The Sixth Hour in John 19:14

The question is, If Mark tells us that Jesus was crucified at “the third hour,” and Matthew in accordance with Mark’s testimony, says, “from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour,” how can John possibly be correct in saying that the trial of our adorable Lord before Pilate was not ended till “about the sixth hour”?
If, however, it be true, as is generally accepted, that John’s gospel was the last book of Scripture which was written, say about thirty years after the destruction of Jerusalem, and by that time the Jewish mode of reckoning a day, from about six of one evening to about six in the next evening, had pretty generally given way to the Roman mode of reckoning a day, as we now do, from midnight to midnight, then all thought of discrepancy in these passages of Scripture vanishes. This would make the ending of the trial to be at six in the morning, and the time of crucifixion to be nine.
Accepting, then, the above-named thought that John, unlike the other evangelists, used Roman time, and that about three hours intervened between the end of the trial and the actual crucifixion of our precious Lord and Savior, let us see, from the brief Scripture record we have, what transpired during these three hours. What hours of sorrow and suffering they must have been to Him!
First of all, we read, after the wicked trial by infuriated men led on by Satan, that the holy Sufferer was “scourged,” which must have taken up some time; then He was brought into the Prætorium, and the whole band of soldiers were gathered unto Him. There they stripped Him of His own clothes, and put on Him a scarlet robe. There too they “platted a crown of thorns,” “put it upon his head, and a reed in his right hand: and they bowed the knee before him, and mocked him, saying, Hail, king of the Jews!” The enmity of the heart of man to the Holy Son of God was further manifested by their spitting upon Him, and taking the reed and smiting Him upon the head. All this outrage and other indignities must have extended over some time, for, in addition to all that we have noticed, it is said, “After that they had mocked him,” etc., intimating that the Savior was publicly held in derision for some time. Lastly, we find that they took the robe from off Him, and put His own raiment on Him, and led Him away to crucify Him.
All through these three hours the two malefactors were most likely being tried by Pilate; for, as our Lord was the first to be crucified, it is more than probable that He had the precedence in the trial. The whole account seems to imply this. And as the Scriptures of the prophets could not but have their fulfilment, the thieves must be crucified with Him, for He must not only bear the sins of many, but “be numbered with the transgressors.” Considering all these things, the three hours’ interval between the end of the Savior’s trial and His crucifixion may easily be accounted for.
The Lamb of God is now led on to Calvary, bearing His own cross till they compelled a man of Cyrene to bear it after Him. On the road, He addressed the weeping women, and enjoined them not to weep for Him, but for themselves and their children, because of what was coming upon them. Then reaching Calvary, He was most cruelly nailed to the cross, fulfilling truly the words of the prophet,
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted; yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.
It was also blessedly true that “He made intercession for the transgressors,” and that “He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities,” for “it pleased the Lord to bruise him” (Isa. 53:5-12). After hanging three hours on the cross in agony and shame, there was darkness over the whole land from the sixth to the ninth hour, at the close of which, He so bitterly felt the anguish of being forsaken of God as our Sin-bearer, that He cried out, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” and having fulfilled what had been written of Him, He said, “It is finished,” committed Himself to the Father, and gave up the ghost. The rending of the veil in the temple was, no doubt, God’s own testimony to the eternal efficacy of the death of the cross, by which He can now come out to sinners with the gospel, and the believer draw nigh to God by the blood of Jesus.
Looking briefly at the other parts of John’s gospel in which hours are named, we notice that our Lord said, in the eleventh chapter, “Are there not twelve hours in a day?” which may be regarded as true, whether we look at time according to the Jewish or Roman mode of calculation.
In the first chapter, we read that the two disciples came to Jesus “about the tenth hour,” which looks like ten in the morning, for they abode with Him that day, and we are not told of anything having been done by them on that day before that hour (John 1:35-39).
In the fourth chapter we find our Lord wearied with His journey, sitting on the well “about the sixth hour.” The time seems to have been six in the evening, for the disciples were gone away into the city to buy food, which might have been for the evening meal. After this the Lord went into the city, and many of the Samaritans believed, and besought Him to tarry with them: a kindness often shown in the East when the day was far spent (vv. 6, 8, 31, 40).
At the close of the fourth chapter we are told, that the nobleman’s sole was healed “at the seventh hour,” which most probably was seven in the evening. Our Lord said unto him,
“Go thy way, thy son liveth . . . and he went his way.” Now as Capernaum was a distance of several miles from Cana of Galilee, if he took his journey that night so as to reach his home in the morning, then it can easily be understood that when his servants met him, they should have said, “Yesterday, at the seventh hour the fever left him.” “So the father knew that it was at the same hour, in the which Jesus had said unto him, Thy son liveth; and himself believed, and his whole house” (John 4:46-54).
Every student of Scripture meets with difficulties, and finds much that he cannot understand; but, as we have said before, waiting on God in humility of mind, and in unfeigned dependence on the Holy Spirit, it is astonishing how He clears up the difficulties for us. It is, however, very remarkable how the Lord seems to have anticipated many of the objections which are raised by learned and scientific men, who rely on their own reasonings instead of simply accepting what God has said. In addition to some instances already pointed out, we may notice that the Lord authenticated the doctrine of the descent of the human race from one pair of parents from the beginning of the creation (Mark 10:6); of the taking away of all by the Deluge, except those who were in the ark (Matt. 24:37-39); of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah with fire and brimstone; of the miraculous supply of the manna; and the story of Jonah and the fish (some great fish, not necessarily a whale), and his mission to Nineveh and its effects.
In meditating on the Gospels it is scarcely possible not to notice the reverence and honor paid by our Lord to “the Scriptures.” Only think of Him as to this when on the cross. After being bodily suspended there for six hours with nails in His hands and His feet, in unmitigated and indescribable pain, with all the sorrow too that pressed upon His spirit of being betrayed by one, denied by another, and forsaken by all; when lover and friend had been put far from Him, and His acquaintance into darkness; when consciously too bearing our sins in His own body on the tree, the Holy One made sin for us; the wrath of God, the forsaking of God, the judgment of God for our sins falling upon Him, so that His soul was made an offering for sin; so occupied was He with the perfect will of Him who sent Him, that the silence of the unparalleled crisis was broken by the words, “I thirst”; and why? There remained one little Scripture that had not as yet had its fulfilment. What was it? “In my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink” (Psa. 99:21). We therefore read, “Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst. Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar; and they filled a spunge with vinegar and put it upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth. When Jesus, therefore, had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished, and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost” (John 19:28-30). And we may well ask, when pondering such a scene as this, could anything be more perfect as sealing the divine authority of Scripture with His own blood? What true reverence for the sacred writings! What perfect subjection to every word of it! In a moment too of unutterable agony, depths of deepest sorrow, hours of darkness and unutterable woe, and above all, the forsaking of God. His heart broken with reproach, Satan bruising, men deriding in hateful enmity, every bone out of joint, yet manifesting perfect love to the Father, perfect obedience to His word, perfect subjection to His will, perfect reverence for what is written, and perfect love to all who trust in Him. What perfections cluster around the cross at Golgotha Happy those who know Him risen and ascended as the Object of their faith, and the One in whom they trust. What lessons this unparalleled scene reads to us as to reverence for Scripture, because it is the will and word of God; and how truly the Holy Spirit says of Him, that He hath “left us an example, that we should follow his steps.”