Biblical knowledge - The time of prayer and calculation of time(wms cog)

There are many customs, handed down from Rome. Calendar, the days of the week, the calculation of time are all from Rome. Now a day begins at midnight, and it is divided into 24 hours. This calculation of time that we use now is the 'Roman calculation of time.'


Before the Roman calculation of time was used generally, every country had a different time calculation. In the days of Jesus, daytime was divided into 12 hours, and nighttime was divided into 4 watches (One watch of the night is about 3 hours).

Mt 20:1-16 "For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire men to work in his vineyard. … sent them into his vineyard. "About the third hour he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. … So they went. "He went out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour and did the same thing. About the eleventh hour he went out … "When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, 'Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.' The workers who were hired about the eleventh hour came and each received a denarius. So when those came who were hired first … began to grumble against the landowner. 'These men who were hired last worked only one hour,'

Those who were hired at the eleventh hour worked one hour, and when they worked one hour, evening came. It proves that there were 12 hours from sunrise to sunset.

The Jews decided to call the time of sunrise 0 o'clock and the time of sunset 12 o'clock. Science was not developed enough to exactly calculate 60 minutes as one hour and the length of daytime in summer and that in winter were different, so the length of an hour was irregular.

The people at that time used the sundial. They stood up a stick on the ground and graduated around the stick's circumference. It wasn't possible to know the exact time like now. However we can assume that they had a kind of concept about time.
In the days of Jesus, there was about 6-hour-difference between the Jewish time calculation and the Roman time calculation.

※ This is when we assume that the time of sunrise is 6 a.m. according to the Roman calculation of time (because sunrise time differs every day.)

The reason we study the time calculation in the days of Jesus is because the time Jesus was crucified on the cross and the time He died were appointed to be the times of prayer.

Mk 15:25-37 "It was the third hour [9 a.m. in Roman time] when they crucified him. … And at the ninth hour Jesus … breathed his last."

The apostles appointed the 3rd hour, the time Jesus was crucified, and the ninth hour, the time Jesus died, as the times of prayer, and they prayed to God at that times every day.

The apostles were filled with the Holy Spirit at about the third hour [9 a.m.] while praying in the day of the Pentecost (Ac 2:1-15).

* the third hour ― KJV
nine in the morning ― NIV

The Apostles Peter and John went up to the temple at the time of prayer, at the ninth hour [3 p.m.] (Ac 3:1).

* the ninth hour ― KJV
three in the afternoon ― NIV

※ Sunrise time differs according to the season, so the 3rd and 9th hours in the Jewish time are 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. in summer, and 10 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. in winter. It is because the sun rises late and sets early in winter.

For calculating the nighttime, the Jews used the unit, 'watch.' It is the translation of the Hebrew word, (ashmurah). Night was divided into 3 watches according to the hebrew watchmen's changing time.

In the New Testament times, the Greek word 'Φυλακή (Phulake)' was used for calculating the nighttime, which means 'watch, warning, watchman, prison.' Night was divided into 4 watches according to the Roman watchmen's changing time.

Lk 12:38 "even if he comes in the second or third watch of the night."

Mt 14:25 "During the fourth watch of the night Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake."

♡ Christ Ahnsahnghong & Jerusalem Mother ♡

World Mission Society Church of God(WMS COG)

Christ Ahnsahnghong came to Korea, at the ends of the earth in the east, and restored the new covenant.
The truth of the new covenant has been spreading rapidly throughout the country. As a result, over 400 branch Churches have been established nationwide in the past half century.

All the Churches celebrate the feasts of God including the Passover of the new covenant, and speedily carry out the gospel work according to the prophecy of the Bible.