But there were more than three expressions of denial. Even so, there were only three episodes of denial. Each of them being more conscious and deliberate. In the first case his denial is dismissive and to a servant-girl (though others overheard). In the second case it is a series of flat denials. In the third case, he swore an oath as part of his denial.

Each of these three episodes of denial probably involved more than one expression of denial. Luke’s account of the third denial is highly suggestive here. Luke records that one of the bystanders “kept insisting” that Peter knew Jesus. If he kept insisting it, Peter must have kept denying it (which is probably what ultimately precipitated the oath).

The fact that the three episodes of denial each involved multiple expressions of denial also accounts for some of the variations in wording and meaning. For example, Peter says “I don’t know him” to the first servant-girl in two accounts, but he says “I don’t know what you are talking about” in two accounts. Is this a contradiction? No. He probably said both.* Is it, then, two of the three denials predicted by Jesus? No. It is the first episode of denial.

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*Though it is also perfectly possible that the accounts differ in this case because one pair of accounts simply records the gist of Peter’s words.