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THE CHRONOLOGICAL
TRUTH ABOUT JESUS'
LAST 24 HOURS BEFORE
HIS DEATH
Part 1
by
Keith Hunt
There has in the last number of years been more written
about the time and events of Christ's last Passover on this earth
with His disciples, than probably any subject, from those who
were at one time part of the Worldwide Church of God. The time
and order of events within a certain time frame concerning the
observance of the Passover Jesus celebrated with His twelve
disciples, leading up to His death, is clouded somewhat in
Scriptural and Historical controversy, because of things recorded
that seem to contradict, that is on the surface they seem to
contradict.
Because some think they see certain Scriptural difficulties
in the four Gospels, and because they see written laws and rules
of the how the Jewish Sanhedrin in Christ's time was to function,
they just cannot possibly reconcile in their minds that the
events starting with the preparation of the last Passover and all
the events following, leading up to the very death of Jesus,
could TAKE PLACE IN ABOUT A 24 HOUR PERIOD, OR SLIGHTLY LESS!
Some have then been teaching that the beginning of the
Passover unto the death of Christ actually took place over A FEW
DAYS. Then there are a few, like Glen W. Myers who teach these
last events in the physical life of Jesus, took place over a
FOUR DAY PERIOD - the 10th to the 14th of Nisan, so corresponding
with the Old Testament Passover lamb that began its fateful
journey to death on the 10th of the first month(see Exodus 12).
Within the Church of God, that part which comes from the
mother organization of the Worldwide Church of God, there are
many ministers and groups of people that have seen that John's
timing of some events in the lead-up to Christ's death, is not
the same as the other gospel writers. In specific, John states it
was the SIXTH hour when Jesus was finally given the death
sentence by Pilate, and led away to be crucified( John 19:14
and context), while Mark claims it was the THIRD hour when the
Messiah was crucified ( Mark 15:25).
To overcome this apparent contradiction, it has been taught
within many of the above groups, that Matthew, Mark, and Luke all
used JEWISH time reckoning, while John used ROMAN time reckoning.
So with John it was 6 A.M. when Pilate gave the final nod
for the Jews to crucify Christ, and it was the third hour in
Jewish time when they put him on the tree to crucify Him. The
Jews began their first hour of the day at 6 A.M. while the
Roman's first hour of the day started at 12 midnight. This then
is one popular way it is taught.
If you only look at those few verses it would seem a
somewhat logical answer to a few scriptures that seem to
contradict each other. BUT as SOME have seen there are more
scripture verses that are tied in with this whole scene, and
which MUST be considered. IF John 19:14 is referring to the
final sentence by Pilate at the final cry from the Jews to
crucify Jesus, which the context PLAINLY states it is, and if
this was all taking place at 6 A.M. then ALL THE EVENTS PRIOR TO
THAT (and please take a look at all of them - Passover meal,
Jesus teaching from John 14 to 17, going to the garden to pray
three times, the coming of Judas with the officers from the chief
priests and Pharisees to arrest Jesus, the leading away for the
first questioning, the story of Peter's denial during it, the
meeting of the Sanhedrin to determine to send Him to Pilate,
going to Pilate for questioning and then Pilate sending Him to
Herod, all the beating along the way Jesus underwent, the return
from Herod to Pilate, the final questioning by Pilate, the
scourging that Pilate inflicted upon Christ, the final questions
put to Jesus, Pilate seeking to release Jesus, the Jews cry for
Him to be crucified, and Pilate consenting to their wish) HAD TO
HAVE ALREADY TAKEN PLACE BY THE SIXTH HOUR - 6 A.M.
YET AMONG ALL THIS ARE THE CLEAR SCRIPTURES THAT STATE THE
SANHEDRIN MET TO DECIDE TO SEND JESUS TO PILATE THE FIRST
TIME.......IN THE MORNING.......AS SOON AS IT WAS DAY!!
PLEASE SEE MATT.27:1; MARK 15:1; LUKE 22:66 - 23:1. IT IS
JUST NOT POSSIBLE TO CORRECTLY FIT ALL THESE VERSES INTO THE IDEA
THAT JOHN USED ROMAN TIME WHEN SAYING PILATE FINALLY CONSENTED TO
THE FINAL CRY OF THE JEWS TO KILL JESUS - NAMELY AT 6 A.M. IT
JUST IS NOT POSSIBLE, AND IT IS NOT POSSIBLE BECAUSE IT SIMPLY
DID NOT ALL HAPPEN AND END BEFORE 6 A.M.
