A certain mystery surrounds one of the apostles at the time of the arrest of Jesus. Whereas the synoptists emphasize that Peter “followed afar off” after recovering from his first panic, “another disciple went in with Jesus.”
Quite a case can be made for taking this “other disciple” (John 18:15) to be Judas. But then there is the difficulty: Why should Judas exert himself to get Peter into the courtyard when that hot-blooded colleague of his could be counted on to resent the Lord’s betrayal very strongly? Was he hoping to enroll a second witness for the prosecution?
On the other hand, assuming that this “other disciple” was John, there is here an easy explanation of the mention in his gospel of Malchus and of the kinsman of Malchus (v. 10,26). The reason for his astonishing privilege and immunity is given: “that disciple was known unto the high priest.” All kinds of guesses have been made to explain this strange fact, if it applies to John—from the speculation that the firm of Zebedee and Sons had a contract to supply the high priest’s palace with fish, to the idea of actual family relationship. This last is just within the bounds of possibility, for Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, was “of the daughters of Aaron” and was also kin to Mary the mother of Jesus; and she in turn was sister to Salome, the mother of James and John. But one cannot be completely certain that either Annas or Caiaphas had genuine connections with the true high-priestly line.
To continue reading this Bible article, click here.
Author: Harry Whittaker
Keywords: Peter's denial, Peter denied Jesus, Christ denied Jesus, cock crowing, cock crew, Peter denied Jesus thrice, Peter denied Jesus three times
Bible reference(s): Matt. 26:58, Matt. 26:69-75, Mark 14:54, Mark 14:66-72, Luke 22:56-62, John 18:15-18, John 18:25-27
Source: Studies in the Gospels.
Page indexed by: inWORD Bible Software.