A non-hostile gate-keeper (John 18:17)

Abstract

In the passion narrative by St. John, Peter, after having arrived at the high priest’s house, is confronted with three questions of rhetorical nature concerning his identity as a disciple. Some exegetes pay attention to the grammatical complexity of the first two questions since they presuppose a negative response that substantially coincides with the denial of Peter, but appears to be incongruous with the context. The authors of the note, instead, uphold the perfect coherence of the three questions narrated in John 18,15:2.