The Fallible Study Bible

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Mark14:27–31

Jesus Predicts Peter’s Denial

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Mark 14:27–31 — Jesus Predicts Peter’s Denial. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.

27

Then Jesus said to them, “You will all fall away, for it is written: ‘I will strike the Shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.’

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Kai ho Iēsous legei autois hoti Pantes skandalisthēsesthe hoti gegraptai Pataxō ton poimena Kai ta probata diaskorpisthēsontai

Word by word17 · parsed
ΚαὶKaiThenG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ὁhoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ἸησοῦςIēsousJesusG2424
√ Ἰησοῦς — Jesus (iNounNominative Masculine Singular
λέγειlegeisaidG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
legō: to lay forth, to say Historic present in a narrative of the past. Mark does this constantly; here it puts the prediction in the reader's present tense, so that the warning is still being spoken while we read it.
αὐτοῖςautoisto themG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounDative Masculine 3rd Person Plural
ὅτιhotiG3754
√ ὅτι — demonstrative, that (sometimes redundant)Conjunction
ΠάντεςPantesvvvG3956
√ πᾶς — all, any, every, the wholeAdjectiveNominative Masculine Plural
pas: all, every, the whole Nominative Masculine Plural, fronted for emphasis: all of you. It is the word Peter will seize and try to bend in v. 29, and the word the narrator quietly confirms at the end of v. 31.
σκανδαλισθήσεσθεskandalisthēsestheYou will all fall awayG4624
√ σκανδαλίζω — to entrap, iVerbFuture Indicative Passive2nd Person Plural
skandalizō: to entrap, to cause to stumble Future passive: the stumbling is inflicted, not chosen. The noun behind this verb is the trigger of a trap, and the verb elsewhere in Mark describes what makes a disciple fall out of discipleship (Mark 4:17, Mark 9:42). Pulpit reads it against the stone of stumbling: Christ himself, under the conditions of arrest and crucifixion, becomes the occasion of his own disciples' fall. Peter contradicts exactly this verb in the next breath.
ὅτιhotiforG3754
√ ὅτι — demonstrative, that (sometimes redundant)Conjunction
γέγραπταιgegraptaiit is writtenG1125
√ γράφω — to "grave", especially to writeVerbPerfect Indicative Middle or Passive3rd Person Singular
graphō: to grave, to write Perfect tense, the standing formula for Scripture that has been written and remains written. The claim is heavy: the scattering about to happen is not an accident that overtook the plan but a line already inscribed in Zechariah 13:7. Gill and Cambridge both name the source; Pulpit prints the fuller Zechariah context (“Awake, O sword, against my Shepherd”).
ΠατάξωPataxōI will strikeG3960
√ πατάσσω — to knock (gently or with a weapon or fatally)VerbFuture Indicative Active1st Person Singular
patassō: to knock, to strike, to strike fatally A rare verb (10 verses), and here first person singular future: the speaker of the quoted line is God. The lexicon's range runs from a gentle knock to a fatal blow; in Zechariah's oracle a sword is summoned, so the fatal sense is in view. This is the sharpest edge of the verse: the cross is not merely permitted by the Father, it is his own stroke.
τὸνtontheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Singular
ποιμέναpoimenaShepherdG4166
√ ποιμήν — a shepherd (literally or figuratively)NounAccusative Masculine Singular
poimēn: a shepherd, literally or figuratively Accusative, the object of the blow. Cambridge: “The Good Shepherd quotes the allusion to Himself in His truest character ( John 10:4 ).” The shepherd of Israel's Scriptures is the one who gathers, feeds and leads out; Zechariah's oracle is the scandal that the Lord himself strikes that shepherd, and Jesus applies the scandal to himself before it happens.
ΚαὶKaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
τὰtatheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Neuter Plural
πρόβαταprobatasheepG4263
√ πρόβατον — something that walks forward (a quadruped), iNounNominative Neuter Plural
probaton: something that walks forward, a sheep Nominative Neuter Plural. Naming the Eleven as sheep is not flattery; it makes their coming flight a matter of what sheep do when the shepherd goes down, and it sets up the shepherd-language of v. 28.
διασκορπισθήσονταιdiaskorpisthēsontaiwill be scatteredG1287
√ διασκορπίζω — to dissipate, iVerbFuture Indicative Passive3rd Person Plural
diaskorpizō: to dissipate, to scatter thoroughly Future Indicative Passive, 3rd plural. The dia- prefix intensifies: scattered in every direction, winnowed. Pulpit: “They fled hither and thither like frightened sheep. But God gathered them together again.” The passive again leaves the agent unnamed in the Gospel line, while the Zechariah source names God as the one who strikes.
28

But after I have risen, I will go ahead of you into Galilee.”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Alla meta to egerthēnai me proaxō hymas eis tēn Galilaian

Word by word10 · parsed
ἈλλὰAllaButG235
√ ἀλλά — properly, other things, iConjunction
alla: properly, other things Strong adversative. The verse exists to contradict the despair the previous verse would otherwise leave.
μετὰmetaafterG3326
√ μετά — properly, denoting accompanimentPreposition
τὸtoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Singular
ἐγερθῆναίegerthēnaiI have risenG1453
√ ἐγείρω — to waken (transitively or intransitively), iVerbAorist Infinitive Passive
egeirō: to waken, to rouse, to raise up Articular aorist passive infinitive after meta: “after the being-raised of me.” The passive matters theologically and grammatically. In v. 27 God strikes; here God raises. Mark's resurrection announcements keep this passive (Mark 16:6, “he is risen,” is the same verb's passive). The prediction of the resurrection is placed inside the prediction of the desertion, so that the disciples' worst night is bracketed by God's act on both sides.
μεmeIG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative 1st Person Singular
προάξωproaxōwill go ahead ofG4254
√ προάγω — to lead forward (magisterially)VerbFuture Indicative Active1st Person Singular
proagō: to lead forward, to go before Future Indicative Active, 1st singular, and the only active first-person verb Jesus applies to himself in these two verses. A shepherd's word: he goes at the head of the flock, not merely ahead of them in time. Cambridge records that the angel at the empty tomb quoted this very promise back (Mark 16:6-7), which makes this line the hinge between the scattering and the regathering.
ὑμᾶςhymasyouG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative 2nd Person Plural
sy: thou (here plural, accusative) The direct object of proaxō: the very men who are about to scatter are the men he will lead.
εἰςeisintoG1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
τὴνtēnG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
ΓαλιλαίανGalilaianGalileeG1056
√ Γαλιλαία — Galilæa (iNounAccusative Feminine Singular
Galilaia: Galilee Accusative of destination. Not Jerusalem, where the failure happens, but the northern country of the first call. The risen Shepherd goes back to the beginning of the flock's story to start it again.
29

Peter declared, “Even if all fall away, I never will.”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de Ho Petros ephē autō kai Ei pantes skandalisthēsontai egō all’ ouk

Word by word12 · parsed
δὲdeG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ὉHoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ΠέτροςPetrosPeterG4074
√ Πέτρος — a (piece of) rock (larger than G3037 (λίθος))NounNominative Masculine Singular
Petros: a piece of rock, larger than a stone Mark names him by the name Jesus gave him (Mark 3:16). The irony is structural rather than merely verbal: the man called Rock is about to be told, and to prove, that he is not yet solid ground.
ἔφηephēdeclaredG5346
√ φημί — to show or make known one's thoughts, iVerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
phēmi: to show or make known one's thoughts Imperfect indicative. The tense leaves the assertion open rather than closing it, which is exactly what happens: v. 31 reopens it louder.
αὐτῷautō. . .G846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounDative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
καὶkaiEvenG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ΕἰEiifG1487
√ εἰ — if, whether, that, etcConjunction
πάντεςpantesallG3956
√ πᾶς — all, any, every, the wholeAdjectiveNominative Masculine Plural
pas: all, every Peter's citation of Jesus' own word from v. 27, but relocated to the third person. He grants the prophecy in general and denies it in particular, which is the standard shape of self-deception about sin.
σκανδαλισθήσονταιskandalisthēsontaifall awayG4624
√ σκανδαλίζω — to entrap, iVerbFuture Indicative Passive3rd Person Plural
skandalizō: to entrap, to cause to stumble Future passive again, and the repetition is the point. Peter does not dispute that men are made to stumble; he disputes that he is one of the men. Pulpit judges the speech presumptuous precisely because Jesus had just distinctly stated that they would all be offended, and Geneva calls it a sorrowful example of man's rashness and weakness.
ἐγώegōIG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounNominative 1st Person Singular
egō: I, me Emphatic nominative in a clause whose verb is missing. Everything Peter is about to lose is compressed into this one unnecessary pronoun. Henry's application is the pastoral form of the same observation: how very apt we are to think well of ourselves.
ἀλλ’all’vvvG235
√ ἀλλά — properly, other things, iConjunction
οὐκouknever [will]G3756
√ οὐ — the absolute negative (compare G3361 (μή)) adverbAdverb
ou: the absolute negative Flat, unqualified negation, standing alone without a verb to negate.
30

“Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “this very night, before the rooster crows twice, you will deny Me three times.”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Amēn legō soi hoti Kai ho Iēsous legei autō tautē sēmeron tē nykti prin ē alektora phōnēsai dis sy aparnēsē me tris

Word by word22 · parsed
ἈμὴνAmēnTrulyG281
√ ἀμήν — properly, firm, iHebrew Word
amēn: properly firm, sure A Hebrew word left untranslated inside Greek. In the Hebrew Scriptures the congregation says amen to ratify someone else's word; Jesus prefixes it to his own, ratifying himself. Placed here, against Peter's self-confident oath, it is the counter-oath of the one who actually knows what the night holds.
λέγωlegōI tellG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Indicative Active1st Person Singular
σοιsoiyouG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounDative 2nd Person Singular
ὅτιhotiG3754
√ ὅτι — demonstrative, that (sometimes redundant)Conjunction
ΚαὶKaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ὁhoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ἸησοῦςIēsousJesusG2424
√ Ἰησοῦς — Jesus (iNounNominative Masculine Singular
λέγειlegeirepliedG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
legō: to say, to lay forth Historic present for Jesus' reply, matching v. 27 and framing both predictions in the same immediate voice.
αὐτῷautōG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounDative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
ταύτῃtautēthisG3778
√ οὗτος — the he (she or it), iDemonstrative PronounDative Feminine Singular
σήμερονsēmeronveryG4594
√ σήμερον — on the (iAdverb
sēmeron: on this day Gill explains the reckoning: the Jews counted their days from evening (Genesis 1:5), so “this day” was already begun at sundown. The prediction is not for tomorrow; the clock is already running.
τῇtēG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Feminine Singular
νυκτὶnyktinightG3571
√ νύξ — "night" (literally or figuratively)NounDative Feminine Singular
nyx: night, literally or figuratively Dative of time with the demonstrative tautē: this particular night, the Passover night. Mark's passion narrative is tightly clocked, and this word starts the count.
πρὶνprinbeforeG4250
√ πρίν — prior, soonerAdverb
ἢēG2228
√ ἤ — disjunctive, orConjunction
ἀλέκτοραalektora[the] roosterG220
√ ἀλέκτωρ — a cock or male fowlNounAccusative Masculine Singular
alektōr: a cock, a male fowl The lowest possible witness in the scene, an animal, is made the timekeeper of an apostle's fall. Pulpit notes that “cockcrowing” was itself a name for a watch of the night (Mark 13:35), so the bird marks an hour as well as a sin.
φωνῆσαιphōnēsaicrowsG5455
√ φωνέω — to emit a sound (animal, human or instrumental)VerbAorist Infinitive Active
δὶςdistwiceG1364
√ δίς — twiceAdverb
dis: twice Only Mark records the doubled crowing, and Cambridge credits this Gospel with recording the two details that sharpen the warning and Peter's guilt. Ellicott defends the reading against the manuscripts that omit it; the internal evidence is Mark 14:72, where the second crow is what breaks Peter.
σὺsyG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounNominative 2nd Person Singular
ἀπαρνήσῃaparnēsēyou will denyG533
√ ἀπαρνέομαι — to deny utterly, iVerbFuture Indicative Middle2nd Person Singular
aparneomai: to deny utterly A rare verb (11 verses), and the same verb Jesus used when he required a disciple to deny himself and follow (Mark 8:34). Peter will do to his Lord what he was called to do to his own self. The middle voice makes the denial reflexive in form: renouncing Jesus, he is also unmaking the Peter who was named Rock.
μεmeMeG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative 1st Person Singular
τρίςtristhree timesG5151
√ τρίς — three timesAdverb
tris: three times A specific, checkable number given in advance. It converts a general warning into a testable prediction, which is what makes 14:72 a verdict rather than a coincidence.
31

But Peter kept insisting, “Even if I have to die with You, I will never deny You.” And all the others said the same thing.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de Ho elalei ekperissōs Ean deē me synapothanein soi ou mē aparnēsomai se de pantes elegon hōsautōs kai

