XVII. THE MAID AND PETER AT THE HIGH PRIEST’S HOUSE

Matth. 26:71.—“And when he was gone out into the Porch (ton pulwna), another maid saw him, and said unto them, This man was also with Jesus of Nazareth.”

How came it to pass that Peter, a stranger, who had entered the house in the night, and under circumstances of some tumult and disorder, was thus singled out by the maid in the Porch?

Let us turn to St. John (ch. 18. ver. 16), and we shall find, that, after Jesus had entered, “Peter stood at the door without, till that other disciple went out which was known unto the high-priest, and spake unto her that kept the door, and brought in Peter.” Thus was the attention of that girl directed to Peter (a fact of which St. Matthew gives no hint whatever), and thus we see how it happened that he was recognised in the Porch. Here is a minute indication of veracity in St. Matthew, which would have been lost upon us had not the Gospel of St. John come down to our times;—and how many similar indications may be hid, from a want of other contemporary histories with which to make a comparison, it is impossible to conjecture.