See HOURS
Hour. The ancient Hebrews were probably unacquainted with the division of the natural day into twenty-four parts; but they afterwards parcelled out the period between sunrise and sunset into a series of divisions distinguished by the sun’s course.
The early Jews appear to have divided the day into four parts, Neh 9:3, and the night into three watches, Jdg 7:19. And even in the New Testament we find a trace of this division in Mat 20:1-5.
At what period the Jews first became acquainted with the division of the day into twelve hours is unknown, but it is generally supposed they learned it from the Babylonians during the captivity. It was known to the Egyptians at a very early period. They had twelve hours of the day and of the night. There are two kinds of hours, namely,
(1) the astronomical or equinoctial hour, that is, The 24th part of a civil day, and
(2) the natural hour, that is, The 12th part of the natural day, or of the time between sunrise and sunset.
These are the hours meant in the New Testament, Joh 11:9; etc., and it must be remembered that they perpetually vary in length, so as to be very different at different times of he year. For the purpose of prayer the old division of the day into four portions was continued in the Temple service. As we see from Act 2:15; Act 3:1; Act 10:9.
Hour. The twenty-fourth part of the day. Such a mode of dividing time was not originally employed among the Hebrews. And, when the word "hour" first occurs, it is used loosely and indefinitely, Dan 3:6; Dan 3:15; Dan 4:33; Dan 5:5; as it is frequently in the New Testament, Mar 13:32; Joh 2:4; and as very commonly among ourselves. At a very early period the Egyptians divided the day into twelve hours; and the same reckoning prevailed among the Babylonians, from whom the Greeks took it. It is likely that the Jews learned and adopted it at the period of the captivity. In our Lord’s time, the day, that is, the space between sunrise and sunset, was commonly distributed into twelve hours, Joh 11:9; these, therefore, varied in length according to the season of the year. Generally, however, we may say that the third hour corresponded with our 9 a.m., the sixth with our noon, the ninth with our 3 p.m., etc. In Act 23:23 the hours of the night were reckoned from sunset; consequently the time named would nearly correspond with our 9 p.m.
Used with various significations in scripture: as
1. An indefinite period, when the word ’time’ gives the sense: "the hour cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father." Joh 4:21.
2. A definite point of time, when ’moment’ or ’at once’ would give the sense. "The woman was made whole from that hour." Mat 9:22.
3. The division of the day into twelve hours, generally considered to be from sunrise to sunset. This varied in Palestine, from ten of our hours in the winter to fourteen in the summer; so that the hours in summer would be nearly half as long again as in the winter. The hours of scripture are now usually reckoned from 6 o’clock A.M. to 6 o’clock P.M., which would make the third hour our 9 o’clock; the sixth hour our 12 o’clock; the ninth hour our 3 o’clock P.M., and so on.
This would be applicable to all the definite hours mentioned in the N.T. except in the Gospel by John. This evangelist followed the plan of reckoning from midnight to midnight. This explains the difficulty found in Joh 19:14, which represents the trial proceeding at the sixth hour, whereas Mar 15:25 says "It was the third hour and they crucified him." A comparison of all the passages shows that the trial commenced early, and our 6 o’clock suits very well; and the crucifixion at 9 o’clock, the third hour of the Jews, agrees with Mark. The other definite times mentioned in John are in Joh 1:39; Joh 4:6; Joh 4:52-53, and the now common method of reckoning the time will agree with all of them.
