In John 11 vs. 9: Yeshuah says: “ Are there not twelve hours in the day? If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this world.”
These however are not synchronised with our modern 24 hours per day cycle. We begin with the first hour just after midnight and the sunrise at about 6 O’clock am. Midday is at about 12 o’clock and sunset is at about 6 o’clock in the afternoon/evening or 18:00 hours.
The scripture time of day where mentioned, has 12 hours of the day and 12 hours of the night. When the sun sets the first hours of the night are counted, with midnight being the sixth hour of the night. When the sun rises it is the end of the night (the twelfth hour of the night) and thereafter in the first hour of the day, with midday being the sixth hour. This can most easily be understood by reading Yeshuah’s parable in the beginning of Matt Chapter 20. (Just add six hours to understand in modern times):
The man hires the first workers at about 06h00 to 07h00 am then hires more at 09h00 am (the third hour). Then he gets more at 12h00 noon (the sixth hour) as well as 15h00 (the ninth hour) Then lastly he hires more at 17h00 (the eleventh hour) just before sunset.
Now it does not line up precisely as there are other factors. The modern clock is based on electricity that runs through a quartz crystal vibrating at a constant frequency that renders the predictions of the movements of the celestial bodies to an accuracy within micro seconds. This in itself is the amazing work of hundreds of years of men searching the wisdom of the creation. In scriptural times however they used sun dials and tracked the hours by the shadow cast from the movement of the sun. The hours, of course, would therefore be longer in the summer and shorter in the winter during the day and the opposite at night. Therefore the modern clock and the ancient sun dial would only likely align with each other six hours apart during the spring and autumn equinox. (Depending also on your latitude).
All this modern precision is sort of irrelevant in a world where no one had a watch, such as the ancient world we read about. However it is helpful to know to add about six hours to the scriptural reference to the time of the day to relate to our understanding from the modern world in which we are raised.
Shalom and welcome to this presentation of what is a very ancient calendar system
