There are but few references to time in the New Testament. Our Lord said, "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)), which is equally applicable to our mode of reckoning from midnight to midnight, or to the Jewish method of calculating from sunset to sunset.
This latter method gave no fixed duration for a day, because sunset was always varying. Their shortest days (reckoning sixty minutes to an hour) would have had only about ten hours, and their longest about fourteen; so that some of their hours were of only fifty minutes' duration, and others were as long as 70 minutes.
In order to ascertain what times are alluded to in the New Testament, it is usual to take a mean time of the above and suppose the sun to rise at six o'clock and to set at six o'clock. Then the third hour of the day would be our nine o'clock: their sixth hour, our twelve o'clock: their ninth hour, our three o'clock.
This would refer to all the hours of the day mentioned in the New Testament except in the Gospel of John. It is generally held that he wrote his Gospel much later than the other evangelists, even after the destruction of Jerusalem, and the scattering of the Jews. He also, unlike Matthew, had Gentiles and all in view. The translation of Aramaic names (John 1:38, 41, 4238Then Jesus turned, and saw them following, and saith unto them, What seek ye? They said unto him, Rabbi, (which is to say, being interpreted, Master,) where dwellest thou? (John 1:38)
41He first findeth his own brother Simon, and saith unto him, We have found the Messias, which is, being interpreted, the Christ. 42And he brought him to Jesus. And when Jesus beheld him, he said, Thou art Simon the son of Jona: thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation, A stone. (John 1:41‑42)), the notice of customs (John 4:99Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. (John 4:9)), and of topography (John 5: 2), would be in view of readers unacquainted with Palestine. The use of the Roman rather than the Jewish mode of reckoning time is therefore what we might expect—reckoning the hours from midnight to midnight, as is now commonly done.
This at once meets the difficulty of John's saying that the trial of our Lord was proceeding at the sixth hour, which does not at all agree with the other gospels; but if it means our six o'clock in the morning all difficulty is removed.
But if John used that mode of reckoning in this one place, it is reasonable to suppose that he used it in every place. Let us look at the other passages.
John 1:39: "They came and saw where he dwelt, and abode with him that day: it was about the tenth hour." This would be our ten o'clock, and there is nothing in the passage inconsistent with this.
John 4:6,7: "Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well; and it was about the sixth hour. There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water."
This has often been taken to be at noon, and the woman is supposed to have come at that unusual hour for drawing water, because of her desire to avoid meeting the other women. But the narrative gives no hint that her bad character was known: on the contrary, when she carried her message to the city it was at once responded to. We must notice also that noon was not a suitable hour for the disciples to have gone to buy food, nor for them to press our Lord to eat on their return: it was too late for their first meal, and much too early for their chief evening meal. There appears nothing to hinder our considering the time named to be our six o'clock in the evening.
John 4:52,53: "Then inquired he of them the hour when he began to amend. And they said unto him, Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him. So the father knew that it was at the same hour in the which Jesus said unto him, Thy son liveth."
Cana is about twelve miles from Capernaum, and if one o'clock had been the hour when our Lord dismissed the father, would he not have reached home before night? But he did not meet his servants till the next day, which well agrees with the time being seven o'clock in the evening, too late to start for home.
These are all the definite hours named in the Gospel of John; we cannot see anything that makes it improbable that the common Roman mode of reckoning was employed in each case, and seems quite needful 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).
There is only one definite hour of the night mentioned in the New Testament: "the third hour of the night" in Acts 23:2323And he called unto him two centurions, saying, Make ready two hundred soldiers to go to Caesarea, and horsemen threescore and ten, and spearmen two hundred, at the third hour of the night; (Acts 23:23). The expression was used by a Roman, but may have been our nine o'clock. The night was otherwise divided into watches, which were four in number, of three hours each, from sunset to sunrise. The second and third are named in Luke 12:38,38And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants. (Luke 12:38) and the fourth in Matt. 14:2525And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea. (Matthew 14:25). Apparently the same divisions are alluded to under the terms "at even, or at midnight, or at the cock-crowing, or in the morning " in Mark 13:3535Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning: (Mark 13:35).