HOUR.—1. In several of their accounts of Christ’s healings, the Evangelists indicate the instantaneousness of the cures by some such expression as ‘He was healed in the selfsame hour’ (Mat 8:13, cf. Mat 9:22; Mat 15:28; Mat 17:18, Joh 4:53). More definitely the word is used as a division of the day (Mat 20:3; Mat 20:5-6; Mat 20:12; Mat 27:45-46, cf Mar 15:33-34, Luk 23:44, Joh 1:39; Joh 4:6; Joh 4:52; Joh 19:14). The usual system of reckoning time was from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., and again from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. ‘In the 1st cent. of our era the day was divided, in popular language, into twelve equal parts or hours, which varied in length according to the season.… The expression, “the first hour,” indicated the time when the shadow on the dial reached the mark which showed that 1½ of the day had elapsed’ (Ramsay, Expositor, March 1893, p. 216 f.). The question has been raised, because of the apparent divergence between Joh 19:14 and Mar 15:25, whether St. John adopted another method of reckoning in the Fourth Gospel, viz. from midnight to midday, and from midday to midnight. Prof. Ramsay maintains that, though the Roman civil day was reckoned in this way, it was not divided into hours; and that the note of time when the martyrdom of Polycarp took place,
2. But Jesus, living ‘in feelings, not in figures on a dial,’ and ‘counting time by heart-throbs,’ gave the word an intense significance. To Him days and hours were moral magnitudes. The appointed span was not small, but spacious (‘Are there not twelve hours in the day?’ Joh 11:9), to be employed in strenuous and loving obedience to the Divine will (cf. Joh 9:4). Until the sunset, He knew He had no reason to fear the hostility of men. Life would be as long as duty, and in the path of God’s service there are no tragic foreshortenings (Joh 11:8-9). But the twelfth hour of the day was that to which He so pathetically refers as ‘Mine hour.’ At the marriage feast in Cana, when appealed to by His mother with a suggestion for His help, He replied, ‘Woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come’ (Joh 2:4). This may simply mean that the time for giving such relief was not opportune, or that the opportunity for miracle-working, or the moment for self-manifestation, had not arrived. But the whole utterance produces the impression that the appeal had aroused strong feelings, and created a critical situation for Him.
‘He was standing on the threshold of His ministry, conscious of His miraulous power, and He was questioning whether that were the hour to put it forth.… The supplying of wine to a company of peasants seemed so trivial, so unworthy of the Messiah, so insufficient for the inauguration of the kingdom of heaven’ (Smith, The Days of His Flesh, p. 55).
But is there not even here a reference to what He calls peculiarly His hour—‘the hour when the Son of Man should be glorified’ (Joh 12:23; cf. Joh 17:1); the hour when He should be betrayed into the hands of sinners (Mat 26:45); the hour when the Father’s will gave Him over to the power of darkness (Luk 22:53)? If Jesus went down to the Jordan in order to participate in the Baptism of Repentance, conscious that His vocation as Messiah was to be that of the Suffering Servant, and to take upon Himself the sins of His brethren, then the thought of His hour as the hour of His sacrifice could never be absent from His mind. And the simple suggestion of His mother, involving, as it did, for Him the first exercise of a power which came to Him as Messiah, raised suddenly and vividly before Him the issue of suffering, and called forth the intense feeling in the words, ‘Mine hour is not yet come.’
A similar tumult of emotion was produced towards the end of His ministry, by the request of the Greeks to see Him (Joh 12:20). The reply of Jesus, ‘The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified.… Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone,’ is relevant to a prospect of possible exemption from the cross which the request raised in Him, rather than to the request itself. Once more an apparently innocent intrusion upon His thoughts had brought before Him the vision of His hour. He saw that the glory would be won at a great cost, and the prospect of it brought distress of soul, and wrung from Him the cry, ‘Father, what shall I say? Save me from this hour.’ But immediately He saw through the pain the holy purpose of God realizing itself, and recovered His poise of soul and unflinching devotion. ‘But for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify thy name.’
It was by this simple word, therefore, that He expressed the conviction that His death was the climax of His life, and that the time of its accomplishment was with God. He would not forestall it by any premature manifestation of Himself to the world (Joh 7:6); and until His hour came, His enemies were powerless against Him (Joh 7:30, Joh 8:20). But when it came, He was not reluctant to recognize it. Though it was a dark hour, the hour of men with sinister purpose and in league with Satan (Luk 22:53), He knew it as the hour when He should depart out of this world unto the Father (Joh 13:1), the hour when God should glorify His Son (Joh 17:1).
With the approach of that hour which marked the climax and close of His earthly ministry, a wider horizon opens. A new day of God dawns, and in it also there is a critical hour—‘the hour when the Son of Man cometh’ (Mat 25:13). Even to Him the precise point of time was not disclosed (Mat 24:36). Of one thing He was sure, and gave repeated warning,—it would come upon men with startling suddenness: ‘and in an hour when ye think not’ (Mat 24:42; Mat 24:44; Mat 24:50; Mat 25:13, cf. Luk 12:39; Luk 12:49; Luk 12:46); and He enforces therewith His command to ‘watch,’ ‘be ready,’ so that, though it come suddenly, it may be a glad surprise.
Joseph Muir.
HOUR.—See Time.