Now Peter sat without in the palace
Peter's denial of his Lord, the account of which follows, is
related among the sufferings of Christ; and indeed, the ill usage
he met with from his enemies, their spitting in his face,
buffeting him with their fists, smiting him on the cheeks with
their hands, and rods, did not give him so much pain and grief,
as to be denied by his own disciple: we are before told, (
Matthew
26:58 ) , that Peter followed Christ afar off, and went into
the high priest's palace, and sat with the servants there, to see
what would be the end and issue of these things: and here now he
was in the apartment, where the council sat, and were examining
and trying Jesus; though, as Mark says, "beneath in the palace",
( Mark
14:66 ) ; in the lower part of the room, in the great hall,
in the midst of which the servants had made a fire: the Arabic
version reads it, "in the area of the court": here Peter had
placed himself, and here he sat making his observations:
and a damsel came unto him;
one of the maids of the high priest, as Mark says, ( Mark 14:66 ) ; and
according to the Evangelist John, was she that kept the door, and
had let him in, ( John 18:16 John 18:17 ) ,
saying, thou also wast with Jesus of Galilee.
The Arabic and Persic versions read, Jesus the Nazarene, or of
Nazareth, as below. So she called him, not so much to distinguish
him from any other of that name, as by way of reproach;
suggesting, that he could not be the Messiah, or that prophet;
since Christ comes not out of Galilee, nor does any prophet arise
from thence: and when she charges him with being "with" him, her
meaning is not, that he was with him in the garden, when he was
taken; where it cannot be thought she was to see him; nor with
him in the temple, or in any part of Jerusalem, where she
possibly might have seen him; but that he was a disciple of his,
one that believed in him, embraced him as the Messiah, had
imbibed his principles and doctrines, and was of his party; and
was only come thither as a spy, to see what would be done to him.