2. There has been among some NT scholars a certain degree of hesitation about accepting as absolutely and invariably true the principle that hours were counted only as beginning from sunrise 5 and some attempt has been made to show that the hours of the day were sometimes counted after a different fashion. This hesitation has been caused by the apparent discrepancy between Jn 19! and Mk 15%. In the former passage it is said that the trial of Jesus was concluded and the j udgment on the point of being pronounced ‘about the sixth hour,’ and some more time was needed (but prob-
* J is sometimes said that the Greeks had only three watches, the Romans four. This is an error arising from mis- interpretation of Pollux, 1. 70. See Mr. Macan’s note on
Herodotus, ix. 5, in his forthcoming edition.
478 NUMBERS, HOURS, AND YEARS
ably not long) execution and raise Him on the cross, so that the Crucifixion could hardly have been consummated before 12 noon. No other estimate is given by St. John of the lapse of time on that day, but towards sunset it was found that Jesus was dead already, though the other two thereafter the body was taken away by Joseph and Nicodemus for burial, apparently just before the day was ended, perhaps about 5.30 or 5.45 p.m.
In the latter passage, Mk 15”, it is stated that consummated ‘at the third hour,’ i.e. 9 a.m. (modern time), and that at the
the Crucifixion was
sixth hour darkness began and lasted till the ninth hour, when Jesus died : evening, very soon after 6 p.m. (modern time, ¢.e. sunset), Joseph took away the body for burial.
Tt has been suggested (and the view is advocated by some high authorities) that St. John counted from midnight, so that judgment was pronounced on Jesus about 6 a.m. (modern time) ; then after an
the hours as beginning according to him
interval of three hours followed the Crucifixion,
and afterwards darkness began (according to the By this device all is shown to It is urged that the dif- ference in the way of counting the hours was due to the fact that St. John wrote in Ephesus, and counted in this one case according to the fashion of Asia Minor as being familiar to the public for
Synoptics) at noon. he in perfect harmony.
which he wrote. An example of this supposed
Asia Minor custom is sought in the martyrdom of It is maintained that exhibitions of wild beasts, and executions by exposure to the beasts, ordinarily took place before
Polycarp at the eighth hour.
noon (which is true),* and that therefore the eighth hour can only have been 8 a.m. (modern time). It is needless to discuss fully the case of Poly-
carp ; + the facts show beyond doubt that his case
was exceptional, and that he did not suffer until after noon.
villa at some distance from Smyrna (to which he
had retired after leaving his first refuge in a villa
near the city) on a Friday, officers having been
sent to arrest him in compliance with the shouts of the crowded audience at the conclusion of the
venatio in the stadium at Smyrna on that day. He Was permitted to pray for two hours after arrest ; “when the hour for departure arrived? (that is, evidently, early on Saturday morning) he was conducted to Smyrna ; he was introduced for trial before the proconsul after the games in the stadium were concluded, because he could hardly have reached the city before the games began, and they would not be interrupted to allow the trial to proceed. It is clear that the games were over for the day when the trial was held, for Philip the Asiarch (who favoured Polyearp) declared that he could not reopen them in order to comply with the demand of the crowd that Polyearp should be exposed to the beasts. The games, of course, lasted more than one day ; but it may be regarded as practically certain that they would not be con- tinued after the fifth hour.t The interval between that hour and the eighth was occupied with the trial (for the forms of Roman law, even in a hurried trial, required some time) and the pre- paration for the execution; and the Jews, who could hardly have been present at the games on a Sabbath of especial sanctity, but who came in numbers to the trial, showed themselves active in procuring materials to burn Polycarp. Other ex-
* See the full discussion in Friedlinder’s Rom. Sittengesch. iii. p. 891 (849) ; also Martial, viii. 67, 4, v. 65. 8,
t It is discussed at length in the Hapositor, 4th Ser, [1893], vol. vii. p. 220 ff.
{ See Hapositor, loc. cit., and the article TYRANNUS, vol. iy. p. 8220, labores.
Martial says: ad quintam varios extendit Roma
to conduct Jesus to the place of
sufferers were still living ;
about the beginning of
He was arrested near sunset at a
NUMBERS, HOURS, AND YEARS
amples of martyrdoms which took place in the afternoon are those of Zenobius and Zenobia at Aigeai in Cilicia on a Friday at the ninth hour (Acta Sanct. 31 Oct. p. 263), and of Pionius at Smyrna at the tenth hour (Acta Pionir).
In those exceptional cases the hour was remem- bered ; but in ordinary cases the execution took place early in the day, commonly forming a part of the exhibitions or venationes.