22:56a

A servant girl saw him seated in the firelight: This clause indicates that the servant woman saw Peter as he sat by the fire. She could see him because of the light from the fire. The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as firelight is literally “light,” as in the Revised Standard Version. The Berean Standard Bible translates it as firelight to indicate that the light was coming from the fire.

Some other ways to translate the phrase are:

Then a maid, seeing him as he sat in the light (Revised Standard Version)
-or-
A servant girl noticed him in the firelight (New Living Translation (2004))

A servant girl: The servant girl was probably a mature woman. Peter called her “woman” in 22:57. The text does not specify how old she was. Other ways to translate this are:

one of the servant women (Good News Translation)
-or-
A female servant (God’s Word)

22:56b–c

and looked intently at him…she said: This phrase is literally “and looking intently at him, she said.” The Berean Standard Bible places the words she said after what the woman said in 22:56c. However, in some languages, it may be necessary to place these words where it is in the Greek, at the end of 22:56b. For example:

She looked closely at him and said… (New International Version)

and looked intently at him: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as and looked intently at him indicates that the female servant looked at him carefully. The context implies that she wanted to be sure that she recognized him as a person who had been with Jesus in the garden. Some other ways to translate the phrase are:

Then after she had looked at him carefully (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
looking intently at him (New American Standard Bible)
-or-
She stared at him (God’s Word)

she said: Notice that the servant girl was speaking to the other people around the fire. She was talking about Peter, rather than to him. In some languages it may be necessary to make this clear. For example:

she said ⌊to the people sitting there⌋
-or-
she said ⌊about Peter⌋

This man also was with Him: The Greek clause that the Berean Standard Bible translates as This man also was with Him includes a word that means also or “indeed, certainly.” In this context the word may imply that the servant girl had seen one or more other disciples with Jesus in addition to Peter. She may have seen the apostle John, since he went to the high priest’s house with Peter, as John 18:15 says. The woman’s statement was probably an emphatic exclamation.

Some ways to translate the clause are:

This man too was with Jesus! (Good News Translation)
-or-
That man was certainly one of Jesus’ followers!
-or-
This man, he was definitely one of his companions.

In some languages a word like also may be confusing here, since no one else is mentioned in the context. If that is true in your language, you may omit it. For example:

This man was with Jesus. (God’s Word)

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