Matthew 26:58

THE MESSAGE

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Peter was following him at a distance right to the high priest’s courtyard. He went in and was sitting with the servants to see the outcome.

King James Version (1611)
But Peter followed him afarre off, vnto the high Priests palace, and went in, and sate with the seruants to see the end.

King James Version
But Peter followed him afar off unto the high priest's palace, and went in, and sat with the servants, to see the end.

English Standard Version
And Peter was following him at a distance, as far as the courtyard of the high priest, and going inside he sat with the guards to see the end.

New American Standard Bible
But Peter was following Him at a distance, as far as the courtyard of the high priest, and he came inside and sat down with the officers to see the outcome.

New Century Version
Peter followed far behind to the courtyard of the high priest's house, and he sat down with the guards to see what would happen to Jesus.

Amplified Bible
But Peter followed Him at a distance as far as the courtyard of the [elegant home of the Jewish] high priest, and went inside, and sat with the guards to see the outcome.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
But Peter was following Him at a distance as far as the courtyard of the high priest, and entered in, and sat down with the officers to see the outcome.

Legacy Standard Bible
But Peter was following Him at a distance as far as the courtyard of the high priest, and entered in, and sat down with the officers to see the outcome.

Berean Standard Bible
But Peter followed Him at a distance, right up to the courtyard of the high priest. And he went in and sat down with the guards to see the outcome.

Contemporary English Version
But Peter followed along at a distance and came to the courtyard of the high priest's palace. He went in and sat down with the guards to see what was going to happen.

Complete Jewish Bible
Kefa followed him at a distance as far as the courtyard of the cohen hagadol; then he went inside and sat down with the guards to see what the outcome would be.

Darby Translation
And Peter followed him at a distance, even to the palace of the high priest, and entering in sat with the officers to see the end.

Easy-to-Read Version
Peter followed Jesus but stayed back at a distance. He followed him to the yard of the high priest's house. Peter went in and sat with the guards. He wanted to see what would happen to Jesus.

Geneva Bible (1587)
And Peter followed him a farre off vnto the hie Priestes hall, and went in, and sate with the seruants to see the ende.

George Lamsa Translation
But Simon Peter followed him afar off, up to the courtyard of the high priest, and he went inside and sat with the soldiers, to see the end.

Good News Translation
Peter followed from a distance, as far as the courtyard of the High Priest's house. He went into the courtyard and sat down with the guards to see how it would all come out.

Lexham English Bible
But Peter was following him from a distance, as far as the courtyard of the high priest. And he went inside and was sitting with the officers to see the outcome.

Literal Translation
And Peter followed Him from a distance, even to the court of the high priest. And going inside, he sat with the under-officers to see the end.

American Standard Version
But Peter followed him afar off, unto the court of the high priest, and entered in, and sat with the officers, to see the end.

Bible in Basic English
But Peter went after him at a distance, to the house of the high priest, and went in and took his seat with the servants, to see the end.

Hebrew Names Version
But Kefa followed him from a distance, to the court of the Kohen Gadol, and entered in and sat with the officers, to see the end.

International Standard Version
Peter, however, followed him at a distance as far as the high priest's courtyard. He went inside and sat down with the servants to see how this would end.

Etheridge Translation
But Shemun Kipha went after him from afar unto the court of the chief of the priests, and entered and sat within with the attendants, that he might see the end.

Murdock Translation
And Simon Cephas followed after him at a distance, unto the high priest's hall, and entered, and sat with the servants within, that he might see the issue.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
But Peter folowed hym a farre of, vnto the hye priestes palace, and went in, and sate with the seruauntes to see the ende.

English Revised Version
But Peter followed him afar off, unto the court of the high priest, and entered in, and sat with the officers, to see the end.

World English Bible
But Peter followed him from a distance, to the court of the high priest, and entered in, and sat with the officers, to see the end.

Wesley's New Testament (1755)
But Peter followed him afar off to the high priest's palace, and going in, sat with the officers, to see the end.

Weymouth's New Testament
And Peter kept following Him at a distance, till he came even to the court of the High Priest's palace, where he entered and sat down among the officers to see the issue.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
But Petir swede him afer, in to the halle of the prince of prestis; and he wente in, and sat with the seruauntis, to se the ende.

Update Bible Version
But Peter followed him from far off, to the court of the high priest, and entered in, and sat with the attendants, to see the end.

Webster's Bible Translation
But Peter followed him at a distance, to the high priest's palace, and went in, and sat with the servants to see the end.

New English Translation
But Peter was following him from a distance, all the way to the high priest's courtyard. After going in, he sat with the guards to see the outcome.

New King James Version
But Peter followed Him at a distance to the high priest's courtyard. And he went in and sat with the servants to see the end.

New Living Translation
Meanwhile, Peter followed him at a distance and came to the high priest's courtyard. He went in and sat with the guards and waited to see how it would all end.

