NL 429: Peter's Denial

image: "St. Peter’s Denial", Rembrandt, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

John 18:12-27

March 20, 2022

John 18:12-27

Initial Thoughts

  • Read John 18:1-12 ( perhaps not in worship, but for context)

    • Twice Jesus asks those who came to arrest him, who are you looking for, they say, “Jesus of Nazareth” and he replied “I am he”

    • Peter has just “betrayed” Jesus by violated his way of non-violent love

    • When Judas betrayed Jesus and the temple soldiers came to arrest Jesus, Peter attacked Malchus, the slave of the high priest, and cut off his right ear

    • While this is depicted in the synoptics - only John says it was Peter who did it, and while Luke (22:51) uses this as an opportunity for a miraculous healing- such healing does not take place in John 

  • What’s missing - in John there is no “watch and wait with me one hour” and the disciples falling asleep in the Garden.

Bible Study

  • Back and forth movement between Jesus being questioned by Annas and Caiaphas and Peter’s repeated denials

    • vv.12-14 setting the scene- Annas and Caiaphas will preside over the trial

    • vv. 15-18 Peter’s first denial at the courtyard fire

    • vv. 19-24 Annas questions Jesus about his teachings

    • vv. 25-27 Peter denies Jesus twice more

  • Who’s Who

    • Caiaphas was the high priest from 18-36 CE

      • Was there at Lazarus' raising, which is referred to in this passage - John 11:50

    • Annas was high priest from 6-15 CE

    • Who is John referring to in v. 19 - Annas is unlikely since he hadn’t been the high priest for over 10 years, no Caiaphas, because he goes from there to Caiaphas - maybe Hanan (who had previously been high priest) - the ambiguity here seems to emphasize that Pilate is the one with the true political authority, not the Jewish leadership. (See Gerard Stephen Sloyan, John, Interpretation, p. 202).

      • The tensions between Rome and Caiaphas are alluded to here (v.14) which calls back to John 11:47-53

      • The Pharisees and other Jewish leadership were worried that Rome would retaliate against all the Jews

  • The first denial

    • Simon Peter and another disciple follow Jesus like a sheep follows the shepherd (cf. 10:4)

    • They enter into the “courtyard” which is the same word as “sheepfold” (10:1, 16). 

    • At first Peter is not allowed into the “fold”, when he finally is, the doorkeeper asks his is he is a follower/disciple of Jesus - he denies it

      • There is an intentional irony here in which Peter is choosing the “fold” of the high priest over Jesus. 

      • Important to note- that Peter is not making any claim about Jesus but about himself. “Peter does not deny Jesus, but denies being a disciple” Karoline Lewis, John, Fortress Biblical Interpretation Commentary, p.222

    • His gathering around the charcoal fire intentionally connects this passage to John 21. Here he does not understand what it means to be a disciple, he will learn in John 21.

    • “‘I am not’ perhaps an ironic inversion of Jesus’ use of ‘I am’ as divine self-designation.” (Adele Reinhartz, Jewish Annotated New Testament, p. 212-213)

  • Jesus before the High Priest

    • Coming off of Peter’s denial as a disciple, the high priest asks Jesus about his disciples. Jesus tells them to ask those who heard what he said. 

    • To hear Jesus is connected to knowing Jesus and proclaiming Jesus

    • Peter has already denied hearing Jesus

    • “In contrast to Matthew, John depicts no trial before Caiaphas or the Sanhedrin; which, if any, of the Gospel trial accounts is historical is impossible to determine.”  (Adele Reinhartz, Jewish Annotated New Testament, p. 212-213)

    • “Jews were not allow to impose the death penalty; thus Jesus is crucifed, a Roman penalty. Whether this is historically accurate is a matter of scholarly debate… [It is implied in several verses of Acts] that the Sanhedrin did have the power to carry out a capital sentence… From a narrative point of view, this verse helps to account for why it was the reluctant Pilate who had jurisdiction in this situation while it was the Jews who retained moral culpability.” (Adele Reinhartz, Jewish Annotated New Testament, p. 212-213)

  • Peter’s 2nd and third denial

    • There is a finality - Peter denies being a disciple and then denies even being the garden - he denies the intimacy of the farewell discourse - he denies being a companion with Jesus. 

    • Not only has be abandoned who Jesus is, he has abandoned all they have been through together - their entire relationship

Thoughts and Questions

  • What does it mean to follow Jesus when it is unpopular -- when it means risking everything? What are the ways in which we proclaim or deny Jesus in the face of war? Of Tyranny? Of injustice?

  • Peter denies and abandons Jesus, but Jesus never denies or abandons Peter, neither does he abandon Judas. God’s grace enfleshed in Jesus is absolute.

Year 4Eric FistlerJohnComment