The gospel of John again appears to differ from the other evangelists. In John 19:1414And it was the preparation of the passover, and about the sixth hour: and he saith unto the Jews, Behold your King! (John 19:14), the trial is represented as still proceeding at the sixth hour. But in Mark 15:2525And it was the third hour, and they crucified him. (Mark 15:25), we read, “it was the third hour, and they crucified Him.” And both Mark 15:3333And when the sixth hour was come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. (Mark 15:33) and Luke 23:4444And it was about the sixth hour, and there was a darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour. (Luke 23:44) represent that after our Savior had been some time on the cross, there was darkness over the land from the sixth to the ninth hour.
It has been thought that these differences may be reconciled by supposing that Mark, when he says, “It was the third hour and they crucified Him,” alludes to the day being divided into four parts:
(1) 6 o’clock to 9;
(2) 9 to 12;
(3) 12 to 3;
(4) 3 to 6; and that he refers to the third of these divisions.
But from 12 to 3 was the time of the darkness, so that Christ must have been crucified some time before 12 o’clock, and therefore Mark must have said the second hour, and not the third. The day may have been divided into four parts, as in Matthew 20, but if so, they are not called the first, second, third, and fourth hours; but the third, sixth, and ninth hours: the same times being referred to as the hours of prayer, but still under the same names (Acts 2:15; 3:1; 10:915For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day. (Acts 2:15)
1Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour. (Acts 3:1)
9On the morrow, as they went on their journey, and drew nigh unto the city, Peter went up upon the housetop to pray about the sixth hour: (Acts 10:9)). Notice too that each is a definite period of time — an hour, and in no case are three hours called an hour. Besides, in the same chapter, Mark speaks of the sixth hour and the ninth hour in the usual way, and he surely would not have used the same term “hour” in connection with the same event in such conflicting senses. And further, this plan in no way reconciles the sixth hour of John, when the trial was proceeding, with Mark, and so forth, who represents the darkness as commencing at the sixth hour, Christ having been on the cross for some time. We cannot see this plan to be at all tenable.
We believe the difficulty is in John’s gospel; for the other three gospels agree; and it would appear that John, when he represents the trial as still proceeding at the sixth hour, must have had some other meaning than the usual Jewish mode of reckoning the hours.
Mark says, “it was the third hour, and they crucified Him.” Now, if we start from this and reckon backwards, there would be the preparations at the ground; then the going from the place of judgment to Golgotha — a slow procession, certainly, as the cross had to be borne; then the preparations before starting; then the trial of the two malefactors (who were most probably tried after Christ, for it was a law that criminals should be executed immediately after sentence); then the registration of the judgments given; and then the conclusion of the trial of our Lord: surely three hours, or a little less, are not too long to allow for all this, and this would bring it to about our six o’clock. May not John, therefore, have adopted our mode of reckoning, and have meant by the sixth hour our six o’clock? One thing is certain, that this must have been about the time, reckoning backwards from nine o’clock.
It seems an objection to this that Pilate should have been engaged in this trial so early — not later than five o’clock; and that Herod, too, should have been accessible not later than six o’clock.
But it must be borne in mind that these early hours do not rest exclusively on John’s statement. If John had given no hour at all, we must have concluded, from the crucifixion being at nine o’clock, and what actually took place before that hour, that the trial must have begun as early as six o’clock.
It is evident that our Lord was arrested in the night: they had torches to see their way. He was at once taken to Annas; Annas sends Him to Caiaphas, where elders are assembled: more arrive, and Christ is arraigned. In the morning, “as soon as it was day” (Luke 22:6666And as soon as it was day, the elders of the people and the chief priests and the scribes came together, and led him into their council, saying, (Luke 22:66)), the fuller council meets, and they deliberate how to put Christ to death. While still early (John 18:2828Then led they Jesus from Caiaphas unto the hall of judgment: and it was early; and they themselves went not into the judgment hall, lest they should be defiled; but that they might eat the passover. (John 18:28)) He is brought to Pilate. After conversing with Him Pilate sends Him to Herod. Herod sends Him back to Pilate. After repeated efforts to release Him, the judgment-seat is set, and He is condemned.
It must be remembered what would be called “early” in that hot climate. Travelers frequently relate that they are up before the sun. Shows and spectacles were held quite early in the morning. “Herod Agrippa,” to quote from Townson, “was in the theater of Caesarea as soon as it was day, and was making an oration when the sun rose, the reflection of which from his royal apparel, all covered with silver, was so splendid as to dazzle and astonish the beholders, and excite the profane acclamations of which both St. Luke (Acts 12:2222And the people gave a shout, saying, It is the voice of a god, and not of a man. (Acts 12:22)) and Josephus (Ant. 19. 8. 2) take notice.
“Philo Judaeus has another instance of the early concourse of the people in the theater; for in relating the persecution of the Jews by the Alexandrians, he says that the spectacles first exhibited, from early in the morning even to the third or fourth hour, were the Jews scourged, suspended, tormented, condemned, and led to death through the middle of the orchestra.”
The reader will not fail to see how these corroborate the earliness of the time of their meetings; and also how well the latter instance corresponds as to time with the trial, condemnation, and crucifixion of our Lord by the third hour. Here the fourth hour (10 o’clock) is the latest named.
But if John used the mode of reckoning that we do, it may fairly be asked, How was it that John departed from the then usual Jewish mode of reckoning the hours?
To this it has been answered, that he merely adopted the Roman method instead of the Jewish. But this has been thought to be a mistake, because it is known that the Romans did not commonly use this mode of reckoning the hours till long after John must have written his gospel. Still, it was used. “Pliny (to quote Macknight) says ‘all the vulgar counted the hours from morning to night.’ This implies that the better sort did not do so; for he adds, that ‘the priests, and those who spoke of the civil day, reckoned from midnight to midnight,’ and by consequence computed their hours accordingly. To this agrees the account given by Varro. Nevertheless, it is reasonable to suppose that in common conversation and familiar epistles the language of the vulgar may have been adopted even by people of fashion, especially when they spoke or wrote of labor, bathing, eating, and the like ordinary affairs in life.... Historians, however, and others who quote with precision, in reckoning the hours of the day, would for the most part make use of the civil form.”
It is said that there are two instances in early writers of this mode of reckoning. One in the apocryphal epistle of Smyrna to Philadelphia (written in the second century), which relates that Polycarp suffered death about the eighth hour. This, Dr. Townson argues, could not have been our two o’clock, but must have been eight o’clock in the morning. The other is that Pionius suffered martyrdom at the tenth hour; and this he says could not have been four o’clock in the afternoon, but must have been ten o’clock in the morning.
So John may, from some source, have learned this mode of reckoning, and have used it in his gospel, guided of course by the Holy Spirit to do so for some wise reason.
But another question naturally arises out of this, namely, If John adopted this mode of reckoning in John 19, would he not also have used it all through his gospel? and will this mode of reckoning suit every case? Let us see.
This would be ten o’clock in the morning by this reckoning, and there is nothing in the passage inconsistent with this.
Almost all are familiar with the use that is generally made of this ‘sixth hour.’ She was a woman of bad character and ashamed to come when the other women did, and therefore came in the middle of the day to avoid them. And really one hesitates to say anything that would spoil in any way the descriptions that are so often drawn of this sublime scene at Sychar’s well: but it must be confessed that there is nothing in the passage which says that this was so. She was an abandoned woman, it is true, but this may not have been known; and this seems to be confirmed by the ready response there was to her invitation to the men of the city. And if it had been known, she might have come a little earlier or later than the other women rather than in the hot midday sun.
Why not then about six o’clock in the evening? It may have been after the other women had been to the well, and so Jesus had the opportunity of speaking to the woman alone. Their conversation would not have taken long, and there would have been ample time for her to have fetched the men from the city in the cool of the evening. In Matthew 14:1515And when it was evening, his disciples came to him, saying, This is a desert place, and the time is now past; send the multitude away, that they may go into the villages, and buy themselves victuals. (Matthew 14:15), we read that the five thousand were fed after the evening had set in; and Mark 1:3232And at even, when the sun did set, they brought unto him all that were diseased, and them that were possessed with devils. (Mark 1:32), shows that much was done after the sun had set.
Besides, is it not improbable that the disciples should have gone to buy food at twelve o’clock in the day: too late for their first meal, much too early for their chief meal? Why not about six o’clock in the evening?
The whole narrative then seems rather to favor the thought that John here also used our mode of reckoning the hours; at least, there is nothing to contradict it.
The question is, was this seventh hour’ one o’clock or seven o’clock p.m.? Cana is about twelve miles from Capernaum, and if one o’clock was the time when Christ dismissed the nobleman, surely he would have started at once for home, anxious as he was about his child, and would easily have reached home the same evening. But seven o’clock p.m. would have been too late to undertake the journey that night. One thing is certain, that it was not till the next day that he met the servant. It is therefore submitted, that taking the time to have been seven o’clock p.m. agrees well with the narrative; and in this case also this mode of reckoning the hours may have been adopted by the evangelist.
These then are all the instances of hours mentioned in the gospel by John, and it is believed that in every instance our now common mode of reckoning the hours is quite consistent. May we not then suppose that it was the only system adopted by John, seeing, as we have done, that in the one instance where the question was raised (John 19:1414And it was the preparation of the passover, and about the sixth hour: and he saith unto the Jews, Behold your King! (John 19:14)) it cannot be according to the Jewish mode of reckoning?
To this, however, it has been objected that John says, “Are there not twelve hours in the day?” (John 11:99Jesus answered, Are there not twelve hours in the day? If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this world. (John 11:9)) and that if he adopted our mode of reckoning he would have said “twenty-four hours,” as we have no “day” that is definitely twelve hours.
But our day of twenty-four hours includes the night; and in the above passage our Lord was specially referring to the day-time in which it is light, in distinction from the night; for which purpose John could not have said twenty-four hours: he doubtless gives the actual words our Lord used. The term “day” has various significations, and here it clearly means the time of light. This passage in no way proves that John did not adopt our mode of reckoning.
The details will be seen in the chronological tables. We give a separate table (pages 131-2) from the last passover to the ascension, on account of its importance, in which the hours named in the trial, and so forth, are pointed out.