On Forgiving Peter's Denial

Comparing translations

Reading the non-canonical material alongside this shows how wide the shared vocabulary of the period really was. Looking only at what was eventually collected hides that width entirely.

Another way to read it

Now set it back into its own century. What was the community that first heard this actually worried about? Simply imagining that changes the temperature of every line.（マルコによる福音書 1:32-35）

Reading the non-canonical material alongside this shows how wide the shared vocabulary of the period really was. Looking only at what was eventually collected hides that width entirely.

Pull a single verse out of its paragraph and you can make it say almost anything. This particular verse has been made to say a great deal. Which is precisely why it deserves to be read with what stands on either side of it.（マルコによる福音書 14:33）

A note

I went through several scholarly treatments and found nothing decisive. On reflection, the absence of anything decisive may be the most appropriate result this passage could produce.

• One verse, read slowly, with one word held up to the light.
• What came into view when I set three translations side by side.
• Moving back and forth between an ordinary week and an ancient text.

Comparing translations

Let me set the terms. This is not an argument about doctrinal correctness. It is one reader's account of what the text can be made to yield. I am going to leave the ending open on purpose.

Another way to read it

Put the translations side by side and the same verse arrives differently each time. One is soft, another is severe, and the original is a third thing that is neither. That difference is itself a way in.