Time keeping in the Bible
So many times I ask myself, and have been asked, how was time calculated in biblical times?
As we read for instance the story of the workers in the vineyard then the observant reader will have a question or two on the time that passed and how it was measured.
There are some websites available that provide this information, but lately I've been drawn to the TorahCalender.com website which you will also find in our bookmark section and the resource menu of our website.
Another website with much information is bibleclocks.org from both sites we'll have included some abstracts in this article.
The fast explanation
A pretty fast explanation of a clock in the bible is used at bibleclocks and from which you see a picture on the right hand side.
A great, quick explanation that uses the "big picture" on the devision of time, but, when we want to go into more dept, there is way more then the move of hours and the start of the first hour with 1 instead of 0 as we use in our clock.
In the Hebrew calendar, the day start with the sunset and end ends with the sunset, as our western day starts at the midnight hour and ends at the midnight hour.
Within the calendar day there are two 12 hour periods, 12 hours of darkness, called night, and 12 hours of daylight, called day.
Most biblical references to time at night are given as a reference to 1 of 4 different Watches of the Night. The second ring on 12 hour analog style Bible Clocks marks the start of each of those 4 watches. The starting time for the first watch is at nominal sunset, 6:00 PM, then the second watch at 9:00 PM, the third watch at 12:00 Midnight, and the 4th watch at 3:00 AM.
All biblical references to time during the daylight part of the day are given by the hour of the day. The first hour starts at 6:00 AM, 1/2 way through the calendar day. The seventh hour of the day begins at 12:00 Noon, the 12th hour of the day begins at 5:00 PM.
More detail
As Phil Stone did a great job with the bibleclocks.org website, when you are like me, at a certain moment you want to know more and this is where if found TorahCalendar.com. This site includes many references also to the birth and timing of יהושע Yeshua (Jesus). As this site is clearly more Messianic we do see the name of YHWH / Yehovah printed as יהוה and the name of Yeshua/Yoshua (Jesus) printed as יהושע .
In winter when the temperature is colder, the actual sunrise may occur earlier than projected times. Also, on a day when the barometric pressure is higher, sunrise may occur earlier. Cold temperature and high barometric pressure combined work cumulatively in causing the sunrise to occur earlier than the projected times. Torahcalendar.com only displays sunrise and sunset times to the nearest second to better illustrate the passage of time while providing a near real-time simulation of these events.
Please check out these great pages from our resources menu, or visit either side directly.
Be blessed in your research and understanding of God's great plan for our lives.
Pst. Chris.