Word by word18 · parsed
δὲdeButG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ὉHoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ἐλάλειelalei[Peter] kept insistingG2980
√ λαλέω — to talk, iVerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
laleō: to talk, to utter Imperfect: continuous, repeated speech. Mark chooses a verb for the act of talking rather than for the content said, which suits a protest that is more noise than argument. Barnes glosses the adverb it carries as “more earnestly, more confidently.”
ἐκπερισσῶςekperissōs. . .G4057
√ περισσῶς — superabundantlyAdverb
ekperissōs: superabundantly, beyond measure A double intensive (ek + perissōs) found only here in the New Testament in this form. Geneva catches the rhetorical effect: the doubling of words sets out Peter's vehement affirmation. The stronger the protest, the shorter its life; Mark places it three verses before the courtyard.
ἘὰνEanEven ifG1437
√ ἐάν — a conditional particleConjunction
δέῃdeēI have toG1163
√ δεῖ — also deon deh-on'VerbPresent Subjunctive Active3rd Person Singular
dei: it is necessary, one must Present subjunctive of impersonal necessity. This is the same family of necessity-language Mark uses for the Son of Man's own must-suffer (Mark 8:31). Peter applies to himself, hypothetically, the necessity that actually rests on Christ.
μεme. . .G1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative 1st Person Singular
συναποθανεῖνsynapothaneindie withG4880
√ συναποθνήσκω — to decease (literally) in company with, or (figuratively), similarly toVerbAorist Infinitive Active
synapothnēskō: to die together with Very rare (3 verses). The compound means dying in company with another, and Paul later uses it for the believer's union with Christ in death (2 Timothy 2:11) and for his own bond with the Corinthians (2 Corinthians 7:3). Peter's sentence is theologically exact and personally premature: he will in the end die with his Lord, but not tonight, and not by his own resolve.
σοιsoiYouG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounDative 2nd Person Singular
οὐouvvvG3756
√ οὐ — the absolute negative (compare G3361 (μή)) adverbAdverb
μήmēvvvG3361
√ μή — (adverb) not, (conjunction) lestAdverb
mē: not, lest The second half of the emphatic ou mē. Greek stacks two negatives to make the future denial as absolute as speech can make it; the doubling is emphasis, not cancellation.
ἀπαρνήσομαιaparnēsomaiI will never denyG533
√ ἀπαρνέομαι — to deny utterly, iVerbFuture Indicative Middle1st Person Singular
aparneomai: to deny utterly Peter throws Jesus' own verb back at him, in the first person and under the strongest negation available. The verse therefore sets the two futures side by side in identical vocabulary: Jesus' aparnēsē in v. 30 and Peter's aparnēsomai here. Only one of them is Amēn.
σεseYouG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative 2nd Person Singular
δὲdeAndG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
πάντεςpantesall the othersG3956
√ πᾶς — all, any, every, the wholeAdjectiveNominative Masculine Plural
pas: all The narrator's quiet closing verdict. The word Peter tried to push onto the others in v. 29 lands back on the whole company, including him.
ἔλεγονelegonsaidG2036
√ ἔπω — to speak or say (by word or writing)VerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
ὡσαύτωςhōsautōsthe same thingG5615
√ ὡσαύτως — as thus, iAdverb
hōsautōs: in like manner, the same Mark ends the scene by making the Eleven unanimous, which is precisely what Jesus said in v. 27 and precisely what will be falsified in the garden.
καὶkai. . .G2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction

The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.

⚙

Grand Commentary — the unit, read whole

synthesis · verify

AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.

i. The written stumbling and the struck Shepherd — Mark 14:27

⚙ Mark's first word for what is coming is a passive: σκανδαλισθήσεσθε, future indicative passive, which Pulpit insists on rendering literally as “shall be caused to stumble.” The disciples are not warned that they will choose badly; they are told that something will be done to them. The ground of that warning is a perfect tense, γέγραπται, “it stands written,” and Gill, Cambridge and Pulpit independently name the source as Zechariah 13:7. Cambridge adds the christological point: “The Good Shepherd quotes the allusion to Himself in His truest character ( John 10:4 ).” The hardest word in the verse is the one English readers slide past: Πατάξω is first person singular, God speaking. Pulpit states the consequence without flinching, that the passage brings out in a remarkable manner the Divine agency in the death of Christ. Gill assigns the figures plainly, Christ meant by the shepherd and the apostles by the sheep. One textual note from Pulpit belongs here: the Authorized Version's “because of me this night” is not in the best manuscripts of Mark and appears imported from Matthew, which is why the BSB line before us is shorter.

ii. Raised, and going ahead of them — Mark 14:28

⚙ The adversative Ἀλλὰ turns the sentence, and the grammar turns with it. ἐγερθῆναί is an articular aorist passive infinitive: “after the being-raised of me.” The same voice that struck in v. 27 raises in v. 28. Then comes the only active first-person verb Jesus gives himself in the pair, προάξω, whose lexical sense is to lead forward, to go at the head. The scattered flock is answered by a shepherd resuming his place in front of it. Cambridge supplies the decisive cross-reference from Mark's own hand: “The Angel afterwards referred to these very words at the open Sepulchre on the world’s first Easter-Day ( Mark 16:6-7 ).” Pulpit reads the destination pastorally, that Galilee was more like home to them than Jerusalem; Gill notes it was the place of their nativity. The promise is therefore concrete before it is symbolic: the risen one will meet them on the ordinary ground where they were first called, not at the scene of their failure. Geneva's summary of the whole prediction fits here exactly: Christ foretells how he will be forsaken by his own, but yet that he will never forsake them.

iii. Two futures in the same vocabulary — Mark 14:29-31

⚙ From v. 29 the scene becomes a contest of pronouns. Peter takes Jesus' pantes and moves it into the third person (σκανδαλισθήσονται, “they will be made to stumble”), then adds the grammatically unnecessary ἐγώ. Pulpit calls the speech very presumptuous, since our Lord had just distinctly stated that they would all be offended; Geneva names the genre, a most sorrowful example of man's rashness and weakness; Cambridge reads the temperament, ardent and impulsive as ever. Henry turns it on the reader: how very apt we are to think well of ourselves. Jesus answers with the Hebrew oath-word Ἀμὴν and his own emphatic σὺ, matching Peter pronoun for pronoun, and then prices the vow: twice, three times. The number “twice” is Mark's alone, and it is contested; Ellicott weighs the manuscripts and keeps it, while Gill records that the Ethiopic version drops it. Gill also supplies the ancient horology, that there was a first and second cock crowing, the one at midnight and the other near break of day. Cambridge credits Mark with recording exactly the two aggravating details, the doubled crow and the repeated protestation. That repetition arrives in v. 31: ἐλάλει is imperfect, and both Ellicott and Pulpit build on the tense, Ellicott noting that it implies frequent and continuous speaking and Pulpit that he kept asserting over and over again. Geneva hears the doubling of words as vehement affirmation, Barnes glosses it simply as more earnestly, more confidently. Peter reaches for the rare compound συναποθανεῖν, to die together with, and the strongest negative Greek owns, οὐ μή. Mark closes by making the Eleven unanimous with a single adverb, ὡσαύτως. The unit therefore ends with two futures spoken in the identical verb, aparneomai: Jesus' and Peter's. Only one of them carries the Amēn.

Read under Sola Scriptura — this tool’s own fallible reading (⚙)

⚙ This is the tool's own fallible reading, offered to be tested by Scripture. Read the unit by its voices rather than its emotions, and its shape is severe and kind at once. In v. 27 God says “I will strike”; in v. 28 God raises; and between those two divine acts the disciples are passive twice over, made to stumble and scattered. The only agents in the passage who speak in the confident active voice about themselves are Peter and, at the end, all the others. That is the unit's argument: human resolve narrates itself in the strongest available grammar (an emphatic pronoun, a double negative, an imperfect of relentless repetition) and is wrong within hours, while the promise that will actually hold is the one delivered in the passive, because its agent is God. Notice also what Jesus does not do. He does not withdraw the promise of v. 28 when Peter contradicts him in v. 29, and he does not withdraw it when all of them contradict him in v. 31. “I will go ahead of you into Galilee” was spoken to men he had just finished telling would abandon him, and Cambridge's observation that the angel repeats these very words at the empty tomb means the promise outlived the failure it anticipated. Geneva states the same thing doctrinally: Christ foretells how he will be forsaken by his own, but yet that he will never forsake them. The pastoral use follows without strain, and Henry already drew it: the danger is not that we will be tested beyond our love for Christ, but that we will mistake the strength of our feeling for the strength of our footing. Peter's love was real. Pulpit's prescription is the honest one, that the true remedy against temptation is the consciousness of our own weakness and supplication for Divine strength. Where this reading could be wrong: it presses the active and passive voices harder than any commentator quoted here does, and someone may reasonably judge that Mark's voice choices are ordinary Greek rather than theology. The line offered below is synthesis, not Scripture, and is not to be quoted as a verse.

The striking and the raising are both in God's first person; only the boasting is in ours.

⚙

Canonical Threads — out to the whole of Scripture

cross-refs · verify

AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.

