I was queried this morning concerning the hour of the
crucifixion and death of Jesus. I decided to use the advanced search option I
have on Logos (I have a full subscription). This is the answer:
The timing of Jesus'
crucifixion is a subject of debate due to apparent discrepancies between Gospel
accounts. Mark's Gospel states that Jesus was crucified at the "third
hour" (around 9:00 AM)[1][2][3], while John's Gospel suggests the trial before
Pilate was not over until the "sixth hour" (around noon)[3][4][5].
Various explanations have been proposed for this difference, including the
possibility of different time-keeping systems or scribal errors in copying the
texts[2][3]. The phrase "sixth hour" in John's account may not
necessarily refer to the time of crucifixion, but rather to the time when
Pilate presented Jesus, saying "Look, your king!"[4][5]. Despite
these discrepancies, the Gospels agree that darkness fell over the land from
the sixth to the ninth hour (noon to 3:00 PM)[2][4]. It's important to note
that the exact chronology remains a subject of scholarly debate, and the
articles do not provide a definitive resolution to this issue.
[1] Rodney L. Cooper, Mark,
vol. 2, Holman New Testament Commentary (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman
Publishers, 2000), 259.
[2] Mark L. Strauss, Mark, ed. Clinton E. Arnold, Zondervan Exegetical
Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2014), 691–692.
[3] Walter W. Wessel, “Mark,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Matthew,
Mark, Luke, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, vol. 8 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan
Publishing House, 1984), 780.
[4] J. Ramsey Michaels, The Gospel of John, The New International
Commentary on the Old and New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, UK:
William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2010), 942.
[5] Marianne Meye Thompson, John: A Commentary, First edition, The New
Testament Library (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2015), 388.
Here are the excerpts from the above-referenced works (in
some cases, I have included a bit more information than referenced above for
larger context):
[1] Rodney L. Cooper, Mark,
vol. 2, Holman New Testament Commentary (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman
Publishers, 2000), 259
15:25.
Mark says that Jesus was crucified the third
hour or about 9:00 a.m. This differs from John’s account (19:14), which
says that Christ was crucified about the sixth hour or 12:00 noon. The
difference between the two accounts can be attributed to different ways of
calculating time. John was probably using the Roman time system that counted
the hours from midnight to midnight. The sixth hour would then be 6:00 a.m.
Mark was probably following the Jewish custom of counting hours from daybreak
or 6:00 a.m. The third hour would then be 9:00 a.m., according to Mark.
Looking at the text closely,
it appears that Jesus’ trial concluded about 6:00 a.m. (John) and that Jesus
was crucified at 9:00 a.m. (Mark). During the intervening time, Jesus was taken
from the court of Pilate, mocked by the Roman soldiers, led to Golgotha, and
prepared for crucifixion (Lane, Mark,
p. 567).
[2] Mark L. Strauss, Mark,
ed. Clinton E. Arnold, Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament
(Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2014), 691–692
15:25
It was the third hour when they crucified him (ἦν δὲ ὥρα τρίτη καὶ ἐσταύρωσαν αὐτόν). The third hour is 9:00 a.m. Though
elsewhere Mark rarely gives precise chronological references, he carefully
charts the time of the crucifixion. Jesus is crucified in the third hour; the
darkness comes on the land until the sixth hour (noon; 15:33); Jesus cries out
and dies at the ninth hour (3:00 p.m.; 15:34). Joseph of Arimathea then
approaches Pilate about the body “when evening approached” (ὀψίας γενομένης; v. 42; approx. 6:00 p.m.?).
Mark’s chronology makes good
sense with reference to an early morning Roman trial, but appears to contradict
the Fourth Gospel, where Jesus’ Roman trial concludes around the sixth hour
(noon; John 19:14), and Jesus is crucified sometime after this (19:18). Various
harmonizations have been suggested. (1) Some have claimed John is counting time
from midnight, as in our modern system, so that the sixth hour is 6:00 a.m.
This is unlikely, however, since there is no Latin or Greek attestation of this
reckoning of hours.
[3] Walter W. Wessel, “Mark,” in
The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Matthew, Mark, Luke, ed. Frank E.
Gaebelein, vol. 8 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1984), 780
25
Mark says that Jesus was crucified the third hour, i.e., 9:00 A.M. This
conflicts with John’s account, which says that the trial before Pilate was not
quite over by the sixth hour, i.e., 12:00 noon, therefore implying that the
Crucifixion took place later still. Several solutions to this difficult problem
have been suggested.
1. John was using Roman
time. Thus the sixth hour was 6:00 A.M., not 12:00 noon; and the three-hour
interval was taken up with the scourging, mocking, and preparations for the
Crucifixion.
