Did John Use Roman Time?

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At 06:53 AM 12/4/97 -0500, Greg, Nancy, and James Todd wrote:


>NANCY

>Once again, Roman hours did not begin at midnight, but at dawn,

>approximately 7 am, depending on the season. Roman hours were used only for

>daylight. Darkness was divided into watches (vigiliae).

>


TILL
Yes, you're right.  I made the mistake of assuming that because the Roman
system began the day at midnight, the hours were counted from then.  This
turns out not to be the case.  The hours were counted from sunrise, and the
night was divided into watches.  I try to keep some conservative reference
books in my personal library, so I have *New Bible Dictionary* by
Inter-Varsity Press.  Anyone familiar with  this publishing house knows that
it is very friendly to the traditional view of the Bible.  Under "HOUR,"
this dictionary said the following about the reckoning of hours.  Ducq
should notice the references to "hour" as it was used in the book of John.

        "In its more precise sense (which is probably later than the more
general sense), an hour is one-twelfth of the period of daylight: 'Are there
not twelve hours in the day?' (Jn. 11:9).  They were reckoned from sunrise
to sunset, just as the three (Jewish) or four (Roman) watches into which the
period of darkness was divided were reckoned from sunset to sunrise.  As
sunrise and sunset varied according to the time of the year, biblical hours
cannot be translated exactly into modern clock-hours; and in any case the
absence of accurate chronometers meant that the time of day was indicated in
more general terms than with us.  It is not surprising that the hours most
frequently mentioned are the third, sixth, and ninth hours.  All three are
mentioned in the parable of the labourers in the vineyard (Mt. 20,3,5), as
is also the eleventh hour (vv:6, 9), which has become proverbial for the
last opportunity.  The two disciples of Jn. 1:35ff stayed with Jesus for the
remainder of the day after going home with him, 'for it was about the tenth
hour" (v:39), i.e., about 4 p. m., and darkness would have fallen before
they concluded their conversation with him.  The third, sixth and ninth
hours are mentioned in the Synoptic record of the crucifixion (Mk. 15:25,
33f).  The difficulty of reconciling the 'sixth hour' of Jn. 19:14 with the
'third hour' of Mk. 15:25 has led some to suppose that in John the hours are
counted from midnight, not from sunrise.  The one concrete piece of evidence
in this connection--the statement in the *Martyrdom of Polycarp* (21) that
Polycarp was martyred 'at the eighth hour,' where 8 a. m. is regarded by
some as more probable than 2 p. m.--is insufficient to set against *the
well-attested fact that Romans and Jews alike counted their hours from
sunrise* (emphasis added, ft).  (The fact that the Romans reckoned their
civil day as starting at midnight, while the Jews reckoned theirs as
starting at sunset, has nothing to do with the numbering of the hours.)  The
'seventh hour' of Jn. 4:52 is 1 p. m.; such difficulty as is felt about the
references to 'yesterday' in that verse is not removed by interpreting the
hour differently" (Second Edition, 1994, pp. 495-496).

This discussion of "hour" also has a chart that shows the uniformity that
was used in numbering the hours of the day and the contrast in the different
watches that the Romans and Jews used to divide the night time.  Here is an
interesting point that I noticed while checking into this.  The argument is
that John used the Roman system of calculating hours, and so the "sixth
hour" of John 19:14 was actually 6:00 a. m. and not noon.  The information
quoted above from a conservative reference work is definitely not in
agreement with this premise.  Notice, however, that this reference work (in
agreement with what Nancy said above) pointed out that the Romans divided
the night into four 3-hour watches, whereas the Jews divided the night into
three 4-hour watches.  Matthew 14:25 says, "And in the FOURTH watch of the
night, he [Jesus] came to them, walking upon the sea."  The parallel
reference to this event in Mark 6:48 also used "fourth watch," both
indications that Matthew and Mark used the Roman system of time rather than
the Jewish.  So even if there were any merit in Ducq's argument (which
really isn't his but one he has borrowed from fundamentalists desperately
trying to resolve a textual problem) that John used the Roman system of
time, he would have to explain why the crucifixion chronology of Matthew and
Mark, who apparently used the Roman system, is incompatible with John's
usage of the "sixth hour" in 19:24.

As I mentioned, however, this problem is rather minor compared to the many
problems in Ducq's attempt to harmonize the resurrection narratives.  I will
address those problems later.
Farrell Till
Skepticism, Inc.
jftill@midwest.net

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