The Last Supper
Meanwhile, Peter was sitting out in the courtyard, and a servant girl came up to him. “You also were with Jesus the Galilean,” she said. Matthew 26:69 · Berean Standard Bible
While all this is happening, a servant girl walks up to Peter in the courtyard and says: you were with Jesus too, were you not?
This is the moment Jesus predicted. A young servant girl — not a soldier, not a priest — asks Peter a simple question, and Peter's courage crumbles.
A servant girl confronts Peter, and Peter responds with his first denial.
Hours ago, Peter said he would die for Jesus. Now he cannot even admit he knows Him when a servant girl asks.
Peter's first denial occurs when a servant girl (paidiske) identifies him as a companion of 'Jesus the Galilean,' and he denies it before everyone present.
The term 'the Galilean' marks Jesus (and by extension Peter) as an outsider in Jerusalem. Peter's denial takes place 'before all' (emprosthen panton), maximizing its public nature.
A servant girl accuses Peter, and he denies any association with Jesus.
The man who vowed to die for Jesus is undone by the question of a servant girl — the first crack in his courage appears before the lowliest accuser.
67Then they spit in His face and struck Him. Others slapped Him
68and said, “Prophesy to us, Christ! Who hit You?”
69Meanwhile, Peter was sitting out in the courtyard, and a servant girl came up to him. “You also were with Jesus the Galilean,” she said.
70But he denied it before them all: “I do not know what you are talking about.”
71When Peter had gone out to the gateway, another servant girl saw him and said to the people there, “This man was with Jesus of Nazareth.”
Read all of Matthew 26 — Bread broken. Wine poured. A betrayal predicted. The longest night in history begins around a table.
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