Roman versus Jewish Reckoning of Hours in the Gospel of John: An Exegetical Misconception That Refuses To Die

Adam Kubiś

doi:10.31743/biban.12233

Abstract

The article deals with an exegetical misunderstanding revolving around the purported existence of two different ways of reckoning the hours of the day in antiquity, and consequently in the Gospels: an alleged Roman mode (in John’s Gospel) and the Jewish one (in the Synoptics). Among Johannine scholars a disagreement exists over the issue of which system was embraced by the Evangelist. While the majority claim that John followed the known Jewish system of reckoning hours, a minority argue that another, distinctively Roman system was being employed in the FG. In its first part, the article reviews extrabiblical ancient literature to demonstrate that, while the Romans in fact had two systems of marking the beginning of the day (dies civilis, legitimus – starting at midnight, and dies naturalis, verus – starting at sunrise), the manner of reckoning the hours of the day (and the night) was precisely the same for the Romans as for the Jews. In the second part, both systems are applied to four specific Johannine references to the hours of the day (1:39; 4:6; 4:52; and 19:14) in order to assess which method of reckoning the hours better suits the literary context of each narrative. While this internal analysis of the Johannine text is inconclusive, our assessment of the external, extrabiblical evidence points to the conclusion that the ancients, including John the Evangelist, used only one, nearly universal manner of reckoning the hours, i.e. beginning from sunrise.

Highlights

Thesis and ObjectivesThe Gospel of John contains four precise references to the hours of the day: in 1:39; 4:6; 4:52 and 19:14.[1]
While the majority claim that John followed the known Jewish system of reckoning hours, a minority argue that another, distinctively Roman system was being employed in the FG
This article will argue that, while the Romans did have a system of setting the beginning of a day at midnight, they always counted the hours of the day from sunrise

Summary

Introduction

The Gospel of John contains four precise references to the hours of the day: in 1:39 (the tenth hour); 4:6 (the sixth hour); 4:52 (the seventh hour) and 19:14 (the sixth hour).[1]. The discrepancy between the two accounts has generated a plethora of hypotheses, prominent among these being the conviction that two systems of reckoning hours must have existed in the ancient world Following this reasoning, John would be employing the Roman system, his sixth hour would refer to dawn, or 6 a.m. The synoptics, by contrast, are embracing the Jewish system, Mark’s third hour would correspond to 9 a.m. The synoptics, by contrast, are embracing the Jewish system, Mark’s third hour would correspond to 9 a.m This hypothesis makes it possible to reconcile Mark’s and John’s narratives: there is enough time between the sentencing (at 6 a.m.) and the crucifixion (at 9 a.m.) to allow for the narrative events, including Jesus’ trek to Golgotha. The two hypotheses will be applied to each of the four references to the hours of the day present in John’s Gospel

Arguments Supporting the Existence of a Roman System of Reckoning Hours

Conclusion

Geographical-Chronological Argument

Arguments Supporting the Existence of the Jewish System of Reckoning Hours

The Application of Both Hypotheses to John’s Text