I Don't Know What You Are Talking About

⁶⁶ While Peter was below in the courtyard, one of the servant girls of the high priest came by. ⁶⁷ When she saw Peter warming himself, she looked closely at him.

“You also were with that Nazarene, Jesus,” she said.

⁶⁸ But he denied it. “I don’t know or understand what you’re talking about,” he said, and went out into the entryway.

⁶⁹ When the servant girl saw him there, she said again to those standing around, “This fellow is one of them.” ⁷⁰ Again he denied it.

After a little while, those standing near said to Peter, “Surely you are one of them, for you are a Galilean.”

⁷¹ He began to call down curses, and he swore to them, “I don’t know this man you’re talking about.”

⁷² Immediately the rooster crowed the second time. Then Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken to him:“Before the rooster crows twice you will disown me three times.” And he broke down and wept.

As Jesus is agreeing with the High Priest about his messiahship, Peter has retained his physical distance.  He is approached by a slave girl of the high priest.  It is helpful to keep in mind that the ear was taken off of the last servant of the high priest in the story.  She eyes Peter up and down and then pronounces that she has seen him with Jesus the Nazarene.

An odd word in the accusation is the "also."  It seems unnecessary as there is no else around who has been identified as being with Jesus.  Is there some other encounter that has been left on the floor of the editor?  We do not know.

Peter acts as if she is form another planet.  He has no idea what she is talking about, he tells her.  The encounter completed he goes to the entryway, further distancing himself physically from Jesus.

The servant girls comes upon him again and tells those who are standing around that Peter is one of them (again, "them" seems a bit odd if slightly more understandable than the also).  A second time Peter denies.

And then the crowd says that he must be one of "them" because he is clearly from the backwater of Galilee (did his accent or clothing give him away?)  Peter denies, again, by calling God's judgment on them for lying.  In salty words, he tells them that he doesn't even know the man they are talking about, clearly avoiding invoking Jesus name.

It is a crescendo of denial.  Peter first denies that he understands what he is being asked.  Peter's second denial is that he is one of "them."  His third denial is that he does not even know Jesus.  Peter tries initially to redirect, then denies association with the group and finally with Jesus himself.

There is a clear mirror here between these incidents and Jesus' trial in the previous verses.  Jesus is innocent but the witnesses lie and he is convicted.  Peter is guilty and the witnesses tell the truth and he goes free.

In the larger context of Christian persecution that Mark's original readers were in, this scene would resonate with their experiences of fellow Christians who under persecution lied rather than faced execution.  They knew the fear that came with being identified as one of "them."

The rooster crows the second time (Mark does not record the first).  And in that moment, Peter has clarity that in seeking to save his life he has lost it and until he is ready to lose it he will not be able to save it.  His salty tears follow his salty curses and he realizes that he has brought heaven's judgement on himself.