THERE IS ONLY ONE CONCLUSION. JOHN IN THE CONTEXT OF THE
EVENTS OF THE LAST PASSOVER AND ALL THINGS LEADING UP TO THE
DEATH OF JESUS, DID NOT USE ROMAN TIME RECKONING, BUT USED, LIKE
THE OTHER GOSPEL WRITINGS, JEWISH TIME RECKONING!
RIGHT HERE, BEFORE WE GO ANY FURTHER, WE NEED TO SEE THE
SIMPLE PLAIN TRUTH OF THE MATTER, AT LEAST IN THIS ONE POINT.
ALL THE GOSPEL WRITERS USED JEWISH TIME IN LAYING DOWN THE TIME
OF THE EVENTS THEY GAVE A TIME TO. SORRY, BUT SINCERE MEN MAYBE,
TRYING TO FIGURE OUT SOME DIFFICULTIES WITH VARIOUS GOSPEL
WRITERS, HAVE TAUGHT A FALSE DOCTRINE IN SAYING THAT JOHN WAS
USING ROMAN TIME IN THE EVENTS OF THE DEATH OF CHRIST. JOHN WAS
USING JEWISH TIME LIKE THE OTHER THREE GOSPEL WRITERS!
SOME SEE MORE PROBLEMS
Now, I know you are wanting an answer to John's 6th hour and
Mark's 3rd hour. I will get to it in due time. It is coming, but
bear with me for a little longer.
There are some like Mr.Myers, who have other problems with
the time of all the events of the Passover and those leading up
to the death of Christ. They look in the Bible Dictionaries and
Encyclopedias to discover the articles that relate all the rules
and regulations of the Jewish Sanhedrin at the time of Christ(the
body of priests, elders, scribes and Pharisees, with the high
priest as president, who governed the regulations of the calendar
and other legal matters within the state and religion of Israel),
HOW and WHEN they met, at what TIME OF THE DAY they could first
meet etc. etc. Seeing the one rule that said they could not meet
until 9 A.M. in the morning, persons such as Glen Myers
immediately call into question a period of about 24 hours from
Passover to Jesus' death, and claim it had to be MUCH LONGER,
even as Mr. Myers says - FOUR DAYS long. Then he goes on to try
and give added weight to his four day chronology by reasoning
that you could not get an audience with people like Pilate and
Herod without making an appointment, which may have taken a day
or more, especially to see Herod.
Mr. Myers uses much natural logic based upon the natural and
regular laws of the Sanhedrin, together with what at first seems
to be the natural protocol of acquiring an audience with such
dignities like Herod and Pilate. I'm sure under normal
circumstances there is much truth in what Myers claims would have
to be the procedure for all these events and trials of Jesus'
life leading up to Him being crucified.
BUT WHAT MR.MYERS HAS FORGOTTEN OR DOES NOT WANT TO
RECOGNIZE(his writings make it abundantly clear he will not
entertain the thought for one second, in his mind all must have
gone according to the normal rules and laws of the Sanhedrin,
together with the natural protocol of advanced appointment
setting to see Pilate and Herod) IS THE FACT THAT WHAT WAS
HAPPENING DURING AND AFTER THE LAST PASSOVER WAS NOT THE NORMAL
RUN OF PROTOCOL, ETIQUETTE, OR RULES OF REGULATIONS FROM
ANYWHERE!!
Jesus had been treading on the toes of the Sadducees,
scribes and Pharisees, for THREE AND ONE HALF YEARS! He had by
this last Passover had MANY religious and theological
confrontations with them all. He had broken the Sabbath
according to their laws, by healing on that day. He had allowed
His disciples to do many things that were contrary to the
Pharisee's rules. He had on at least two occasions, driven
people and merchants out of the Temple who were making the House
of God into a den of thieves and robbers. Jesus had been able to
answer all their tricky questions, and was able to embarrass
these leaders in front of others on more than one occasion.
There was more than one time He had called them out as following
their own ideas and traditions and putting aside the commandments
of God. Then there was the most powerful hitting them between
the eyes with a two by four, the account recorded for us in
Matthew 23.
It was very shortly after this last event, only a few days
before the Passover was to be observed that, that having all they
could take from Christ over a three year period and more, the
religious leaders assembled together to consult each other as to
HOW they could KILL this Jesus Christ, who claimed to be the
Messiah, and as they saw it, who blasphemed because He called
Himself the Son of God (Matt.26:1-5).
