But he denied it before them all is a fairly literal rendering of the Greek text, which is slightly restructured by Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch: “Peter denied it before all the people.”

Denied means “claimed it was not true.” But he made this denial by saying “I do not know what you mean” which can also be rendered “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on the Gospel of Matthew. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1988. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .