How long was Jesus on the cross?

The account of the crucifixion is much the same as that given us by Matthew, who presents the darkest picture of all that solemn time. Still, we have a few facts not recorded elsewhere. Mark tells us that it was the third hour when they crucified Him (ver. 25).

From him therefore we learn that our Lord was six hours upon the cross, being crucified at the third hour (ver. 25); the three last hours being distinctly marked out from the first three, not only by being mentioned separately by our Evangelist, but especially by the darkness which then shrouded the earth (ver. 33); and at the close of them our Lord's memorable cry was heard, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani" — uttered in Aramaic, which is interpreted for us, "My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?"*

All four Gospels, Psalms 22 and 69 and many other passages of Scripture give us a vivid description of the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ. He was on the cross for six hours. From nine o'clock in the morning until noon are called "the daytime of His sufferings" when mankind did all that they could to the Lord of Glory. Drunkards would stagger by the cross, He was the song of the drunkards (Ps.69:12), there those crucified with Him cast the same in His teeth (Matt.27:44).

They had a double council - one at night when He was taken, and then they came to a formal sentence in the morning. The narrative leaves much out here, as the interview with Herod, and many details. But it is all Christ in peace, who delivers His mother to the disciple, and then, knowing that all things were accomplished, He received the vinegar, and said, "It is finished." He was crucified at our nine, I suppose, and the darkness was from twelve till three, and then He died. There were six hours from the time when He was crucified, and the darkness was for three of them. Neither in Gethsemane, nor on the cross, have you a word of suffering in this Gospel. He bows His head, and gives up His own spirit.

There is deep and solemn reason for the difference in the utterances of the Lord on the cross. Oh, that Samuel Laing had possessed the wondrous key to the right understanding of it! None but a pardoned sinner can rightly apprehend. I can only pray that I may be enabled so to present the case that you may be constrained to say, like the centurion and others, "Truly this was the Son of God." Let us turn then to the accounts of those solemn hours. It appears evident from Luke 34:34 that the words "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do," were spoken about the third hour, when, as we learn from Mark's Gospel (Mark 15:25) "they crucified him," while it was about the ninth hour (Matt. 27:46), that "Jesus cried with a loud voice … My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Then in the 50th verse of the same chapter we are told that "Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost." Turning now again to Luke we read, "And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit, and having said this, he gave up the ghost" (23:46). Clearly then, this second utterance addressed to the "Father" was spoken just at the close, as the first was at the beginning, of the blessed Lord's hours of suffering on the cross: What the second loud cry was I believe we get in John's Gospel (chapter 19:30), viz., "It is finished," these words being spoken after He had received the vinegar (i.e., about the ninth hour, see Matthew and Mark) just before He committed His spirit to the Father in the words recorded in Luke 23:46.

I would also point out, with regard to the hours given in the different Gospels, that it is important to see, that John (as throughout his Gospel) gives Roman time, reckoned from midday and midnight as we do, while the Synoptic Gospels give Jewish time, which was reckoned from six o'clock. Thus we have the following times connected with the Crucifixion: 6 a.m. — Pilate sits down "in the judgment seat in a place that is called the Pavement" (John 19:13). 9 a.m. — (The "third hour " — Mark 15:25). The Lord was crucified. 12 midday to 3 p.m. — (The "sixth" to the "ninth" hour). The three hours of darkness (Matt. 27:45; Mark 15:33; Luke 23:44). 3 p.m. — Jesus died, i.e., at the ninth hour of Matthew, Mark and Luke, or the "third" hour after noon according to John's time.

Q. Mark gives for the Crucifixion the 3rd, 6th and 9th hours of the Jewish day (our 9, 12, and 3); but how then are we to understand the sixth hour in John 19:14, and John 4:6, etc.? T.H.L.

A. Clearly in the same way throughout his Gospel, which looks on Jewish things as closed. Hence in John 1:39 the tenth hour would mean from the same hour of the morning as we count. In John 4:6 it was the usual time for women to draw water, as the seventh hour (52) would be the same time as with us of the preceding evening or possibly morning. So in John 18:28 it was early morn when the mockery of our Lord's trial went on; and no reason forbids Pilate's judging at our 6 a.m. (John 19:14). The actual crucifixion began, after all mockeries and preparations were done (including perhaps the trial of the two robbers) at the 3rd Jewish hour, as Mark (Mark 15:25) alone specifies, i.e. our 9 o'clock a.m. of Friday; the supernatural darkness at the 6th Jewish hour, at our 12 or noon; and the Lord died at the 9th Jewish hour and time, or our 3 p.m.

