What time was Jesus crucified? What time did Jesus die on the cross?

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.

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.

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!

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?"*

Our Lord ate the last supper with His disciples in the early hours of the 14th day for the Jewish day was reckoned from sunset to sunset. It was night when Judas left the room. Later that night they went to the Garden of Gethsemane, and while still night Judas led the band of men to take the Lord. He was crucified at the third hour, (Mark 15:25), or nine o'clock our time. There was darkness from the sixth to the ninth hour: twelve o'clock to three o'clock our time, and about the ninth hour the Lamb of God died: still on the fourteenth day of the First month. The Passover Lamb was to be killed "between the two evenings", (Ex. 12:6; Margin). They tell us this means between 3 and 6 o'clock in the afternoon. So the Lamb of God died at exactly the hour when they began to kill the Passover lambs.

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.

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?"

And those three hours of darkness, those three hours of total eclipse between God and the One on the cross, rolled on, and then at the ninth hour, three o'clock in the afternoon, comes that great, that terrible cry from Him, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Ah, He forsook Jesus in that hour, that He might never forsake you and me. There was darkness for Him that there might be only light for us. He bore the judgment that we might go free.

"And when [the] sixth hour was come, there was darkness over the whole land until [the] ninth hour." It was more than human: God caused a witness of that hour that stood out from all before and after. There was darkness; the very world felt it. As the Lord told the Jews, the stones would cry out unless there were a voice from babes and sucklings. As John the Baptist told them, of these stones God could raise up children to Abraham. So here the insensibility of men, the revilings and scoffings from chief priests down to thieves, against the Son of God, were answered on God's part by the veiling of all nature in presence of the death of Him who created all; there was darkness over the whole land. Above, below, what a scene!

"And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice [saying], Eloi, Eloi,164 lama sabachthani? which is being interpreted, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" (Ps. 22:1) It was no exhaustion of nature. Jesus did not die because He could not live, as all others do. He had still the full energy of life. He died not only in atonement, but to take His life again. How else could He have proved the superiority of His life to death, if He had not died? Still less could He have delivered us. "We were reconciled to God by the death of His Son" (Rom. 5:10). ["Saying"]: so AC, etc., 1, 33, 69, Syrpesch hcl Arm. Goth. Edd. omit, after ℵBDL, Syrsin Memph.

The fact of His actual death is given by Mark in the briefest possible fashion. He breathed out His spirit into the hands of God directly after He had cried with a loud voice. What He said is recorded in Luke and John. Here we are simply told the way He said it. There was no gradual failing of strength so that His last words were in a feeble whisper. At one moment a loud voice and the next moment He was dead! His death was so manifestly supernatural as to greatly impress the centurion who was on duty and watching. Whatever may have been, in his own mind, the exact significance of his words, he must have at least felt that he was a witness of the supernatural. We endorse his words and say, "Truly this Man was the Son of God," in the fullest sense.