New Life Bible
But Peter followed Him a long way behind while going to the house of the head religious leader. Then he went in and sat with the helpers to see what would happen.

New Revised Standard
But Peter was following him at a distance, as far as the courtyard of the high priest; and going inside, he sat with the guards in order to see how this would end.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Now, Peter, was following him afar off, unto the court of the High-priest, - and, entering within, was sitting with the attendants, to see the end.

Douay-Rheims Bible
And Peter followed him afar off, even to the court of the high priest, And going in, he sat with the servants, that he might see the end.

Revised Standard Version
But Peter followed him at a distance, as far as the courtyard of the high priest, and going inside he sat with the guards to see the end.

Tyndale New Testament (1525)
And Peter folowed him a farre of vnto the hye prestes place: and went in and sate with the servauntes to se the ende.

Young's Literal Translation
and Peter was following him afar off, unto the court of the chief priest, and having gone in within, he was sitting with the officers, to see the end.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
As for Peter, he folowed him a farre of vnto the hye prestes palace, & wente in, and sat with the seruauntes, that he might se the ende.

Mace New Testament (1729)
but Peter followed him at a distance to the high priest's palace, and going in, he sat with the officers to see the event.

Simplified Cowboy Version
Pete had been followin' along like a Comanche warrior, at a distance and without bein' seen. He snuck in to the meetin' and sat down in the back to see what the outcome would be.

