day.

William Smith's Bible Dictionary

• "Evening." Before the captivity the Jews divided the night into three watches, (Psalms 63:6; 90:4) viz. the first watch, lasting till midnight, (Lamentations 2:19) the "middle watch," lasting till cockcrow, (Judges 7:19) and the "morning watch," lasting till sunrise. (Exodus 14:24) In the New Testament we have allusions to four watches, a division borrowed from the Greeks and Romans.


These were-

• From twilight till 9 o/clock, (Mark 11:11; John 20:19)

• Midnight, from 9 till 12 o'clock, (Mark 13:35) 3 Macc 5:23.

• Till daybreak. (John 18:28) The word held to mean "hour" is first found in (Daniel 3:6,15; 5:5) Perhaps the Jews, like the Greeks, learned from the Babylonians the division of the day into twelve parts. In our Lord's time the division was common. (John 11:9)

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