55
In the middle of the courtyard some people had started a fire and were sitting around it, trying to keep warm.
56
One of the serving maids sitting at the fire noticed him, then took a second look and said, "This man was with him!"
57
He denied it, "Woman, I don't even know him."
58
A short time later, someone else noticed him and said, "You're one of them." But Peter denied it: "Man, I am not."
59
About an hour later, someone else spoke up, really adamant: "He's got to have been with him! He's got 'Galilean' written all over him."
60
Peter said, "Man, I don't know what you're talking about." At that very moment, the last word hardly off his lips, a rooster crowed.
61
Just then, the Master turned and looked at Peter. Peter remembered what the Master had said to him: "Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times."
62
He went out and cried and cried and cried.
63
The men in charge of Jesus began poking fun at him, slapping him around.
64
They put a blindfold on him and taunted, "Who hit you that time?"
65
They were having a grand time with him.