Contextual Overview

⁵⁷The gang that had seized Jesus led him before Caiaphas the Chief Priest, where the religion scholars and leaders had assembled. Peter followed at a safe distance until they got to the Chief Priest's courtyard. Then he slipped in and mingled with the servants, watching to see how things would turn out. ⁵⁹The high priests, conspiring with the Jewish Council, tried to cook up charges against Jesus in order to sentence him to death. But even though many stepped up, making up one false accusation after another, nothing was believable. Finally two men came forward with this: "He said, ‘I can tear down this Temple of God and after three days rebuild it.'" The Chief Priest stood up and said, "What do you have to say to the accusation?" Jesus kept silent. Then the Chief Priest said, "I command you by the authority of the living God to say if you are the Messiah, the Son of God." Jesus was curt: "You yourself said it. And that's not all. Soon you'll see it for yourself: The Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Mighty One, Arriving on the clouds of heaven." At that, the Chief Priest lost his temper, ripping his robes, yelling, "He blasphemed! Why do we need witnesses to accuse him? You all heard him blaspheme! Are you going to stand for such blasphemy?" They all said, "Death! That seals his death sentence." Then they were spitting in his face and banging him around. They jeered as they slapped him: "Prophesy, Messiah: Who hit you that time?" All this time, Peter was sitting out in the courtyard. One servant girl came up to him and said, "You were with Jesus the Galilean." In front of everybody there, he denied it. "I don't know what you're talking about." As he moved over toward the gate, someone else said to the people there, "This man was with Jesus the Nazarene." Again he denied it, salting his denial with an oath: "I swear, I never laid eyes on the man." Shortly after that, some bystanders approached Peter. "You've got to be one of them. Your accent gives you away." Then he got really nervous and swore. "I don't know the man!" Just then a rooster crowed. Peter remembered what Jesus had said: "Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times." He went out and cried and cried and cried. ⁶¹Anointed for Burial When Jesus finished saying these things, he told his disciples, "You know that Passover comes in two days. That's when the Son of Man will be betrayed and handed over for crucifixion." At that very moment, the party of high priests and religious leaders was meeting in the chambers of the Chief Priest named Caiaphas, conspiring to seize Jesus by stealth and kill him. They agreed that it should not be done during Passover Week. "We don't want a riot on our hands," they said. When Jesus was at Bethany, a guest of Simon the Leper, a woman came up to him as he was eating dinner and anointed him with a bottle of very expensive perfume. When the disciples saw what was happening, they were furious. "That's criminal! This could have been sold for a lot and the money handed out to the poor." When Jesus realized what was going on, he intervened. "Why are you giving this woman a hard time? She has just done something wonderfully significant for me. You will have the poor with you every day for the rest of your lives, but not me. When she poured this perfume on my body, what she really did was anoint me for burial. You can be sure that wherever in the whole world the Message is preached, what she has just done is going to be remembered and admired." That is when one of the Twelve, the one named Judas Iscariot, went to the cabal of high priests and said, "What will you give me if I hand him over to you?" They settled on thirty silver pieces. He began looking for just the right moment to hand him over. On the first of the Days of Unleavened Bread, the disciples came to Jesus and said, "Where do you want us to prepare your Passover meal?" He said, "Enter the city. Go up to a certain man and say, ‘The Teacher says, My time is near. I and my disciples plan to celebrate the Passover meal at your house.'" The disciples followed Jesus' instructions to the letter, and prepared the Passover meal. After sunset, he and the Twelve were sitting around the table. During the meal, he said, "I have something hard but important to say to you: One of you is going to hand me over to the conspirators." They were stunned, and then began to ask, one after another, "It isn't me, is it, Master?" Jesus answered, "The one who hands me over is someone I eat with daily, one who passes me food at the table. In one sense the Son of Man is entering into a way of treachery well-marked by the Scriptures—no surprises here. In another sense that man who turns him in, turns traitor to the Son of Man—better never to have been born than do this!" Then Judas, already turned traitor, said, "It isn't me, is it, Rabbi?" Jesus said, "Don't play games with me, Judas." During the meal, Jesus took and blessed the bread, broke it, and gave it to his disciples: Take, eat. This is my body. Taking the cup and thanking God, he gave it to them: Drink this, all of you. This is my blood, God's new covenant poured out for many people for the forgiveness of sins. "I'll not be drinking wine from this cup again until that new day when I'll drink with you in the kingdom of my Father." They sang a hymn and went directly to Mount Olives. Then Jesus told them, "Before the night's over, you're going to fall to pieces because of what happens to me. There is a Scripture that says, I'll strike the shepherd; helter-skelter the sheep will be scattered. But after I am raised up, I, your Shepherd, will go ahead of you, leading the way to Galilee." Peter broke in, "Even if everyone else falls to pieces on account of you, I won't." "Don't be so sure," Jesus said. "This very night, before the rooster crows up the dawn, you will deny me three times." Peter protested, "Even if I had to die with you, I would never deny you." All the others said the same thing. Then Jesus went with them to a garden called Gethsemane and told his disciples, "Stay here while I go over there and pray." Taking along Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he plunged into an agonizing sorrow. Then he said, "This sorrow is crushing my life out. Stay here and keep vigil with me." Going a little ahead, he fell on his face, praying, "My Father, if there is any way, get me out of this. But please, not what I want. You, what do you want?" When he came back to his disciples, he found them sound asleep. He said to Peter, "Can't you stick it out with me a single hour? Stay alert; be in prayer so you don't wander into temptation without even knowing you're in danger. There is a part of you that is eager, ready for anything in God. But there's another part that's as lazy as an old dog sleeping by the fire." He then left them a second time. Again he prayed, "My Father, if there is no other way than this, drinking this cup to the dregs, I'm ready. Do it your way." When he came back, he again found them sound asleep. They simply couldn't keep their eyes open. This time he let them sleep on, and went back a third time to pray, going over the same ground one last time. When he came back the next time, he said, "Are you going to sleep on and make a night of it? My time is up, the Son of Man is about to be handed over to the hands of sinners. Get up! Let's get going! My betrayer is here." The words were barely out of his mouth when Judas (the one from the Twelve) showed up, and with him a gang from the high priests and religious leaders brandishing swords and clubs. The betrayer had worked out a sign with them: "The one I kiss, that's the one—seize him." He went straight to Jesus, greeted him, "How are you, Rabbi?" and kissed him. Jesus said, "Friend, why this charade?" Then they came on him—grabbed him and roughed him up. One of those with Jesus pulled his sword and, taking a swing at the Chief Priest's servant, cut off his ear. Jesus said, "Put your sword back where it belongs. All who use swords are destroyed by swords. Don't you realize that I am able right now to call to my Father, and twelve companies—more, if I want them—of fighting angels would be here, battle-ready? But if I did that, how would the Scriptures come true that say this is the way it has to be?" Then Jesus addressed the mob: "What is this—coming out after me with swords and clubs as if I were a dangerous criminal? Day after day I have been sitting in the Temple teaching, and you never so much as lifted a hand against me. You've done it this way to confirm and fulfill the prophetic writings." Then all the disciples cut and ran. The gang that had seized Jesus led him before Caiaphas the Chief Priest, where the religion scholars and leaders had assembled. Peter followed at a safe distance until they got to the Chief Priest's courtyard. Then he slipped in and mingled with the servants, watching to see how things would turn out. The high priests, conspiring with the Jewish Council, tried to cook up charges against Jesus in order to sentence him to death. But even though many stepped up, making up one false accusation after another, nothing was believable. Finally two men came forward with this: "He said, ‘I can tear down this Temple of God and after three days rebuild it.'" ⁶² The Chief Priest stood up and said, "What do you have to say to the accusation?" ⁶³ Jesus kept silent. Then the Chief Priest said, "I command you by the authority of the living God to say if you are the Messiah, the Son of God." ⁶⁴ Jesus was curt: "You yourself said it. And that's not all. Soon you'll see it for yourself: The Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Mighty One, Arriving on the clouds of heaven." ⁶⁵At that, the Chief Priest lost his temper, ripping his robes, yelling, "He blasphemed! Why do we need witnesses to accuse him? You all heard him blaspheme! Are you going to stand for such blasphemy?" They all said, "Death! That seals his death sentence." ⁶⁷Then they were spitting in his face and banging him around. They jeered as they slapped him: "Prophesy, Messiah: Who hit you that time?"