2. An early copyist has
confused a Greek Γ—the
letter that stands for three—with a ϝ
[digamma]—the letter that stands for six.
3. Verse 25 is a gloss;
i.e., it was added by an early copyist. Of these the first seems to be a
desperate attempt at harmonization since there is no evidence whatever for it;
the third is a possibility since both Matthew and Luke do not include this verse,
and they ordinarily follow Mark’s indications of time in the passion narrative;
the second seems most likely since such a copyist error could very easily have
occurred.
[4] J. Ramsey Michaels, The
Gospel of John, The New International Commentary on the Old and New
Testament (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, UK: William B. Eerdmans Publishing
Company, 2010), 941-43
To the same end the Gospel
writer adds a narrative aside, “Now it was the preparation of the Passover; it
was about the sixth hour,” and, resuming the narrative, goes on to tell us that
Pilate then “says to the Jews, ‘Look, your king!’ ”133 (v. 14).
The two designations of time (“preparation of the Passover,” and “the sixth
hour”), closely linked to the presentation of Jesus as king, seem to carry more
weight than the two designations of place (“Stone Pavement” and “Gabbatha”). The “preparation” normally
meant Friday, the day before Sabbath (see Mk 15:42), but in connection with
“the Passover” it refers to the day before Passover, when lambs were
slaughtered in “preparation” for the Passover meal. Although the Gospel writer does
not labor the point, Jesus, “the Lamb of God” (1:29), will die on that very
day. That it was indeed the “preparation” in that sense was clear from the
moment Jesus was brought to Pilate, when those who brought him “did not go into
the praetorium, so that they might not be defiled but might eat the Passover”
(18:28). Later, however, we will learn that it was the “preparation” in both senses, for it seems to have been a
year in which the Passover also fell on a Sabbath (see below, vv. 31, 42).
As for the notice that “it
was about the sixth hour,” any reader familiar with other Gospels will notice a
conflict with the tradition that “It was the third hour when they crucified
him” (Mk 15:25). It is commonly agreed that in the Gospels (as in the Mediterranean
world generally) daytime was reckoned from 6:00 a.m. on, so that “the third
hour” would be 9:00 a.m. and “the sixth hour” noon. A surprising number of
commentators have theorized that “the sixth hour” is a Johannine invention
designed to make the point that Jesus was crucified at the precise time the
Passover lambs were being slaughtered in the temple. But the evidence for this
is late and obscure (according to Exod 12:6, the lambs were to be slaughtered
“at twilight”), and one would expect the Gospel writer to call attention to
such a remarkable correspondence. It is better to content ourself with the
recognition that while the text “does link Jesus’ death with the slaughter of
the Passover lambs in the temple,” the link is “of the day rather than the
hour.” This means that “the sixth hour” as the approximate time of the
presentation and crucifixion of Jesus is not merely a theological construction,
but is to be taken seriously as a tradition independent of Mark. It should also
be noted that all three synoptic Gospels testify to “the sixth hour” as the
time when darkness began to “cover the whole earth” (Mt 27:45//Mk 15:33//Lk 23:44).
In the interest of
harmonization, some have proposed that in this instance, the new day began at
midnight (as in Roman law), so that “the sixth hour” would be 6:00 a.m., but
besides being inconsistent with other time references in the Gospel of John
(1:39; 4:6, 52), this expedient creates more problems than it solves. Too much
has happened since “early morning” (18:28) for “the sixth hour” to be only 6:00
a.m. Moreover, if we are to have the crucifixion at 9:00 a.m. (as in Mark), the
three hours that must still elapse between verse 14 and verse 17 (when Jesus is
crucified) are left unaccounted for. And why would the Gospel writer fix the
time of Jesus’ presentation as king so precisely and the time of his
crucifixion not at all? It appears rather that the Gospel writer wants to call
attention to two decisive events,
close together in time—the presentation as king (vv. 13–14), and the
crucifixion (vv. 17–18)—each linked to a specific place identified with both a
Greek and a Semitic name (vv. 13, 17), with an approximate time designation in
between, sufficient to locate both (“it was about
the sixth hour”). If—as is generally agreed—the crucifixion is Jesus’ “lifting
up” (as in 3:14; 8:28; 12:32), it is just as plausible to think of the
presentation, “Look, your king!” as his “glorification” (as in 7:39; 11:4;
12:16, 23, 28; 13:31–32; 17:1, 5), for the one is no less ironic than the
other. As far as the Gospel writer is concerned, whatever the shame of
crucifixion, Jesus was in fact
“lifted up” to the Father, and whatever Pilate’s motivation, “glorified” here
as “Son of God” and “King” (see vv. 7, 12).