Please notice what is said in Matthew concerning this. They
met so they could consult as to how they might take Jesus BY
SUBTILTY, to KILL Him! This was not a meeting to figure out how
they could take Him by the normal rules of protocol and
established Sanhedrin regulations. Why they had had over three
years to do all that "normal" according to the "rules" stuff.
Jesus had been teaching and preaching the same truths for over
three years. As He Himself said later, nothing He did was done
in a corner, it was all done openly. These religious leaders had
according to their laws, seen Him brake the Sabbath, and
blaspheme for three years. They could have long before now,
followed their rules of Sanhedrin law and brought Him in for
trial. They did not because like the John the Baptist before
Jesus, they knew the people followed Him. Until they could get
the people emotionally fired up to do their bidding, it would be
no use to follow their Sanhedrin rules of trial.
Now, it was the time, they could take this man who called
Himself the Messiah, the Son of God, NO MORE! They were
themselves, maybe unknown to them, being led by the Devil and his
demonic servants into a part of history that had already been
planned from the foundation of the world, and that had been
written in the prophetic word of the Lord for centuries. These
religious leaders were BESIDE THEMSELVES, they were CRAZY with
ANGER, all they could think about was they NOW, within the next
few days, had to KILL this man whom they truly hated. Yet they
still had enough sense to realize this killing should not take
place on the Feast Day, for the people could not be led into
that much frenzy and deception (Matt.26:5).
The Devil was working overtime, all his helpers were busy as
bees. Satan with his deceived mind was thinking he could still
out manoeuvre the Eternal, and kill forever His Son. He had the
Jewish leaders angry enough to now want this Jesus DEAD, and that
within a few days, before the feast day of the Passover. They
are all consulting each other as to how to pull this act off, but
it had to be done in SUBTILTY, not the run of the mill
regulations and protocol. Satan now moves to influence Judas. He
goes to visit the Sanhedrin leaders and offers to betray Christ
for whatever reasoning is going on in his mind. Wow! They can
hardly believe their good fortune, it really could be possible
they now think, to kill this young man they want to see dead.
Well we all know the story. Judas does his betrayal and the
religious leaders are on their way to seeing Jesus crucified and
dead. The crowd that only a while before were praising God as
Jesus rode into town on a donkey, are soon whipped up into a
blood thirsty frenzy by the Sanhedrin, into wanting this Christ
dead.
As you read all this in the four Gospels, can you see the
clear truth that this was no calm, matter of fact, "well this
young man has blasphemed and broken the Sabbath, so let's invoke
the rules of the Sanhedrin to bring him to trial and punishment"
mentality. As the saying goes "all hell was breaking loose" in
the minds of these religious leaders by the time we arrive at the
last few days before this Passover at the end of the Gospels.
Satan and his demons were just going wild in influencing the
minds of certain people. Satan himself it is written, personally
entered into the mind and body of Judas. I mean, this was no
NORMAL, ordinary town council meeting, where with etiquette, the
rules and regulations of normal meetings would be followed.
Anyone who believes this was so, must not be reading the last
chapters of the Gospels with the realization that all the
forces of heaven, both good and bad, were coming together in one
of the most critical and one of the most important events of the
entire universe and eternity. Surely you can see that the
leaders of the Sanhedrin, Judas, and many of the people, were not
in their right minds, not in their normal minds, not ready to
reason calmly and correctly, certainly not ready to follow their
own Sanhedrin rules of protocol and justice.
At this point, with Satan and his forces behind him, the
leaders of the Jewish Sanhedrin WERE NOT ONE BIT INTERESTED IN
FOLLOWING THEIR RULES OF JUSTICE FOR JESUS! THEY WANTED HIM DEAD
AT ALL COSTS, IN ANY WAY THEY COULD ARRANGE IT! JESUS HIMSELF
CLEARLY SAID "AFTER TWO DAYS IS THE FEAST OF THE PASSOVER, AND
THE SON OF MAN IS BETRAYED TO BE CRUCIFIED" (Matt.26:2). THEN,
NOT BEFORE, BUT THEN, THE LEADERS ASSEMBLED TO CONSULT HOW THEY
MIGHT KILL HIM (verse 3). BUT THEY SAID NOT ON THE FEAST DAY
(verse 5).