“I will strike the Shepherd”: the marked quotation of Zechariah 13:7 structural / thematic: confirmed

Mark flags the citation himself with the perfect γέγραπται, “it stands written.” Gill names the source outright, and Cambridge states that the words are taken from Zechariah 13:7. Pulpit prints the fuller oracle, “Awake, O sword, against my Shepherd, and against the man that is my Fellow, saith the Lord of hosts: smite the Shepherd,” and draws from it the claim that the passage brings out the Divine agency in the death of Christ. ⚙ The line as Mark gives it shifts Zechariah's imperative (“smite”) into a first person future (“I will strike”), which makes explicit what the oracle already implies about who wields the sword. This is an explicit, marked quotation, and yet the badge below is deliberately not tiered verbal: the two texts stand in different languages, so no shared Strong's lexeme can be computed between them, and this study's rule is that cross-Testament links are never tiered verbal however plain the quotation is.

Zechariah 13:7

basis: Mark 14:27 explicitly marks the line as written (G1125 γράφω, perfect) and Gill, Cambridge and Pulpit all identify the source as Zechariah 13:7, so the quotation itself is not in doubt. The tier is structural rather than verbal solely because the refs cross the Testaments: a Greek Gospel and a Hebrew prophet share no Strong's numbers, so the Verifier can compute no shared-lexeme basis for a verbal badge.

The prediction and its fulfilment: Mark 14:30 to Mark 14:72 verbal / quotation: confirmed

Mark builds a testable prediction and then returns to it. The rare verb ἀπαρνέομαι (G533, to deny utterly) and the temporal πρίν (G4250) both reappear at Mark 14:72, where Mark records the second crow that only he had predicted. ⚙ This is why the contested word “twice” in v. 30 carries weight beyond textual curiosity: Ellicott defends the reading precisely on the internal evidence of 14:72, and Cambridge credits Mark with recording the doubled crow as one of the two details that sharpen the warning. The same-Gospel, same-language link is as strong as a cross-reference gets.

Mark 14:72

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G533 ἀπαρνέομαι (in 11 vv, rare), G4250 πρίν (in 13 vv, rare), G4074 Πέτρος (in 150 vv). Both refs are Greek New Testament, and Mark 14:72 explicitly recalls the word Jesus had said to him, so this is a verbal link with an internal citation.

The same verb, the other direction: denying self, denying Christ structural / thematic: confirmed

ἀπαρνέομαι occurs in only eleven verses in the New Testament, and Mark himself used it earlier for the condition of discipleship: let a man deny himself and take up his cross (Mark 8:34, with the parallel at Matthew 16:24). Luke 12:9 completes the set with the warning about denying Christ before men. ⚙ The unit before us puts Peter at the hinge of that rare word: called to deny himself, he will instead deny his Lord, and Mark's use of the middle voice in both v. 30 and v. 31 keeps the reflexive shading audible. No text here quotes another; what is confirmed is a rare shared lexeme running through a single coherent motif, which is why the tier is structural and not verbal.

Mark 8:34 · Matthew 16:24 · Luke 12:9

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G533 ἀπαρνέομαι (in 11 vv, rare) across Mark 8:34, Matthew 16:24 and Luke 12:9. All refs are Greek New Testament, so a verbal tier would be permitted by language, but no text cites another and the connection is a shared motif of denial, so the tier is deliberately downgraded to structural.

“To die together with you”: a rare word Peter borrows early verbal / quotation: confirmed

συναποθανεῖν (G4880) appears in only three verses in the whole New Testament. Peter speaks it here as a boast; Paul speaks it to the Corinthians as a bond (2 Corinthians 7:3) and, in the trustworthy saying, as the ground of living with Christ (2 Timothy 2:11). ⚙ Mark is not quoting Paul and Paul is not quoting Mark, but the word itself is scarce enough that its three occurrences read as one vocabulary. The irony is that Peter's sentence is theologically correct and personally premature: dying with Christ is exactly the shape of discipleship, but not on the strength of a vow made at a supper table.

2 Corinthians 7:3 · 2 Timothy 2:11

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G4880 συναποθνήσκω (in 3 vv), one of the rarest verbs in the New Testament and the sole basis of the link. All refs are Greek New Testament. Rare-lexeme verbal link only; no quotation of one text by another is claimed.