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

and went: John 18:15, John 18:16, John 18:25

Reciprocal: Matthew 26:3 - the palace Matthew 26:69 - Peter Matthew 26:70 - General Mark 14:54 - Peter Mark 14:66 - as Luke 22:54 - took Acts 4:13 - they took

Gill's Notes on the Bible

But Peter followed him afar off,.... The Ethiopic version adds, alone; and which seems to be the true case; for though there was another disciple who also followed Jesus, and is thought to be John, yet it looks as if they followed him separately, and not together; for the other disciple went into the palace with Jesus, but Peter not till afterwards, being espied by his fellow disciple standing without. These two it seems, having a little recovered themselves from the fright they had been put into, stopped and turned back, and followed after Jesus, to see what would be the issue of things. Peter's following Christ, showed love to him; he was lothe to leave him, his bowels moved towards him, and he wanted to know how it would fare with him, and what would become of him; and yet keeping at a distance, following him afar off, betrayed fear, lest he should be observed, and taken up, and come into danger: however, he proceeded on his way in a slow pace, till he came

unto the high priest's palace, and went in and sat with the servants, to see the end; of the matter, or business, as the Ethiopic and Persic versions add; to see how it would go with him, whether he would exert his divine power, and deliver himself out of their, hands, which he knew he was able to do, when he would again join him; or what punishment they would inflict upon him, whether they would scourge him, and then let him go; or whether they would sentence him to death; that so he might know how to provide for his own safety: all which was indulging curiosity, and the carnal reasonings of his mind; and it showed want of integrity at that time, and some degree of hypocrisy, in placing himself among the servants of the high priest, as if he was none of the followers of Jesus, but was of the same complexion and cast with them: he had got into bad company, and was in the way of temptation; and though he had no design in following Jesus, and in going into the high priest's palace, and seating himself among the servants to deny his Lord, yet all this led on to it; for which reason these several circumstances are taken notice of, the account of which denial of his, is afterwards related.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Peter followed afar off - By this he evinced two things:

1. Real attachment to his Master; a desire to be near him and to witness his trial.
2. Fear respecting his personal safety. He therefore kept so far off as to be out of danger, and yet so near as that he might witness the transactions respecting his Master.

Perhaps he expected to be lost and unobserved in the crowd. Many, in this, imitate Peter. They are afraid to follow the Saviour closely. They fear danger, ridicule, or persecution. They “follow him,” but it is at a great distance - so far that it is difficult to discern that they are in the train, and are his friends at all. Religion requires us to be near to Christ. We may measure our piety by our desire to be with him, to be like him, and by our willingness to follow him always - through trials, contempt, persecution, and death. Compare the notes at Philippians 3:10. John says that another disciple went with Peter. By that other disciple it is commonly supposed, as he did not mention his name, that he meant himself. He was acquainted with the high priest, and went immediately into the hall.

Unto the high priest’s palace - The word rendered “palace” means, rather, the hall, or middle court, or “area” of his house. It was situated in the center of the palace, and was commonly uncovered. See the notes and plan of a house in Matthew 9:1-8.

And went in - John informs us that he did not go immediately in; but the ether disciple, being known to the high priest, went in first, while Peter remained at the gate or entrance. The other disciple then went out and brought in Peter. Matthew, Mark, and Luke have omitted this circumstance. John recorded it, probably, because they had omitted it, and because he was the “other disciple” concerned in it.

Sat with the servants to see the end - That is, the end of the trial, or to see how it would go with his Master. The other evangelists say that he stood with the servants warming himself. John says, it being cold, they had made a fire of coals and warmed themselves. It was then, probably, not far from midnight. The place where they were was uncovered; and travelers say that, though the “days” are warm in Judea at that season of the year, yet that the nights are often uncomfortably cold. This fire was made “in the hall” (Luke). The fire was not in a “fireplace,” as we commonly suppose, but was probably made of “coals” laid on the pavement. At this place and time was Peter’s first “denial” of his Lord, as is recorded afterward. See Matthew 26:69.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 58. Peter followed him afar off — Poor Peter! this is the beginning of his dreadful fall. His fear kept him from joining the company, and publicly acknowledging his Lord; and his affection obliged him to follow at a distance that he might see the end.

And sat with the servants, to see the end. — When a man is weak in faith, and can as yet only follow Christ at a distance, he should avoid all dangerous places, and the company of those who are most likely to prove a snare to him. Had not Peter got to the high priest's palace, and sat down with the servants, he would not thus have denied his Lord and Master.

Servants-officers, υπηρετων. Such as we term serjeants, constables, &c.