THIS FACT AND THESE VERSES ALONE PROVE THAT ALL THAT
TRANSPIRED FROM THAT TIME ON, RIGHT UP TO THE VERY DEATH OF JESUS
JUST BEFORE THE FEAST HOLY DAY OF THE 15TH OF THE MONTH CAME,
HAD TO TAKE PLACE IN LESS THAN 48 HOURS!! THERE IS NO WAY A
PERIOD OF FOUR DAYS CAN FIT INTO THOSE VERSES OF MATTHEW 26. AND
AS I WILL PROCEED TO SHOW THROUGHOUT THIS STUDY, FROM THE TIME OF
THE LAST PASSOVER TO THE DEATH OF JESUS ON THE CROSS, AND ALL THE
EVENTS IN- BETWEEN, ALL TOOK PLACE IN LESS THAN 24 HOURS. I WILL
ALSO SHOW THERE IS NO CONTRADICTION BETWEEN MARK AND JOHN EVEN
WHEN WE UNDERSTAND THE TRUTH THAT ALL GOSPEL WRITERS USED JEWISH
TIME WHEN RELATING THE EVENTS OF THE LAST PASSOVER AND DEATH OF
CHRIST.
Before I start to answer what seems to be a contradiction
between Mark and John as to when Jesus was crucified, I want you
to keep the following facts well in mind:
1. How the Jews used time phrases such as "the second hour"
or "the fourth hour" and other "hour" phrases. Here is what
ALBERT BARNES in his Bible Commentary says: " ......With the Jews
it was six until seven, it was the third hour until the fourth
commenced, it was the ninth until the tenth. They INCLUDED in the
THIRD hour the whole time from the third to the forth......."
So in the Jewish mind and mode of reckoning time, if it was
4:45 or 4:50 or 4:20 IT WAS STILL THE FOURTH HOUR! It was the
fourth hour and any part of it UNTIL it was the fifth hour!
2. Notice all the Gospel accounts of the death of Jesus
where hours of the day are mentioned. Note carefully how they are
written.
Matthew 27:45,46 "Now from the SIXTH HOUR there was
darkness over all the land unto the NINTH HOUR. And ABOUT the
ninth hour Jesus cried......"
Mark 15:25, 33, 34 "And it was the THIRD HOUR, and they
crucified Him......And when the SIXTH HOUR was come there was
darkness over the whole land until the NINTH HOUR. And at the
NINTH HOUR Jesus cried......"
Luke 23:44 "And it was ABOUT the SIXTH hour, and there was
darkness over all the earth until the NINTH hour."
John 19:14 "And it was the preparation of the Passover, and
ABOUT the SIXTH hour: and he said unto the Jews, Behold your
King."
Remember the verses above with point one above from Albert
Barnes.
3. At this time, at this Passover season, at the time Jesus
was going to be killed by the leaders of the Sanhedrin, HEROD and
PILATE were BOTH IN JERUSALEM. Notice Luke 23:6,7 "When Pilate
heard of Galilee, he asked whether the man was a Galilean. And as
soon as he knew that He belonged unto Herod's jurisdiction, he
sent Him to Herod, WHO HIMSELF ALSO WAS AT JERUSALEM AT THE
TIME."
Then if you want to consult such authorities as the Jewish
Christian scholar called ALFRED EDERSHEIM and his writings, you
will discover that Jerusalem at the time of Christ was not a
large city at all in actual number of miles across in any
direction. It was really quite small as we think of cities today.
Probably the palaces where such men as Pilate and Herod(when
there) would stay, would not be that far apart from each other.
The clear fact we see is that BOTH men were in the city of
Jerusalem at this time. There was no sending Jesus back and
forth to each other from one city to another city. Both were in
Jerusalem at the time.
4. It is written Jesus was crucified "outside the city" or
"outside the gate" (Heb.13:12). Jesus walked to the place where
they crucified Him, so it is written, but that place was not
miles upon miles outside the walls or gate of Jerusalem. For it
is also written, "".....the place where Jesus was crucified was
NIGH to the city......." (John 19:19).