Sheep without a shepherd: the scattering already had a name structural / thematic: confirmed

The image Jesus applies to the Eleven is an old one in Israel's Scriptures. Moses asks for a successor so the congregation will not be as sheep which have no shepherd (Numbers 27:17); Micaiah sees all Israel scattered on the hills as sheep that have not a shepherd (1 Kings 22:17); Ezekiel indicts the shepherds of Israel because the flock was scattered and became meat to every beast (Ezekiel 34:5-6). ⚙ Mark's διασκορπισθήσονται, intensified by the dia- prefix, lands the Gospel's disciples inside that long-running picture, and Pulpit's description of them fleeing hither and thither like frightened sheep is the same image read back. The badge is structural because the link is a shared motif across two languages, with no quotation claimed and no computable shared lexeme.

Ezekiel 34:5-6 · Numbers 27:17 · 1 Kings 22:17

basis: Shared scattered-flock motif; no quotation claimed. The refs are Hebrew Scripture and the unit is Greek, so no shared Strong's lexeme exists between them and a verbal tier is ruled out by the cross-Testament rule. This is a motif link, recorded as such.

The Shepherd who gathers again: Galilee as regathering typological

⚙ Ezekiel's indictment of the false shepherds ends with the Lord's own promise to seek out his sheep and deliver them from all places where they have been scattered, and to feed them himself (Ezekiel 34:11-16); Micah promises to surely assemble Jacob and gather the remnant of Israel like sheep in a fold (Micah 2:12). Mark 14:28 uses προάξω, a verb whose sense is to lead forward at the head, immediately after the scattering, and Cambridge records that the angel repeats these very words at the tomb (Mark 16:6-7). The reading offered here is figural: the risen Jesus regathering his scattered disciples in Galilee is the shepherd of Ezekiel 34 doing personally what he promised. It is a widely held reading of Ezekiel 34 with John 10, but the specific application to Mark 14:28 is drawn by this study and is marked as such rather than attributed to any commentator quoted in the brief.

Ezekiel 34:11-16 · Micah 2:12

basis: Figural reading: the struck-and-then-leading shepherd of Mark 14:27-28 read against the Lord's own promise to regather the scattered flock. Cross-Testament (Greek to Hebrew), so no shared Strong's lexeme is computable and a verbal tier is excluded. Ancient and widely held for Ezekiel 34 with John 10; the particular application to Mark 14:28 here is this study's own and may be pressed too far.

The synoptic parallels of the same night verbal / quotation: confirmed

Matthew 26:31 carries the same three distinctive words as Mark 14:27, including the rare πατάσσω; Matthew 26:34 and Luke 22:34 carry the prediction, and John 13:38 carries it with the rooster and the threefold count. JFB simply lists the parallel columns (Mt 26:31-35; Lu 22:31-38; Joh 13:36-38) and refers the reader across; Barnes and Poole both decline to comment on Mark at all, sending the reader to Matthew 26. ⚙ The differences are as informative as the agreements: only Mark records the doubled crow, and only Mark's manuscripts have therefore had to defend the word “twice.”

Matthew 26:31 · Matthew 26:34 · Luke 22:34 · John 13:38

basis: Verifier: Matthew 26:31 shares G3960 πατάσσω (in 10 vv, rare), G4624 σκανδαλίζω (in 27 vv), G4263 πρόβατον (in 37 vv); Matthew 26:34 shares G533 ἀπαρνέομαι (in 11 vv) and G4250 πρίν (in 13 vv); Luke 22:34 shares G533 and G4594 σήμερον; John 13:38 shares G220 ἀλέκτωρ (in 11 vv), G5151 τρίς (in 11 vv) and G5455 φωνέω. All refs are Greek New Testament and the rare lexemes πατάσσω, ἀπαρνέομαι, πρίν, ἀλέκτωρ and τρίς justify the verbal tier as parallel accounts of one saying.

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

The Shepherd struck by the hand of God ancient/widely-held

The verb of the quoted line is first person singular future active: Πατάξω, “I will strike,” with God as speaker. Pulpit draws the conclusion without softening it, that the passage brings out in a remarkable manner the Divine agency in the death of Christ. Gill assigns the figures: Christ is meant by the shepherd, and the apostles by the sheep. Cambridge names the christological title at work, that the Good Shepherd quotes the allusion to Himself in His truest character (John 10:4). ⚙ Two things follow. First, the cross is not merely foreknown by God, it is his own act, which is the reading the apostolic preaching also takes at Acts 2:23, where Jesus is said to be delivered up by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God (that verse is cited here by this study, not by any commentator quoted in the brief). Second, the man struck in Zechariah's oracle is called the Lord's Fellow, the one who stands beside him, so the verse joins the deepest identification of the Shepherd with God to the sharpest blow from God. Henry keeps the pastoral edge: the great Shepherd passed through his sufferings without one false step, while his followers have been scattered by a far smaller measure of suffering.

