Peter Is Afraid to Say He Knows Jesus^(A)

⁶⁶ While Peter was still in the yard, a servant girl of the high priest came there. ⁶⁷ She saw him warming himself by the fire. She looked closely at him and said, “You were with Jesus, that man from Nazareth.”

⁶⁸ But Peter said this was not true. “That makes no sense,” he said. “I don’t know what you are talking about!” Then he left and went to the entrance of the yard, and a rooster crowed.^[a]

⁶⁹ When the servant girl saw him there, she began saying again to the people standing around, “This man is one of them.” ⁷⁰ Again Peter said it was not true.

A short time later, the people standing there said, “We know you are one of them, because you are from Galilee.”

⁷¹ Then Peter began to curse. He said, “I swear to God, I don’t know this man you are talking about!”

⁷² As soon as Peter said this, the rooster crowed the second time. Then he remembered what Jesus had told him: “Before the rooster crows twice, you will say three times that you don’t know me.” Then Peter began to cry.