What Does John 18:27 Mean?
Peter denied it again, and at once the rooster crowed.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Peter then denied again: and immediately the cock crew.THE KEY
The rooster’s cry is the sound of a spoken prediction becoming present.
THE MEANING
A denial can leave the mouth before its cost is fully understood. The sound that follows marks the moment, and what has been spoken now takes shape in the present.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It loosens the belief that denial remains only an inward moment: the rooster’s immediate cry gives it an audible place in the world.
THE ROOT
ἠρνήσατο
ērnēsato
GROWS FROM
ἀρνέομαι
To deny, disown, or refuse acknowledgment.
“denied” in this verse is ērnēsato. The verb carries the force of disowning or refusing acknowledgment. Its repeated action becomes part of a sequence that the rooster’s immediate cry makes audible.
ALSO GROWS
arnēsis: Denial, refusal.
ἄρνησις
This noun names the act carried by the verb: Peter’s words enact a disavowal.
arnētēs: One who denies or disowns.
ἀρνητής
This related noun shows the same root describing the person who performs the denial.
ἐφώνησεν
ephōnēsen
GROWS FROM
φωνέω
To sound, call, or utter a voice.
The Greek verb translated “crew” is a form of phoneō, “to sound” or “call.” Peter’s denial is followed by another voice-like event, and the earlier prediction joins those sounds into one sequence.
ALSO GROWS
phōnē: Voice, sound.
φωνή
The rooster’s crow is literally a sound or voice in this word family.
phōnazō: To cry aloud, call out.
φωνάζω
This related verb extends the same sound-root into a loud call.
THE PATTERN
A spoken word becomes visible when events arrive in its stated sequence.
Jesus answered him, Will you place your living soul for my sake? Truly, truly, I say to you, the rooster will not crow until you have denied me three times.God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should relent. Has he said, and will he not do it? Has he spoken, and will he not make it stand?And now I have said it to you before it comes to be, so that when it comes to be you may lean your full weight on it.THE THREAD
Jesus answered him, Will you place your living soul for my sake? Truly, truly, I say to you, the rooster will not crow until you have denied me three times.Both verses use ἠρνήσατο (ērnēsato, “denied”), from ἀρνέομαι (arneomai, “deny or disown”), and forms of φωνέω (phoneō, “sound or call”) for the rooster’s crow. The earlier verse speaks the exact pair that this one lets you hear: Peter’s denial and the rooster’s cry.
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