[5] Marianne Meye Thompson, John:
A Commentary, First edition, The New Testament Library (Louisville, KY:
Westminster John Knox Press, 2015), 388-90
[Re. John 19:13-14]
John’s next note, “It was
the day of Preparation for the Passover, and it was the sixth hour,” presents
the timing of Jesus’ trial, crucifixion, and death differently from the
Synoptic accounts. According to Mark, Jesus is crucified at nine o’clock in the
morning (15:25), on the morning after eating the Passover meal with his
disciples (cf. 14:12, 14, 16), and dies about three o’clock in the afternoon.
Thus in Mark, Jesus’ arrest, trial, and crucifixion happen after this meal is
eaten. According to John, Jesus’ last meal with his disciples takes place
“before Passover” (13:1; 18:28). Thus Pilate passes sentence on Jesus at about
noon “on the day of preparation for Passover” (19:14). Jesus is crucified; he
dies and is buried before sundown and the Passover meal.
There are various
explanations of these chronological differences. One of the most common takes
John’s chronology to reflect his determination to present Jesus as sentenced to
death at noon (“the sixth hour”) in order to align the timing of his death with
the slaughter of the Passover lambs, understood to have begun at noon. In other
words, Jesus dies during the exact hour when the Passover lambs are
slaughtered. But this interpretation requires the coherence of three
questionable points: (1) the lambs for Passover actually begin to be
slaughtered at noon; (2) this fact is widely known to or appreciated by John’s
readers; (3) John’s Gospel actually intends the comparison. While the issues
are complicated, the evidence counts against this interpretation of John’s
reference to the sixth hour, and John does not sufficiently explain his cryptic
reference to “the sixth hour” so as to render that interpretation plausible.
1. No ancient Palestinian
source actually states that the lambs for Passover began to be slaughtered at
noon. In Jubilees (2d c. b.c.e.), the
Israelites are instructed to “sacrifice [the Passover] before it becomes
evening” (49.1, 12); and “at evening when the sun is setting on the third part
of the day” (49:19; cf. 11Q19 XVII, 7). Josephus, a priest, places the
sacrifice “from the ninth hour until the eleventh” or what we might call mid to
late afternoon. According to the Mishnah, the Passover lambs were sacrificed
after the daily burnt offering. The earliest permissible time for such
offerings occurs when the eve of Passover coincides with the eve of Sabbath;
then the daily burnt offering is slaughtered at “half after the sixth hour” and
offered at “half after the seventh hour” (1:30). The Passover offering was
slaughtered after that: sometime after 1:30 in the afternoon (see m. Pesaḥ. 1:4; 4:1, 5). Philo does speak
of the offering of myriads of lambs from noon (mesēmbria) till eventide (hespera,
in Spec. 2.145), but the comment
notes the duration, rather than the beginning, of the appropriate time for
sacrifice. In other words, no ancient source unequivocally locates this
sacrifice of Passover lambs at noon.
2. The exact hour of this
sacrifice was unlikely to have been known (or have mattered) to the readers of
John’s Gospel. Of course, that depends to some extent on how we envision the
audience of John’s Gospel. If Christians from the Roman Empire surrounding the
Mediterranean were in view, it can be doubted whether the vast majority of them
knew or cared about details such as the exact hour at which the Passover lambs
were sacrificed. For that matter, it is doubtful that even pilgrims who went up
to Jerusalem for the feast knew the details of fixing the precise hour of this
sacrifice. For what readers would John’s allusion have been instructive?
3. One could argue that
while John’s readers would not have made the connection, John nevertheless
intends to indicate the solemnity of the hour and the significance of Jesus’
death as the Passover lamb by noting that it was the hour when the slaughter began
that Jesus was sent to his death. But John does not signal to his reader that
“the sixth hour” is either unusually significant, or if it is, what its
significance might be. John includes three other references to precise hours
(1:39; 4:6, 52; see comments on 4:52–53). Jesus’ “hour” has been anticipated
throughout the Gospel; with the unfolding events of Jesus’ passion, that hour
clearly has come (12:23, 27; 13:1; 17:1). Pilate’s sentencing of Jesus at “the
sixth hour” adds to the momentous movement toward his death.
There is no mistaking the
importance of the moment. Pilate has not yet sentenced Jesus to death. He
offers the Jews one more opportunity to acknowledge their King. Presenting
Jesus, flogged and dressed in purple robes and a crown of thorns, Pilate acclaims,
“See your King!” This statement joins with Pilate’s earlier pronouncement, “See
the man!” The two announcements go together: this man is their King.
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