Luke 22:56-61

22:56 Then a slave girl, ¹  seeing him as he sat in the firelight, stared at him and said, “This man was with him too!” 22:57 But Peter ²  denied it: “Woman, ³  I don’t know ⁴  him!” 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!” 22:59 And after about an hour still another insisted, ⁸  “Certainly this man was with him, because he too is a Galilean.” ⁹  22:60 But Peter said, “Man, I don’t know what you’re talking about!” At that moment, ¹⁰  while he was still speaking, a rooster crowed. ¹¹  22:61 Then ¹²  the Lord turned and looked straight at Peter, and Peter remembered the word of the Lord, ¹³  how he had said to him, “Before a rooster crows today, you will deny me three times.”

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¹ tn The Greek term here is παιδίσκη (paidiskh), referring to a slave girl or slave woman.

² tn Grk “he denied it, saying.” The referent (Peter) has been specified in the translation for clarity. The participle λέγων (legwn) is redundant and has not been translated.

³ sn Woman was a polite form of address (see BDAG 208-9 s.v. γυνή), similar to “Madam” or “Ma’am” used in English in different regions.

⁴ sn The expression “I do not know him” had an idiomatic use in Jewish ban formulas in the synagogue and could mean, “I have nothing to do with him.”

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

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

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

⁸ tn Grk “insisted, saying.” The participle λέγων (legwn) is redundant in English and has not been translated here.

⁹ sn According to Mark 14:70 it was Peter’s accent that gave him away as a Galilean.

¹⁰ tn Grk “And immediately.” Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

¹¹ 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 14:72 mentions the rooster crowing twice. See the discussion at Matt 26:74.

¹² tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

¹³ tn “The word of the Lord” is a technical expression in OT literature, often referring to a divine prophetic utterance (e.g., Gen 15:1, Isa 1:10, Jonah 1:1). In the NT it occurs 15 times: 3 times as ῥῆμα τοῦ κυρίου (rJhma tou kuriou; here and in Acts 11:16, 1 Pet 1:25) and 12 times as λόγος τοῦ κυρίου (logo" tou kuriou; Acts 8:25; 13:44, 48, 49; 15:35, 36; 16:32; 19:10, 20; 1 Thess 1:8, 4:15; 2 Thess 3:1). As in the OT, this phrase focuses on the prophetic nature and divine origin of what has been said. Because of its technical nature the expression has been retained in the translation in preference to a smoother rendering like “remembered what the Lord had said” (cf. TEV, NLT).