Peter Denies His Lord

⁵⁴ They seized him, led him away, and brought him into the high priest’s house. Meanwhile Peter^(A) was following at a distance. ⁵⁵ They^(B) lit a fire in the middle of the courtyard^(C) and sat down together, and Peter sat among them. ⁵⁶ When a servant saw him sitting in the light, and looked closely at him, she said, “This man was with him too.”

⁵⁷ But he denied it: “Woman, I don’t know him.”

⁵⁸ After a little while, someone else saw him and said, “You’re one of them too.”

“Man, I am not!” Peter said.

⁵⁹ About an hour later, another kept insisting, “This man was certainly with him, since he’s also a Galilean.”

⁶⁰ But Peter said, “Man, I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Immediately, while he was still speaking, a rooster crowed. ⁶¹ Then the Lord turned and looked at Peter.^(D) So Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said to him, “Before the rooster crows today, you will deny me three times.”^{(E) 62} And he went outside and wept bitterly.

Jesus’s Threefold Restoration of Peter

¹⁵ When they had eaten breakfast, Jesus asked Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John,^[a] do you love me more than these?”

“Yes, Lord,” he said to him, “you know that I love you.”

“Feed my lambs,” he told him. ¹⁶ A second time he asked him, “Simon, son of John, do you love^(A) me?”^(B)

“Yes, Lord,” he said to him, “you know that I love you.”

“Shepherd^(C) my sheep,”^(D) he told him.

¹⁷ He asked him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love^(E) me?”

Peter was grieved^(F) that he asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know everything;^(G) you know that I love you.”

“Feed^(H) my sheep,” Jesus said. ¹⁸ “Truly I tell you,^(I) when you were younger, you would tie your belt and walk wherever you wanted. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will tie you and carry you where you don’t want to go.” ¹⁹ He said this to indicate by what kind of death^(J) Peter would glorify God.^(K) After saying this, he told him, “Follow me.”^(L)

Correcting a False Report

²⁰ So Peter turned around and saw the disciple Jesus loved^(M) following them, the one who had leaned back against Jesus at the supper and asked, “Lord, who is the one that’s going to betray you?” ^{(N) 21} When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, “Lord, what about him?”

²² “If I want him to remain until I come,”^(O) Jesus answered, “what is that to you? As for you, follow me.”

²³ So this rumor^[b] spread to the brothers and sisters^(P) that this disciple would not die.^(Q) Yet Jesus did not tell him that he would not die, but, “If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you?”

Epilogue

²⁴ This is the disciple who testifies to these things and who wrote them down. We know that his testimony is true.

²⁵ And there are also many other things that Jesus did, which, if every one of them were written down, I suppose not even the world itself could contain the books^[c] that would be written.^(R)

²³ For all have sinned^(A) and fall short of the^[a] glory of God; ²⁴ they are justified freely by his grace^(B) through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.^(C)