(38) wilt thou lay down thy life for my sake?--Comp. for this phrase Note on John 10:11. The pronouns are emphatic, and there is a solemn emphasis in the repetition of what St. Peter had said. He was using words of which he knew not the full meaning. He spoke of laying down his life for his Lord. He would hereafter be able to follow, because his Lord would lay down His own life for him. For the remainder of the verse, comp. Notes on Matthew 26:34; Mark 14:30; and Luke 22:34. Verse 38. - With infinite pathos and pity Christ took up the words of Peter: Jesus answereth, Wilt thou lay down thy life for my sake? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, The cock shall not have crowed, till thou hast denied me thrice. In Matthew 26:31-35 and Mark 11:27-31 the announcement of Peter's fate is made on the way to the garden of Gethsemane; Luke's account (Luke 22:31, etc.) may harmonize chronologically with this statement of John; but from all we know of Peter, it is probable that, after his long silence maintained during the discourse of John 14-17, his love may have been so quickened and deepened as to have once more induced the reiteration of his fidelity and his willingness to die for and with his Master, only to receive again a more explicit warning of his weakness. Towards the close of the sixteenth chapter of this Gospel, the Lord warns all his disciples of their inability to stand the tremendous test to which they would soon be exposed. If we reject the "harmony," and refuse to double the prediction, we should be strongly inclined, with Meyer and Lucke, to accept the higher credibility of John's chronology than that of Matthew or Mark. The extraordinary character of this prediction, recorded in all four Gospels, is one of the most vivid proofs of our Lord's supernatural power, and in its detail and definiteness places him among those who claim attention from their absolute knowledge, and not their vague guess of the future. Yet there was no fate in this prediction; for Peter is afterwards warned, entreated, prayed for even, by Immanuel. verily, verily, I say unto thee, the cock shall not crow, till thou hast denied me thrice; not that Peter should deny him three times, before the cock crowed once; for certain it is, that Peter denied Christ but once, before the cock crew, Mark 14:68; but the meaning is, that before the cock had, lone crowing, or within the time of cock crowing, he should deny him thrice: whence it follows, that there is no necessity of concluding from hence, that this night was the passover night, and the night in which Judas betrayed Christ, and Peter denied him, but was two nights before; and therefore it is not said here, as by the other evangelists, "this day", or "this night", or "this day, even this night thou shalt deny me"; only in general before the cock crow, or within the time of cock crowing: so that it appears, that Peter twice expressed his confidence, in laying down his life for Christ; once at the supper in Simon's house at Bethany, two days before the "passover", and again at the passover supper in Jerusalem; and as often Christ rebuked his confidence by this expression, only varying it as the different times required, and therein gave a full proof of his omniscience. |