For three hours, as He hung on the cross, this contemptuous mockery of men continued. But at the sixth hour (noon) God imposed a complete black-out, and darkness covered the land until 3.00 p.m. Who could fail to take to heart the awesomeness of this? But no eye could see, and no heart understand the depth of agony and suffering through which the Lord Jesus passed in those hours. For this was not merely suffering from the hands of men, but suffering from God the unmitigated judgment that God must pour out against sin, the judgment also against our many sins. Absolutely alone He bore this anguish, and at the ninth hour cried out, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?"

Supernatural Events. — Crucified the third hour, all that we have read of took place before the sixth hour, the hour of noon, when a supernatural darkness enveloped the land; "the sunlight failing," as the R.V. reads, following the texts of Tischendorf and that of Westcott and Hort. Supernatural it certainly was, for it being the time of full moon, there was no eclipse of the sun to account for it. It was however in perfect keeping with that which was taking place. For as at the fall of the king of Egypt God declared, "I will cover the heaven, and make the stars thereof dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give her light" (Ezek. 32:7), how much more might that literally take place when the Creator, and the Upholder of all by the word of His power, was expiring on the cross! For three hours that mysterious darkness continued, the first intimation since the Lord's apprehension that God was not indifferent to all that was going on. During that time men seem to have been for the most part quiet, overawed probably by its occurrence. Having now mentioned that darkness, Luke, as his manner at times is, couples with it another supernatural event, which however occurred only after the Lord had died. We refer to the rending of the temple veil in the midst, and, as Matthew and Mark carefully note, "from the top to the bottom," indicating that no human power had done that. Classing these two occurrences together, the evangelist has to retrace his steps to tell us of the Lord's death, which took place, as we have remarked, before the rending of the veil.

How long they tare His back we are not told. Surely this was enough! No. He was now given up to the brutal Roman soldiers. The whole Gentile band was called together. And after all that He had suffered at the hands of His own people the Jews, was there no pity, no relaxation in the cruel torture? No, none! The first twelve hours of the preparation day had about closed (John 19:14) and the first of the measured three hours began with the scourging, about the sixth hour of Roman time: and lasted until the third hour of Jewish time (9 A.M.) when He was crucified.

One other indignity must be added, that the words of Isaiah might be fulfilled, "And he was numbered with the transgressors." (Isa. 53:12.) "And there were also two other malefactors, led with him to be put to death." What a sight! He who was God, walking with two thieves, to that place where the great work of the preparation day must be accomplished, that shall bring lost sinners into the sabbath, the rest of God. The procession halts at a place of a skull, Calvary. "There they crucified him, and the malefactors, one on the right hand and the other on the left." This is at the third hour of Jewish time, or 9 o'clock A.M. The cross was not merely an instrument of death, but of torture and death, the most prolonged and painful torture. The six hours' torture are divided into two distinct parts. Let us inquire what took place in each.

We have traced the holy sufferer through the hours of the preparation day until the third hour, or nine o'clock A.M. In His last journey He halted at the place of crucifixion. We read the words, but how little can we realise the depth of degradation to the holy, holy Son of God. Let us meditate on what took place during the first three hours on the cross, until twelve at noon. What is crucifixion? At first it was an instrument of death, shameful and cruel. The poor criminal was stripped naked, a sharp stake was placed in the ground with the point upwards. This was driven through the body of the living prisoner, upwards to the heart, and there he was impaled to die! But this was a merciful death compared to the mode used in the days of our Lord.

A hole was dug in the ground to receive the beam of wood. The feet were nailed to that wood and the body laid in awful agony on the same, and the hands nailed to the cross part at the top. Then think of the torture of the body as the cross was lifted up, and let fall in the hole prepared. It was at this supreme moment of untold pain that Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." For three hours He hung there on that shameful cross, brutal soldiers mocking Him, rulers deriding Him. Oh, behold Him there crucified between two thieves. "And the scripture was fulfilled which says, And he was numbered with the transgressors." And there the unfeeling crowd pass by, wagging their heads, and saying, "Ah thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, save thyself, and come down from the cross." The priest, yes, the chief of them, joined in the mockery, The very thieves reviled Him. (Mark 15:25-32.) Oh, for three hours they sat down and watched Him endure the torture of the cross.

The Council meets, when it was day, for form's sake (Mark 15:1) to give Him up to Pilate. It was then early. He was crucified the third hour (Mark 15:25), nine o'clock - having been to Herod and back. From twelve to three (verse 45, also Mark and Luke) there was darkness, i.e., sixth to ninth hour; all from six in the morning. Thereafter, He gives up His Spirit, and is laid in the tomb before six o'clock, when the Sabbath came. John's "about the sixth hour" was, I suppose, six o'clock in the morning, counting from midnight; Pilate then brings Him out, and delivers Him up, and at nine o'clock He is actually crucified. His Name be praised!