5. To assume it would have taken a long time, maybe a day or
two, to have an audience with Herod, because he was busy, or
because normal protocol in arranging meetings with him would have
to be followed by anyone and everyone, forgets that Pilate
was not just anyone, and forgets one other very IMPORTANT fact
recorded by the writer Luke in chapter 23 and verse 8, "And when
Herod saw Jesus, he was EXCEEDING GLAD: FOR HE WAS DESIROUS TO
SEE HIM OF A LONG SEASON, BECAUSE HE HAD HEARD MANY THINGS OF
HIM; AND HE HOPED TO HAVE SEEN SOME MIRACLE DONE BY HIM."
Herod when arriving at Jerusalem had no idea that Jesus was
in the city also. He had known about Him for a long season, he
had wanted to see Him for a long season, he was very desirous to
see Him, hoping to see a miracle from Him. When Pilate called
him, even if very early in the morning, before he had time for
his second cup of coffee, to say he wanted him to question this
Jesus Christ about certain accusations the Jewish Sanhedrin were
bringing against Him, DO YOU THINK FROM WHAT LUKE WROTE THAT HE
WOULD NOT HAVE JUMPED AT THE OPPORTUNITY, even leaving his toast
and coffee, daily news-paper, and all other appointments to one
side? I think so!!
REMEMBER THE ABOVE FIVE POINTS, KEEP THEM WELL TO THE FRONT
OF YOUR MIND AS WE CONTINUE IN THIS STUDY.
THE ANSWER BETWEEN MARK AND JOHN
There is no contradiction in the word of God. Jesus said,
"The Scripture cannot be broken." All of God's word is in
harmony, when the whole picture is correctly put together, when
it is remembered that God wrote His word using different people,
who at times came from different angles on the same subject. And
at times employed different types of overall language and figures
of speech, with also different conceptual thoughts and ideas
behind their phrase of speech. This we shall now see fully
demonstrated by the difference of time thought in the concept of
the word "crucified" as relating to Jesus.
For the answer to what at first seems to be a contradiction
between Mark and John I will quote from ALBERT BARNES, under his
commentary on Mark 15: 25.
" .....perhaps the whole difficulty may be removed by the
following statements.......It is not necessary to understand MARK
as saying that it was PRECISELY NINE o'clock, according to our
expression. With the Jews it was six until seven; it was the
third hour until the fourth hour......They INCLUDED in the THIRD
hour the whole time from the third to the fourth......It is not
unduly pressing the matter to suppose that MARK spoke of THE
TIME WHEN THE PROCESS FOR CRUCIFIXION COMMENCED; i.e., when he
was condemned; when they ENTERED UPON IT; WHEN THEY MADE THE
PREPARATION. Between that and the time when He was taken OUT of
Jerusalem to Mount Calvary, when He was ACTUALLY NAILED to the
tree, there is no improbability in supposing that there might
have been an interval of MORE than an hour. Indeed, the
presumption is, that considerably more time than that would
elapse.....
That is PROVED here. That this is the true account of the
matter is clear from the evangelists themselves; and ESPECIALLY
from MARK. The three first evangelists concur in stating that
there was a remarkable DARKNESS over the whole land from the
SIXTH to the NINTH hour, Matt.27: 45; Mark 15:33; Luke 23:44.
This fact would SEEM TO INDICATE that the ACTUAL crucifixion
CONTINUED ONLY during that time - that He was in fact, SUSPENDED
at ABOUT the SIXTH hour, though the PREPARATION for crucifying
Him had been going on (MARK) for TWO HOURS BEFORE.
The fact that MARK (15:33) MENTIONS THIS DARKNESS as
COMMENCING at the SIXTH and not at the THIRD hour, is one of the
circumstances undesignedly occurring that seems to signify that
the crucifixion then had ACTUALLY taken place - though the
various arrangements for it (ver.25) had been going on from the
THIRD hour.
One thing is conclusively proved by this.....they were
independent witnesses; and they were honest men. And the
circumstance adverted to here is one that is allowed to
be of great value in testimony in courts of justice -
CIRCUMSTANTIAL VARIATION WITH ESSENTIAL AGREEMENT."
End quote from Albert Barnes.
Now, did you understand what he was saying? If not, please
read again what he stated - slowly!
With the FIVE important points I gave you above, we can put
this all together. Mark as a kind of parenthetical thought,
during his explanation of the crucifixion, throws in that it was
the THIRD hour they crucified Jesus. The third hour could have
been within Jewish usage, 8 a.m to 9:a.m. You will notice Mark
does not say "they nailed Him to the tree at precisely the stroke
of the third hour" or any such language.
Mark is more specific about when the DARKNESS came. He says, "And
when the sixth hour WAS COME......" This would indicate that at
the stroke of the sixth hour, when it began, then darkness came
upon the land.
Mark has told us that during the third hour - from 8 a.m. to
9 a.m. in the morning - the crucifixion of Christ had been
once and for all, finally, without any question, without any
turning back, been determined by the leaders and people of Judea,
with the consent of Pilate after two tries by himself and one by
Herod, to not have Jesus crucified. It would now take a few
hours to prepare for and to walk Jesus to the place of
crucifixion outside the city. He was already half dead from the
beatings and scourging, He would not walk very fast for sure. It
was still daylight as Jesus walked to the hill of execution.
But by the sixth hour, 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. they had Jesus on
high, fixed to the stake, probably only a very short time before
it struck the sixth hour, and when it did there was DARKNESS over
the land until Jesus died during the NINTH hour.
But what about JOHN and his SIXTH hour verse(chap.19:14),
where he said it was Pilate who was still speaking to the Jews
and trying to get them to not kill their King - the Christ, and
it was ABOUT the SIXTH hour when he was doing all this? We have
seen this was DEFINITELY NOT AT 6.A.M. We have seen it could not
possibly have been at that time of the morning because of other
very plain verses. We have seen that John then was not using
Roman time reckoning, but Jewish time as was all the other gospel
writers.
John says it was ABOUT the sixth hour when Pilate was still
trying to talk the Jews out of killing Jesus. Now about the
sixth hour is not "about the 5th hour" or "about the 7th hour" -
it had to be close to the sixth hour. So you could possibly say
it was around 10:30 A.M. give and take a little either way. But
how on earth could Pilate be talking to the Jews to prevent them
killing Christ, at say 10:30 A.M. finally concede to their
wishes, as John reports, and then walk Jesus to the hill, nail
Him on the stake, all BEFORE 11 a.m. when the SIXTH hour came,
and DARKNESS fell over all the land? To think this all could be
done within about one half an hour is just not reasonable or
logical.
What is the answer? Well back to ALBERT BARNES and his
commentary notes, under Mark 15:25, but concerning the number SIX
as found in our KJV Bibles and others.
" ......A mistake in numbers is easily made; and if it
should be admitted that such an error had crept into the text
here, it would be nothing more than what has occurred in many
ancient writings. It has been PROVED, moreover, that it was
COMMON not to write the WORDS indicating numbers AT LENGTH, but
to use LETTERS. The Greeks designated numbers by the letters of
the alphabet.; and this mode of computation is found in ancient
manuscripts. FOR EXAMPLE, the CAMBRIDGE MS. of the NT has in THIS
VERY PLACE IN MARK not the word THIRD written in length, but the
letter...Gamma(the Greek single letter for "g" - Keith Hunt),
the usual notation for "third." NOW, it is WELL KNOWN that it
would be easy to mistake this for the mark denoting SIX...(and
Barnes gives the Greek letter, which is somewhat similar - Keith
Hunt)........There is some EXTERNAL AUTHORITY for rendering
"THIRD" in John 19:14. THE CAMBRIDGE MS. HAS THIS READING.
NONNUS, who lived in the FIFTH century, says that THIS WAS
THE TRUE READING (Wetstein). Peter of Alexandria, in a fragment
concerning the passover, as quoted by Usher, says, 'It was the
preparation of the passover, and about the THIRD hour, as,' he
adds, 'the most accurate copies of the Bible have it; and this
was the handwriting of the Evangelist (John) which is kept by
the Grace of God, in His most holy church at Ephesus' (Mill.)
.....That a mistake MIGHT have occurred in the early MSS. is not
impossible......."
End quote from Barnes.
Other repected scholars also affirm the same as Albert
Barnes such as BENGEL, ROBINSON, WEBSTER, AND WILKINSON, and
ALFORD half inclines to do. See the comments by Jamieson,
Fausset, and Brown, in their "A Commentary, Critical,
Experimental, and Practical " Vol.3, p.468.
Bruce M. Mertzger in his "A Texual Commentary on the Greek
NT" page 252, though believing more texts have "the sixth hour"
than "the third hour" (and of course there would exist more,
being more copies of an earlier error - Keith Hunt), does have
this to say: "Instead of 'about the sixth hour' several witnesses
[he gives the letters and numbers of them as codified by textual
critics, then adds - Eusebius Nonnus - Keith Hunt] read 'about
the third hour'........"
