18. Now the servants and the guards (the attendants) had made a fire of coals, for it was cold, and they were standing and warming themselves. And Peter was with them, standing and warming himself.
19. Then the high priest questioned Jesus about His disciples and about His teaching.
20. Jesus answered him, I have spoken openly to the world. I have always taught in a synagogue and in the temple [area], where the Jews [habitually] congregate (assemble); and I have spoken nothing secretly.
21. Why do you ask Me? Ask those who have heard [Me] what I said to them. See! They know what I said.
22. But when He said this, one of the attendants who stood by struck Jesus, saying, Is that how You answer the high priest?
23. Jesus replied, If I have said anything wrong [if I have spoken abusively, if there was evil in what I said] tell what was wrong with it. But if I spoke rightly and properly, why do you strike Me?
24. Then Annas sent Him bound to Caiaphas the high priest.
25. But Simon Peter [still] was standing and was warming himself. They said to him, You are not also one of His disciples, are you? He denied it and said, I am not!
26. One of the high priest's servants, a relative of the man whose ear Peter cut off, said, Did I not see you in the garden with Him?
27. And again Peter denied it. And immediately a rooster crowed.
28. Then they brought Jesus from Caiaphas into the Praetorium (judgment hall, governor's palace). And it was early. They themselves did not enter the Praetorium, that they might not be defiled (become ceremonially unclean), but might be fit to eat the Passover [supper].
29. So Pilate went out to them and said, What accusation do you bring against this Man?
30. They retorted, If He were not an evildoer (criminal), we would not have handed Him over to you.