Imagine a world without watches, clocks, or any timepieces. Life would, and did, move more slowly. We can understand our ancestors better if we understand this.
By Mark D. Harris
Students of antiquity stumble over important questions. To accept any ancient work such as the Bible as a valid historical document we must understand the basics of daily life in the Bible. It is unfortunate, or exciting depending upon your point of view, that the Bible encompasses over 2,000 years, thousands of square miles and dozens of cultures. Simple questions abound such as “what time of day was Jesus crucified?” While this article will not provide a definitive answer, it will shed light on the question.
Israel
Time was divided into days, weeks, months and years during the Israelite monarchy. During and after the Babylonian exile the Jews adopted the Babylonian system of dividing the daylight period into hours.
Greece and Babylon
According to the journal of the British Archaeological Association (Volume 38:1882), the Athenians reckoned their day from sunset to sunset and the Babylonians from sunrise to sunrise.
Rome
The 1882 British Archeological Association journal also reported that the Romans measured their day from midnight (medice noctis inclinatio) to midnight. The phrase in Latin suggests “the decline of midnight” or the early morning hours. The second portion of the day was called the gallicinium, or cock-crow, and spoke of the later morning hours until noon. The third portion, the conticuum, was the hottest part of the day in Southern Europe, the hours of silence when men take their rest. The final part, the diluculum, constitute the evening when the day is declining. These portions would be roughly 0001 to 0600 (midnight to 6 AM, 0601 to 1200 (6:01 to 12:00 noon), 1201 to 1800 (12:01 to 6 PM), and 1801 to 2400 (6:01 to midnight).
Other authorities attest that the Romans, like the Greeks and Jews, divided their day into twelve hours of light and twelve hours of darkness. While simple, this makes the length of each hour different depending upon latitude and time of year. While light and dark hours are the same all year at the equator, the period of light shortens during the winter and lengthens during the summer, and this change is more pronounced the farther north or south one goes. In Rome, for example, a summer solstice daylight hour would last around 75 minutes and a winter solstice daylight hour about 45 minutes, though the division of each hour into minutes and seconds did not occur until the Middle Ages.
The night watch was divided in three hour segments; the first watch from 1801 to 2100, the second from 2101 to 2400, the third from 2401 to 0300, and the fourth watch from 0301 to 0600. Pity the poor Romans who got stuck with the night watch on 21 December at Hadrian’s Wall!
Romans kept time with a sundial, imported from Sicily in 263 BC, and with a water clock. The sundial divided daylight into 12 equal hours but only measured sunrise, midday and sunset with precision. Courts opened at about the third hour (0900 or 9 AM) and lunch was at midday. After lunch was time for a nap and then return to work from 1600 to 1900. The day was divided in half, with the morning ante meridiem (AM) and the afternoon post meridiem (PM). The water clock was a container with a hole in it that was used to measure time. It controlled speakers’ time in the Senate and timed athletic events.
It seems most likely that the early Roman Empire used sunrise to sunrise, or sunset to sunset as the Greeks and Jews did, early in their history, but later transitioned to the midnight to midnight system. As their armies conquered and they gained a vast empire, it would be harder and harder to maintain, administer, and defend their far flung lands and peoples with inconsistent measures of hours and days.
Bible
Expressions such as “the sixth hour” are found primarily in the New Testament. The authors, all Jewish except for Luke (Hebrews is unknown), could have used the Jewish system (measuring from sunset to sunset or sunrise to sunrise) or the later Roman system (measuring from midnight to midnight). Typically Jews measured from sunrise but the Romans could either measure from midnight or noon. The context and each authors’ routine usage can provide some clues.
|
Passage |
Term |
Jewish time |
Roman time |
Most likely based on context |
|
Matthew 20:3 |
“third hour” |
0900 |
0300 or 1500 |
Jewish, because the landowner was going out to hire workers |
|
Matthew 20:5 |
“sixth and ninth hour” |
1200, 1500 |
0600, 0900 or 1800, 2100 |
Jewish, because the landowner was continuing to hire workers |
|
Matthew 20:6, 9 |
“eleventh hour” |
1700 |
1100 or 2300 |
Jewish, because the landowner was continuing to hire workers |
|
Matthew 27:45-46 |
“sixth hour”, “ninth hour” |
1200, 1500 |
0600, 0900 or 1800, 2100 |
Jewish, because the darkness was unusual and prolonged. Darkness early or late in the day is neither. |
|
Mark 15:25 |
“third hour” |
0900 |
0300 or 1500 |
Unclear |
|
Mark 15:33-34 |
“sixth hour”, “ninth hour” |
1200, 1500 |
0600, 0900 or 1800, 2100 |
Jewish, because the darkness was unusual and prolonged. Darkness early or late in the day is neither. |
|
Luke 23:44 |
“sixth hour”, “ninth hour |
1200, 1500 |
0600, 0900 or 1800, 2100 |
Jewish, because the darkness was unusual and prolonged. Darkness early or late in the day is neither. |
|
John 1:39 |
“tenth hour” |
1600 |
1000 or 2200 |
Unclear |
|
John 4:6 |
“sixth hour” |
1200 |
0600 or 1800 |
Jewish, because Jesus would not be tired from His journey at 0600 and the woman would not be getting water alone at 1800. |
|
John 4:52 |
“seventh hour” |
1300 |
0700 or 1900 |
Unclear |
|
Acts 3:1 |
“ninth hour” |
1500 |
0900 or 2100 |
Unclear |
|
Acts 10:3, 9 |
“ninth hour”, “sixth hour” |
1500, 1200 |
0900, 0600 or 2100, 1800 |
Unclear |
|
Acts 10:30 |
“ninth hour” |
1500 |
0900 or 2100 |
Unclear |
|
Acts 23:23 |
“third hour” |
2100 |
?? |
Jewish, “3rd hour of the night” suggests after sundown |
Conclusion
In the modern world timekeeping has become such a science that fractions of a second matter. All over the globe commerce, war, navigation, research, and even relationships are impacted by the measurement of time. People today think in terms of minutes and seconds, while our ancestors thought in terms of day, fortnights, and seasons.
From this survey it seems clear that the New Testament writers measured time from sunrise (or sunset) rather than from midnight as the Romans later did. Writers of other ancient works used differing ways to measure, but they were all based on natural phenomena. To understand any ancient work, we need to have some understand of the basics of their lives. Time is an important part.
Learn more about Hezekiah and the Assyrian War with historical fiction in Head of the Lion.
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