Zechariah 13:7 · John 10:4 · Mark 14:27

Raised by the Father, and going before the flock ancient/widely-held

ἐγερθῆναί is an aorist passive infinitive: “after the being-raised of me.” The Gospel's resurrection language keeps that passive at the empty tomb as well. Cambridge records the link in Mark's own text: the angel afterwards referred to these very words at the open Sepulchre on the world's first Easter-Day (Mark 16:6-7). ⚙ The christological shape is symmetrical and, so far as this study can see, deliberate: God strikes the Shepherd (v. 27) and God raises him (v. 28), and between those two divine actions stands a promise about what the risen Shepherd will do with the men who ran. προάξω is shepherd's vocabulary, to go at the head of the flock, and it is aimed at the very disciples whose scattering has just been announced. The resurrection in Mark is therefore not first a vindication of Jesus in the abstract; it is announced as the means by which the scattered are led again.

Mark 14:28 · Mark 16:6-7 · John 10:4

The Amen who keeps the vow Peter could not novel

⚙ The unit sets two futures side by side in the same rare verb. Peter's ἀπαρνήσομαι is fortified with the double negative οὐ μή, spoken in an imperfect of relentless repetition and beyond all measure (ἐκπερισσῶς); Jesus' ἀπαρνήσῃ is prefaced with a single Hebrew word, Ἀμὴν, “firm, sure.” Within hours only one of the two futures stands. The redemptive point this study draws is that the promise of v. 28 is spoken to men already convicted of the failure of v. 31, and is never withdrawn when they contradict it: Geneva's summary, that Christ foretells how he will be forsaken by his own but yet that he will never forsake them, is the doctrinal form of the same observation. Pulpit's note on Peter's presumption gives the practical counterpart, that the true remedy against temptation is the consciousness of our own weakness. Marked as this study's own reading: the emphasis on Amēn as an oath-word set against Peter's oath is a synthesis drawn from the parse and lexicon, not a claim made by any commentator quoted in the brief.

Mark 14:30 · Mark 14:31 · Mark 14:28

Apparatus & Provenance

The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.

Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:

  • Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible (1834)
  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, — (1880s)
  • Charles Ellicott, Commentary for English Readers (1878)
  • Geneva Study Bible, Marginal Notes (1599)
  • Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory (1871)
  • John Gill, Exposition of the Entire Bible (1746–63)
  • Matthew Henry, Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706)
  • The Pulpit Commentary, Spence & Exell, eds. (1880s)

Text: BSB (CC0) with the Berean interlinear and Strong's numbers; parse data as given in the brief. Two textual matters in this unit are live and are reported rather than resolved. First, at v. 27 Pulpit states that the Authorized Version's “because of me this night” is absent from the best manuscripts and versions of Mark and appears to have been imported from St Matthew; the BSB line before us follows the shorter reading, so English readers comparing the KJV will find a clause here that the underlying Greek of this edition does not have. Second, at v. 30 the word δὶς (“twice”) is contested: Ellicott reports that it is omitted in many manuscripts and defends it on internal grounds (the second crow at Mark 14:72), while Gill notes that the Ethiopic version drops it. This study follows the brief's text, which includes it, and flags that the defence is an argument from internal consistency, not a manuscript tally.

Sources: seven of the nine commentators in the brief are quoted. Two are not, because they have nothing of their own to say on this unit: Barnes refers the reader to his notes on Matthew 26:20-35 for vv. 27-30 (his one substantive line, on v. 31, is quoted), and Poole refers throughout to his annotations on Matthew 26:31-35. JFB likewise supplies only a heading and a cross-reference to Luke 22:31-46. Henry's comment is a single running note on Mark 14:22-31 and is quoted as a verdict on the whole scene, not on one verse.

Uncertain in the machine layer (⚙), and flagged as such: the weight placed on the active and passive voices (God strikes, God raises, the disciples are made to stumble and are scattered) is this study's reading of Mark's grammar and is pressed harder than any commentator here presses it; ordinary Greek usage may account for the voices without theology. Pulpit's reconstruction of three cock-crowing hours and a two o'clock trial is informed conjecture about first-century timekeeping, not a statement of Mark's. The Ezekiel 34 and Micah 2:12 regathering thread is tiered typological because the figural application to Mark 14:28 is drawn here, not by the quoted voices. Per this study's cross-Testament rule, no thread pairing this Greek unit with Hebrew Scripture is tiered verbal, including the Zechariah 13:7 thread, even though Mark explicitly marks that line as written.

✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)