HOUR (Heb., Aram. šā‘â; Gk. hōra) is used in Scripture in a precise sense and in a more general sense.
1. 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 (v. 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.
(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 reference to ‘yesterday’ in that verse is not removed by interpreting the hour differently. In Rev. 8:1 ‘half an hour’ represents Gk. hēmiōrion.
2. More generally, ‘hour’ indicates a fairly well-defined point of time. ‘In the same hour’ (Dn. 5:5, AV, RV; immediately’, RSV) means ‘while the king and his guests were at the height of their sacrilegious revelry’. ‘In the self same hour’ (Mt. 8:13, AV) means ‘at that very moment (RSV) when Jesus assured the centurion that his plea to have his servant healed was granted’. Frequently some specially critical occasion is referred to as an ‘hour’ e.g. the hour of Jesus’ betrayal (Mk. 14:41; cf. Lk. 22:53, ‘your hour’, i.e. ‘your brief season of power’); the hour of his parousia, with the attendant resurrection and judgment (Mt. 25:13; Jn. 5:28f.).
In John the appointed time for Jesus passion and glorification is repeatedly spoken of as his ‘hour’ (cf. Jn. 2:4; 7:30; 8:20; also 12:23; 17:1). The present situation between the times is ‘the last hour’ (1 Jn. 2:18); the rise of many antichrists indicates that Christ is soon to appear.
-Bruce, F. F. (1996). Hour. In D. R. W. Wood, I. H. Marshall, A. R. Millard, J. I. Packer & D. J. Wiseman (Eds.), New Bible dictionary.
W. M. O’Neil, Time and the Calendars, 1975; H.-C. Hahn:
