Difference between revisions of "Hour"

<p> HOUR, [[Hours]] </p> <p> We do not find any particular method made use of in the Old Testament Scripture, for dividing the hours of the day in one regular plan. The Hebrews made four parts in each day—morning, noon, the first evening, and the last evening. And the night was again formed into three parts—the night watch, the midnight watch, and what was called the morning watch, to the break of day. Hence David beautifully speaks of the waiting of his soul on the Lord, "more than they that watch for the morning;" yea, said he, repeating it with earnestness, "yea, I say, more than they that watcheth for the morning." (&nbsp;Psalms 130:6) The dial of Ahas is the first account we have in [[Scripture]] of the method the Hebrews had to mark down the progress of time; and this it should seem, was by marks or lines of degrees, and not of hours. In the New Testament we find our fathers then arrived at some method of calculating hours; and certainly then they did, as we do now, divide the day into twelve hours. Hence Jesus said, "Are there not twelve hours in the day?" (&nbsp;John 11:9. see also &nbsp;Matthew 20:3-5). But the time of reckoning always began at six in the morning; and the seventh was the first hour. The reader of the New Testament should always keep this in remembrance. Hence when we read, (&nbsp;Acts 3:1) that Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour, that was three in what we call the afternoon; and, consequently, the twelfth hour was six in the evening. </p> <p> While I am upon this subject of the Jewish hours, I cannot forbear calling the reader's attention to one circumstance, which I think, now in the present day of the church, still equally interesting as it was of old always regarded, I mean the time of the evening sacrifice. If the reader will turn to the first account of any appointed sacrifice, even the lamb of the Passover, (&nbsp;Exodus 12:5) he will find, that the whole assembly of the people were to kill this lamb of the first year without blemish in the evening, or, as the margin of the Bible hath it, between the two evenings, that was what we should call three o'clock in the afternoon; and to this precise time all the sacrifices of the evening corresponded. Hence, we are told, (&nbsp;1 Kings 18:29) they prophesied till the evening sacrifice. Ezra saith, "I sat astonied until the evening sacrifice, and at the evening sacrifice I arose up from my heaviness." (&nbsp;Ezra 9:4-5) Hence David also prays, "Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice," (&nbsp;Psalms 141:2) And Daniel tells the church, that the man [[Gabriel]] touched him about "the time of the evening oblation." (&nbsp;Daniel 9:21) </p> <p> Now what I beg the reader particularly to notice in all these instances, is the uniformity as to the time of the hour; and then let him turn his attention, and look at the cross of Christ, and behold the Lord Jesus at that very hour fulfilling the whole in the sacrifice of himself. The Evangelists are all particular to remark, that there was darkness over all the earth, from the sixth hour (twelve at noon) until the ninth hour, (three in the afternoon.) And then it was Jesus, cried with a loud voice, and gave up the ghost. Now let the reader pause, and consider the subject attentively. Who was it but God the [[Holy]] Ghost, that caused the evening sacrifice, from the first moment of appointed sacrifices in the church to the glorious finishing of all sacrifices in the death of the Lord Jesus, thus minutely to correspond? And what a sacred hour that was all along considered in the divine mind, when not the sacrifice only, but the very hour of offering it was so scruptulously regarded! Think then reader, how infinitely momentous must be the thing itself, when the mere shadow of the substance was so solemnly attended to; when through a period of more than fifteen hundred years the evening lamb was regularly sacrificed in the very hour which, in after ages, Christ, the Lamb of God, should offer himself in a sacrifice to God, to take away the sins of the world! Lord, I would say, for myself and reader, cause this hour of the afternoon, which was so sacred in the Jewish church, to be sacred to my soul also; and wherever I am, or however engaged, at the sounding bell at three in the afternoon, call my forgetful wandering thoughts to the hill of Calvary. Let me as often as the circumstances of my poor, empty, and unsatisfying life will allow, by faith, do as Peter and John did, indeed, go up to the Lord's house at the hour of prayer, the three o'clock hour; and there may my soul meet the Lord of Peter and John, and like the cripple healed in Christ's name at the gate of the temple, may my feet and ankle bones receive strength in the name of Jesus; and while the Lord himself takes me by the hand, may I, as he did, leap up and stand, and with Jesus enter into his temple walking, and leaping, and praising God. (&nbsp;Acts 3:1-26) </p>

<div> '''1: ὥρα ''' (Strong'S #5610 — Noun [[Feminine]] — hora — ho'-rah ) </div> <p> whence Lat., hora, Eng., "hour," primarily denoted any time or period, expecially a season. In the NT it is used to denote (a) "a part of the day," especially a twelfth part of day or night, an "hour," e.g., &nbsp;Matthew 8:13; &nbsp;Acts 10:3,9; &nbsp;23:23; &nbsp;Revelation 9:15; in &nbsp;1 Corinthians 15:30 , "every hour" stands for "all the time;" in some passages it expresses duration, e.g., &nbsp;Matthew 20:12; &nbsp;26:40; &nbsp;Luke 22:59; inexactly, in such phrases as "for a season," &nbsp;John 5:35; &nbsp;2 Corinthians 7:8; "for an hour," &nbsp;Galatians 2:5; "for a short season," &nbsp;1 Thessalonians 2:17 , RV (AV, "for a short time," lit., "for the time of an hour"); (b) "a period more or less extended," e.g., &nbsp;1 John 2:18 , "it is the last hour," RV; (c) "a definite point of time," e.g., &nbsp;Matthew 26:45 , "the hour is at hand;" &nbsp;Luke 1:10; &nbsp;10:21; &nbsp;14:17 , lit., "at the hour of supper;" &nbsp;Acts 16:18; &nbsp;22:13; &nbsp;Revelation 3:3; &nbsp;11:13; &nbsp;14:7; a point of time when an appointed action is to begin, &nbsp;Revelation 14:15; in &nbsp;Romans 13:11 , "it is high time," lit., "it is already an hour," indicating that a point of time has come later than would have been the case had responsibility been realized. In &nbsp;1 Corinthians 4:11 , it indicates a point of time previous to which certain circumstances have existed. </p> &nbsp;1 Corinthians 8:7&nbsp;Revelation 8:1

<p> (Chald. שָׁעָה, ''Shal, Saotrh','' a ''Monent,'' prop. a ''Look,'' 1. q. "the wink of an eye" [Germ. ''Augenblick];'' Greek é ρα), a term first found in &nbsp;Daniel 3:6; &nbsp;Daniel 4:19; &nbsp;Daniel 4:33; &nbsp;Daniel 5:5; and occurring several times in the [[Apocrypha]] (Judith 19:8; &nbsp;2 [[Esdras]] 9:44). It seems to be a vague expression for a short period, and the frequent phrase "in the same hour" means "immediately:" hence we find בְּשָׁעָה substituted in the [[Targum]] for בְּרֶצ,ִ "in a moment' (&nbsp;Numbers 16:21, etc.). The corresponding Gr. term is frequently used in the same way by the N.T. writers (&nbsp;Matthew 8:13; &nbsp;Luke 12:39, etc.). The word [[Hour]] is sometimes used in Scripture to denote some determinate season, as "mine [[Hour]] is not yet come," "this is your ''Hour,'' and the power of darkness," "the [[Hour]] is coming," etc. It occurs in the Sept. as a rendering for various words meaning time, just as it does in Greek writers long before it acquired the specific meaning of our word "hour." ''Saah'' is still used in Arabic both for an hour and a moment. </p> <p> The ancient Hebrews were probably unacquainted with the division of the natural day into twenty-four parts. The general distinctions of "morning, evening, and noonday" (comp. &nbsp;Genesis 15:12; &nbsp;Genesis 18:1; &nbsp;Genesis 19:1; &nbsp;Genesis 19:15; &nbsp;Genesis 19:23) were sufficient for them at first, as they were for the early Greeks (Homer, II. 21:3, 111); afterwards the Greeks adopted five marked periods of the day (Jul. Pollux, Oom? — 1, 68; [[Dio]] Chrysost. Orat. in De Glor.), and the Hebrews parceled out the period between sunrise and sunset into a series of minute divisions distinguished by the sun's course, as is still done by the Arabs, who have stated forms of prayers for each period (Lane's Mood. Eg. vol. 1, ch. 3). (See Day). </p> <p> The early Jews appear to have divided the day into four parts (&nbsp;Nehemiah 9:3), and even in the N.T. we find a trace of this division in &nbsp;Matthew 20:1-5. There is, however, no proof of the assertion sometimes made, that é ρα in the [[Gospels]] may occasionally mean a space of three hours. It h'as been thought by some interpreters (see Wolfii ''Curae In N.T.'' ad &nbsp;John 19:14) that the evangelist John always computes the hours of the day after the Roman reckoning, i.e. from midnight to midnight (see Pliny, ''Hist. Noct. 2,'' 79; [[Aul]] Gell. ''Noct. Att. 3,'' 2); but this is without support from Hebrew analogy, and obliges the gratuitous supposition of a reckoning also from midday (against &nbsp;John 11:9). </p> <p> The Greeks adopted the division of the day into twelve hours from the Babylonians (Herodotus, 2:109; comp. Rawlinson, Herod. 2:334). At what period the Jews became first acquainted with this way of reckoning time is unknown, but it is generally supposed that they, too, learned it from the Babylonians during the [[Captivity]] (Wiahner, Ant. Hebr. § 5:1, 8, 9). They may have had some such division at a much earlier period, as has been inferred from the fact that [[Ahaz]] erected a sun-dial in Jerusalem, the use of which had probably been learned from Babylon. There is, however, the greatest uncertainty as to the meaning of the word מֲִלוֹת (A.V. "degrees," &nbsp;Isaiah 38:8). (See [[Dial]]). It is strange that the Jews were not acquainted with this method of reckoning even earlier, for, although a purely conventional one, it is naturally suggested by the months in a year. Sir G. Wilkinson thinks that it arose from. a less obvious cause (Rawlinson, ''Herod. 2,'' 334). In whatever way it originated, it was known to the Egyptians at a very early period. They had twelve hours of the day and of the night (called Nau=hour), each of which had its own genius, drawn with a star on its head. The word is said by Lepsius to be found as far back as the fifth dynasty (Rawlinson, Herod. 2, 135). The night was divided into twelve equal portions or hours, in precisely the same manner as the day. The most ancient division, however, was into three watches (Ant. 63, 6, 90, 4) the first, or beginning of the watches, as it is called (&nbsp;Lamentations 2:19); the middle watch (&nbsp;Judges 7:19); and the morning watch (&nbsp;Exodus 14:24). (See [[Watch]]). When [[Judaea]] became a province of Rome, the Roman distribution of the night into four watches was introduced; to which division frequent allusions occur in the New Testament (&nbsp;Luke 12:38; &nbsp;Matthew 14:25; &nbsp;Matthew 13:35), as well as to that of hours (&nbsp;Matthew 25:13; &nbsp;Matthew 26:40; &nbsp;Mark 14:37; Luke 17:59; &nbsp;Acts 23:23; &nbsp;Revelation 3:3). (See [[Cock-Crowing]]). There are two kinds of hours, viz. '''(1.)''' the astronomical or equinoctial hour, i.e. the twenty-fourth part of a civil day, which, although "known to astronomers, was not used in the affairs of common life till towards the end of the 4th century of the Christian sera" (Smith, ''Dict. Of Classical Antiq.'' s.v. Hora); and </p> <p> '''(2.)''' the natural hour (such the Rabbis called זמניות '', Καιρικαί,'' or temporales), i.e. the twelfth part of the natural day, or of the time between sunrise and sunset. These are the hours meant in the New Test., Josephus, and the Rabbis (&nbsp;John 11:9; &nbsp;Acts 5:7; &nbsp;Acts 19:31; Josephus, Ant.14, 4, 3), and it must be remembered that they perpetually vary in length, so as to be very different at different times of the year. Besides this, an hour of the day would always mean a different length of time from an hour of the night, except at the equinox. From the consequent uncertainty of the term there arose the proverbial expression "not all hours are equal" (R. Joshua ''Up.'' Carpzov, ''App. Crit.'' p. 345). At the equinoxes the third hour would correspond to nine o'clock; the sixth would ''Always'' be at noon. To find the exact time meant at other seasons of the year, we must know when the sun rises in Palestine, and reduce he hours to our reckoning accordingly (Jahn, Biblio. Arch. § 101). In ancient times the only way of reckoning the progress of the day was by the length of the shadow-a mode of reckoning which was both contingent on the sunshine, and served only for the guidance of individuals. (See [[Shadow]]). By what means the Jews calculated the length of their hours-whether by dialing, by the ''Clepsydra'' or water-clock, or by some horological contrivance, like what was used anciently in [[Persia]] (Josephus, ''Ant. 11'' 6), and by the Romans (Martial, 8 Epig. 67; Juv. Sat. 10, 214), and which is still used in India (A siat. Researches, 5, 88), a servant notifying the intervals-it is now impossible to discover (see Buttinghausen, Specimen horarum Ieb. et Arab. Tr. ad Rh. 1758). [[Mention]] is also made of a curious invention called צְרוֹר שָׁעָה : by which a figure was constructed so as to drop a stone into a brazen basin every hour, the sound of which was heard for a great distance, and announced the time (Otho, Lex. Rab. s.v. Hora). </p> <p> For the purposes of prayer, the old division of the day into four portions was continued in the Temple service, as we see from &nbsp;Acts 2:15; &nbsp;Acts 3:1; &nbsp;Acts 10:9. The stated periods of prayer were the third, sixth, and ninth hours of the day (Psalms 45, 17; Josephus, Anf. 4, 4, 3). The Jews supposed that the third hour had been consecrated by Abraham, the sixth by Isaac, and the ninth by Jacob (Kimchi; Schö ttgen, Hor. Hebr. ad &nbsp;Acts 3:1). It is probable that the canonical hours observed by the Romanists (of which there are eight in the twenty-four) are derived from these Temple hours (Goodwill ''Moses And Aaron, 3,'' 9). (See [[Canonical Hours]]). </p> <p> The Rabbis pretend that the hours were divided into 1080 חלקים (minutes), and 56,848 רצעים (seconds), which numbers were chosen because they are so easily divisible (Gem. Hier. ''Berachoth,'' 2, 4; in Reland, ''Ant.'' &nbsp;Hebrews 4:1, § 19). (See Time). </p>

<p> ''''' our ''''' ( שעתא , <i> ''''' sha‛ăthā' ''''' </i> , שׁעא , <i> ''''' she‛ā' ''''' </i> ; ὥρα , <i> ''''' hō̇ra ''''' </i> ): Hour as a division of the day does not occur in the Old Testament; the term <i> ''''' she‛ā' ''''' </i> ( <i> ''''' sha‛ăthā' ''''' </i> ) found in Dnl, is Aramaic, and as used there denotes a short period or point of time of no definite length (&nbsp; Daniel 3:6 , &nbsp;Daniel 3:15; &nbsp;Daniel 4:33 (Hebrew 30); &nbsp; Daniel 5:5 ). The Greek <i> '''''hōra''''' </i> is commonly used in the New Testament in the same way, as "that same hour," "from that hour," etc., but it also occurs as a division of the day, as, "the third hour," "the ninth hour," etc. The Hebrews would seem to have become acquainted with this division of time through the Babylonians, but whether before the captivity we are not certain. The mention of the sun dial of Ahaz would seem to indicate some such reckoning of time during the monarchy. See Time . </p>