16. But Peter stood (was standing) at the door without. “An oriental house is usually built round a quadrangular interior court; into which there is a passage (sometimes arched) through the front part of the house, closed next the street by a heavy folding gate, with a small wicket for single persons, kept by a porter. In the text, the interior court, often paved or flagged, and open to the sky, is the αὐλή, where the attendants made a fire; and the passage, beneath the front of the house, from the street to this court is the προαύλιον (Mark xiv. 68), or πυλών (Matt. xxvi. 71). The place where Jesus [pg 314] stood before the high-priest may have been an open room or place of audience on the ground-floor, raised somewhat above the court (Mark xiv. 66) in the rear or on one side of the court; such rooms, open in front, being customary” (Robinson, Notes to Harmony).

17. Dicit ergo Petro ancilla ostiaria: Numquid et tu ex discipulis es hominis istius? Dicit ille: Non sum.17. The maid therefore that was portress, saith to Peter: Art not thou also one of this man's disciples? He saith: I am not.

17. It will be convenient to treat of the three denials by Peter (verses 17, 25-27) together. Many Rationalist and Protestant commentators have alleged that it is impossible to harmonize the different accounts of these denials. We hope to show, however, that there is little difficulty in harmonizing them.

To this end we would draw attention, with Dean Alford,[113] to the following points:—

“In the first place, we are not bound to require accordance ... in the recognition of Peter by different persons. These may have been many on each occasion of denial, and independent narrators may have fixed on different ones among them.”

“Secondly, no reader ... will require that the actual words spoken by Peter should in each case be identically reported.” In support of this view, Alford refers to the remarks of St. Augustine on the words: “Domine, salva nos, perimus” (Matt. viii. 25). “What matters it,” says St. Aug., referring to the different versions of the words given by the Evangelists, “whether the disciples, in calling on the Lord, really used one or another of those three expressions, or some other, not recorded by any of the Evangelists, differing from all those that are recorded, but still giving the sense, that those who called upon Him were perishing, and called on Him to save them.”

“Thirdly, I do not see that we are obliged to limit the narrative to three sentences from Peter's mouth, and no more. On three occasions during the night he was recognised, on three occasions he was a denier of his Lord: such a statement may well embrace reiterated expressions of recognition, and reiterated and importunate denials on each occasion.”

“And those remarks being taken into account, I premise that all difficulty is removed, the resulting inference being that the narratives are genuine, truthful accounts of facts underlying them all.”

Similarly, Patrizzi:—“Considerare etiam juvat, ut ea difficultas quam quidam in hac historia esse putant, quod alter Evangelista ait Petrum a muliere, alter a viro, hic ab uno, ille a pluribus, fuisse interrogatum, in specie quidem gravis, [pg 315] re tamen ipsa propemodum nulla sit; ex his enim nihil aliud consequitur, nisi, non unum, sed plures, sive simul, sive alium post alios, Petrum esse percontatos, hunc autem, nisi multis ac repetitis interrogationibus adactum non respondisse, quod apprime veri simile est, imo vix dubitandum de hoc foret, etiamsi ex evangeliis id minime colligeretur” (Lib. ii. Adnot. clxxviii.) That the reader may apply these principles, and convince himself as to their sufficiency, we quote from Dr. Walsh's Harmony of the Gospel Narratives, a tabulated statement suggesting the chief points to be attended to in the four Gospel accounts.

1st Denial: