit Petrus : et statim gallus cantavit.

Annotations

    22. And when he had said these things, one of the servants standing by, gave Jesus a blow, saying: Answerest thou the high priest so?  THEOPHYLACT. When Jesus had appealed to the testimony of the people by, an officer, wishing to clear himself, and shew that he was not one of those who admired our Lord, struck Him: And when He had thus spoken, one of the officers which stood by struck Jesus with the palm of his hand, saying, Answerest Thou the high priest so?

    AUGUSTINE. (de Con. Evang. iii. vi) This shews that Annas was the high priest, for this was before He was sent to Caiaphas. And Luke in the beginning of his Gospel says, that Annas and Caiaphas were both high priests.

    23. Jesus answered him: If I have spoken evil, give testimony of the evil; but if well, why strikest thou me? ALCUIN. Here is fulfilled the prophecy, I gave my cheek to the smiters. Jesus, though struck unjustly, replied gently.

THEOPHYLACT. As if to say, If thou hast any fault to find with what I have said, shew it; if thou hast not, why ragest thou? Or thus: If I taught any thing unadvisedly, when I taught in the synagogues, give proof of it to the high priest; but if I taught aright, so that even ye officers admired, why smitest thou Me, Whom before thou admiredst?

AUGUSTINE. (Tr. cxiii) What can be truer, gentler, kinder, than this answer? He Who received the blow on the face neither wished for him who struck it that fire from heaven should consume him, or the earth open its mouth and swallow him; or a devil seize him; or any other yet more horrible kind of punishment. Yet had not He, by Whom the world was made, power to cause any one of these things to take place, but that He preferred teaching us that patience by which the world is overcome? Some one will ask here, why He did not do what He Himself commanded, i.e. not make this answer, but give the other cheek to the smiter? But what if He did both, both answered gently, and gave, not His check only to the smiter, but His whole body to be nailed to the Cross? And herein He shews, that those precepts of patience are to be performed not by posture of the body, but by preparation of the heart: for it is possible that a man might give his cheek outwardly, and yet be angry at the same time. How much better is it to answer truly, yet gently, and be ready to bear even harder usage patiently.

    24. And Annas sent him bound to Caiphas the high priest. CHRYSOSTOM. (Hom. lxxxiii) What should they do then but either disprove, or admit, what He said? Yet this they do not do: it is not a trial they are carrying on, but a faction, a tyranny. Not knowing what to do further, they send Him to Caiaphas: Now Annas sent Him bound to Caiaphas the high priest.

THEOPHYLACT. Thinking that as he was more cunning, he might find out something against Him worthy of death.

AUGUSTINE. (Tr. cxiii) He was the one to whom they were taking Him from the first, as Matthew says; he being the high priest of this year. We must understand that the pontificate was taken between them year by year alternately, and that it was by Caiaphas’s consent that they led Him first to Annas; or that their houses were so situated, that they could not but pass straight by that of Annas.

BEDE. Sent Him bound, not that He was bound now for the first time, for they bound Him when they took Him. They sent Him bound as they had brought Him. Or perhaps He may have been loosed from His bonds for that hour, in order to be examined, after which He was bound again, and sent to Caiaphas.

    25. And Simon Peter was standing, and warming himself. They said therefore to him: Art not thou also one of his disciples? He denied it, and said: I am not. 

AUGUSTINE. (Tr. cxiii) After the Evangelist has said that they sent Jesus bound from Annas to Caiaphas, he returns to Peter and his three denials, which took place in the house of Annas: And Simon Peter stood and warmed himself. He repeats what he had said before.

CHRYSOSTOM. (Hom. lxxxiii) Or, He means that the once fervid disciple was now too torpid, to move even when our Lord was carried away: shewing thereby how weak man’s nature is, when God forsakes him. Asked again, he again denies: They said therefore unto him, Art not thou also one of His disciples? He denied it, and said, I am not.

    26. One of the servants of the high priest (a kinsman to him whose ear Peter cut off) saith to him: Did I not see thee in the garden with him?  

    AUGUSTINE. (de Con. Evang. iii. 6) Here we find Peter not at the gate, but at the fire, when he denies the second time: so that he must have returned after he had gone out of doors, where Matthew says he was. He did not go out, and another damsel see him on the outside, but another damsel saw him as he was rising to go out, and remarked him, and told those who were by, i.e. those who were standing with her at the fire inside the hall, This fellow also was with Jesus of Nazareth. (Matt. xxvi. 71, 72) He heard this outside, and returned, and swore, I do not know the man. Then John continues: They said therefore unto him, Art not thou also one of His disciples? which words we suppose to have been said to him when he had come back, and was standing at the fire. And this explanation is confirmed by the fact, that besides the other damsel mentioned by Matthew and Mark in the second denial, there was another person, mentioned by Luke, who also questioned him. So John uses the plural: They said therefore unto him. And then follows the third denial: One of the servants of the high priest, being his kinsman whose ear Peter cut off, saith, Did not I see thee in the garden with Him? That Matthew and Mark speak of the party who here question Peter in the plural number, whereas Luke mentions only one, and John also, adding that that one was the kinsman of him whose ear Peter cut off, is easily explained by supposing that Matthew and Mark used the plural number by a common form of speech for the singular; or that one who had observed him most strictly put the question first, and others followed it up, and pressed Peter with more.

CHRYSOSTOM. (Hom. lxxxiii. 3) But neither did the garden bring back to his memory what he had then said, and the great professions of love he had made: Peter then denied again, and immediately the cock crew.

    27. Again therefore Peter denied; and immediately the cock crew.

    AUGUSTINE. (Tr. cxiii) Lo, the prophecy of the Physician is fulfilled, the presumption of the sick man demonstrated. That which Peter had said he would do, he had not done. I will lay down my life for Thy sake; but what our Lord had foretold had come to pass, Thou shall deny Me thrice. (Luke xxii. 34)

CHRYSOSTOM. (Hom. lxxxiii. 3) The Evangelists have all given the same account of the denials of Peter, not with any intention of throwing blame upon him, but to teach us how hurtful it is to trust in self, and not ascribe all to God.

BEDE. Mystically, by the first denial of Peter are denoted those who before our Lord’s Passion denied that He was God, by the second, those who did so after His resurrection. So by the first crowing of the cock His resurrection is signified; by the second, the general resurrection at the end of the world. By the first damsel, who obliged Peter to deny, is denoted lust, by the second, carnal delight: by one or more servants, the devils who persuade men to deny Christ.

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The Vladimirskaya Icon. >12th century.

SUB tuum præsidium confugimus, Sancta Dei Genitrix. Nostras deprecationes ne despicias in necessitatibus, sed a periculis cunctis libera nos semper, Virgo gloriosa et benedicta. Amen.

 

 

 

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.