Jesus Predicts Peter's Denial

6th century
Mosaic
Church of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo, Ravenna

Jesus predicts that Peter will deny knowing him "before the cock crows," the cock being pictured in the very center of the image. As usual the apostles' togas are white and Jesus' is purple.

This is one of the 13 mosaics of the Passion and Resurrection of Christ along the upper band of the right wall of the nave. In the mosaics, this scene comes after the trial before the Sanhedrin and before Peter's denials to the woman at the gate. In the gospels, it is at the Last Supper that Jesus predicts Peter's denial.1 Thus the artist has placed this episode a bit out of order so that the prediction can be contemplated side by side with the denial.

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Photographed at the church by Richard Stracke, shared under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.

1 Matthew 26:31-35, Mark 14:27-31, Luke 22:31-34, and John 13:36-38.