How were hours of day determined the day Jesus died?

Answer 1

A:

Measurement of time was radically different before the invention of mechanical clocks. The hours of daylight could be measured using a shadow-stick, which always gave exactly 12 hours of daylight, but with each hour of variable length depending on the time of year. Modern sundials allow a variable number of of hours, each of fixed length in order to synchronise with mechanical clocks, but this would have added unnecessary complexity in the lives of the ancients.

The last twenty four hours in the life of Jesus are marked off precisely in Mark's Gospel, the first New Testament gospel to be written:

A

The celebration of the Passover Feast, which becomes the Last Supper, beginning "when it was evening" (Mark 14:17), or when the sun went down at 6 pm and the beginning of the day of the Passover by Jewish reckoning.

Mark knew that the duration of the Passover meal was three hours and that it concluded with the singing of a hymn.

B

When was about 9 p.m. Mark then has Jesus and the disciples go to the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus went to pray. He returned three times and each time found the disciples aslep, measuring three hours of time by asking, "Could you not sleep one hour?" It was now midnight.

C

The betrayal of Jesus, the darkest deed in human history, came next, occurring at the stroke of midnight. This will be reflected by the darkness at midday

D

At 3:00 a.m., Jesus was led away for a trial before the high priest and other senior priests and elders.

We know the time of the first trial because Peter's threefold denial of Jesus followed, once each hour until the cock crowed, marking the watch between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m., known as cockcrow.

E

When it was 6 o'clock, "As soon as it was morning", Jesus was led by the chief priests, scribes and elders for trial by Pontius Pilate. At the trial, Pontius Pilate sentences Jesus to be crucified.

D'

At 9 o'clock: "It was the third hour when they crucified him."

C'

When "the sixth hour had come" (12 noon), darkness covered the whole earth, reflecting the betrayal at 12 midnight.

B'

The three hours of darkness, until 3 p.m. mirror the agony in the Garden of Gethsemene. Jesus last words, "My God. My God, why hast thou forsaken me?" reflect the recognition that his prayer in the Garden has not been answered. At 3 o'clock Jesus cried out and gave up the ghost.

A'

Joseph of Arimathea then asked Pilate for the body of Jesus, so that he could be buried before the Sabbath began at 6 p.m., when the sun went down.