Adam Clarke in his Bible Commentary under Mark 15:25 says
this in part:
".....Christ having been nailed to the cross a little after
mid-day, John 19:14-16,17, and having expired about three
o'clock, Mark 15:33, the whole business of the crucifixion was
finished within the space of the third division of the day (as
the Jews divided the day portion of the day, the third division
was from 12 noon to 3 P.M. - Keith Hunt).......Commentators and
critics have found it difficult to reconcile this third hour of
Mark with the sixth hour of John, chap.19:14. Is is supposed that
the true reading, in John 19:14, should be {he gives the Greek -
K.Hunt}, the third instead of {he gives the Greek - K.Hunt} the
sixth........the third......is the reading of some eminent MSS,
in the place in question, John 19:14. See Bengel, Newcome,
Macknight, Lightfoot, Rosenmuller, on this......."
Under John 19:14 Adam Clarke in part says: "......The
sixth hour. Mark says, chap.15:25, that it was the third
hour.....the THIRD, is the reading of DL, four others, the
Chron.Alex., Severus Antiochen., Ammononius, with others
mentioned by Theophylact. Nonnus, who wrote in the fifth
century, reads ....the third. As in ancient times all the
numbers were written in the manuscripts, not at large but in
numeral letters, it was easy for three, to be mistaken for six.
The Codex Beza has generally numeral letters instead of words.
Bengel observes that he has found the letter gamma, THREE,
exceedingly like the episemon, SIX, in some MSS. The major part
of the best critics think THE THIRD, is the genuine
reading........"
Ah, now it all begins to take shape. John was really saying
the same thing as Mark. It was ABOUT the THIRD hour - according
to Jewish speaking, anytime between 8 o'clock and the strike of
9 o'clock in the morning - when Pilate was still trying to get
the Jews to accept Jesus as their King, and not to kill Him. That
is what John tells us in verses 12 to 14, and it took place,
according to the original correct rendering, at "about" the third
hour. He then goes on to tell us the crowd cried out that Jesus
should be crucified, and they had no king but Caesar. Matthew
tells us the crowd insisted He be crucified and Pilate finally
washed his hands of the whole scene, gave them Barabbas as
a free man, and allowed them to crucify Christ. John says Pilate
delivered Jesus over to them so they could crucify Him (verse
16), and they went forth unto the place called "the place of the
scull" or in the Hebrew tongue "Golgotha" where they crucified
Him (verses 17,18).
There it is, no contradiction at all, between the writers of
the Gospels. The last trial of Jesus was before Pilate, after
being before him once before, and also before Herod. When Jesus
arrived back before Pilate again, it was ABOUT the "third" hour
(from the original correct Greek) and Pilate still tried to get
the Jews to spare the life of Jesus. But the Jewish leaders and
crowd inspired and influenced by the host of Satan, demanded
that Jesus be crucified and Barabbas set free. Finally Pilate
consented to their wishes, allowed them do as they pleased to the
one called Christ. It was now some time within the "third" hour,
as both Mark and John said, final unchangeable and decisive
authority had been given to the Jews to allow them to crucify
Jesus. Their decision was final and complete, in that third hour
Jesus was crucified in their minds, it was a completed task,
one they would not go back on or change their minds about. In
that sense Jesus was crucified at the third hour, as Mark puts
it, but the literal act of nailing Him to that cross on the hill
was not to come until a few hours later, shortly before the sixth
hour, when darkness would fall over the land.
John was agreeing with Mark, it was "about" the third hour
when the final decision was given that the Jews could crucify the
man called Jesus Christ. It could have been 8:50 when this
final, unalterable decision was made, and still be the third hour
as we have seen. Then they led Him by walking Him to the hill
outside the city, where He would be nailed to the stake. That may
have taken an hour, maybe two hours. Shortly before the 6th hour,
Jesus is nailed to the cross and it is fastened upright into the
ground. When the 6th hour was come(as Mark put it) darkness came
across the whole land. I guess so, the terrible act of the final
killing of God had begun, and the symbol of darkness was fitting.
It was in the 9th hour - that Christ gave His last cry of anguish
and died, for the sins of the world.
In the second part of this study, we shall examine closely
the harmony of the Gospels during the last day of the life of
Christ in the flesh, and we shall see that indeed all those
events could easily take place within a period of 24 hours or
slightly less.
..............................
Written December 1997
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