Analysis of the Passion Week Timeline (PART 4): Second Temple Period Structure of Calendar Days, Nights, Dates, and Times-2

To follow along with this study, access the calendar handouts on my website at http://www.cominghome.co.il. Navigate to Free Resources and then click on the dropdown menu Podcast Extras.

Many are not aware of the numerous time and date calendar issues that were predominant in the days of Yeshua. At the time of Yeshua’s ministry, there were at least three different calendars that were simultaneously functional – One was the Roman secular calendar and two were Jewish religious calendars. Consequently, when reading through the narratives of Yeshua’s last Passover week, it is easy to miss what’s going on behind the scenes because of the workings of those calendars within the context of Second Temple Jewish religious culture and law.

Today, in this program Episode 117 and Part 4 in my series on the last Passover week of Yeshua, we will examine the five different day parts of a biblically Hebraic day. This will lead us to learn that Yeshua was observing a sunrise to sunrise calendar paradigm and rejecting the Pharisaic sunset to sunset calendar paradigm.

Transcript

This is Episode 117 and a PART 4 analysis of Yeshua’s Last Passover Week Timeline of Events leading to Crucifixion and Third Day Resurrection.

Many are not aware of the numerous time and date calendar issues that were predominant in the days of Yeshua. At the time of Yeshua’s ministry, there were at least three different calendars that were simultaneously functional – One was the Roman secular calendar and two were Jewish religious calendars. Consequently, when reading through the narratives of Yeshua’s last Passover week, it is easy to miss what’s going on behind the scenes because of the workings of those calendars within the context of Second Temple Jewish religious culture and law. If all of us can become knowledgeable in the workings of the calendars in the time of Yeshua and in understanding Second Temple Period Jewish religious culture and law, I feel that we can gain a good working understanding of how the events likely played out in those final seven days before Yeshua’s crucifixion.

To follow along with this study, I suggest that you access the two religious calendars that I built for this program series. I have labeled them Exhibit “A” and Exhibit “B.” Both calendars can be found on my website. You can access them online or you can download and print them at your leisure. Also, if you wish, you can freely distribute them to others that you think might find some interest in the chronology that I will be presenting here. The address where to find the two calendars is www.cominghome.co.il.

On my website, home page, go to Free Resources on the navigation menu. Then, click on the dropdown list, click on Podcast Extras. The two calendars – Exhibit “A” and Exhibit “B” are based on the Roman Julian calendar and what we would today call Year 27 C.E. (“Common Era”). In an upcoming episode, I will speak about this in detail and why I chose that particular year as the representative year for all of the events that involve the ministry of Yeshua.

In my last Episode number 116 and Part 3 in this podcast series, I presented a general structure of how days and nights were governed by the secular Romans, the religious Judeans, and the priestly classes among those in the communities of the Qumran and the regions of the Dead Sea. If you wish, go back to PART 3 for a refresher from this program series. In the meantime, however, I am going to continue now with more details about the Roman, Judean, and Qumran Second Temple calendars, how they were understood and how they affected the timeline of the events from Yeshua’s last Passover week.  Now, let’s continue with PART 4 in this series. 

DAYLIGHT HOURS AND NIGHTTIME WATCHES ACCORDING TO THE GOSPEL NARRATIVES

When reading through the gospel narratives, it is important to pay attention to what we are told about the reckoning of the day and night hours to determine whether the given interval of was either according to religious Jewish tradition or Secular Roman counting. And, once again, I suggest that you go to my website at cominghome.co.il and click on the available Free Resources on the homepage menu. Then on the dropdown menu, click on Podcast Extras and follow along with me using the data that I’ve posted to help you track my explanations. To begin, let’s start with

• Mark 6:48. Then he saw them straining at rowing, for the wind was against them. Now about the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea, and would have passed them by.

The reference to the “fourth watch” of the night appears to be written according to Roman reckoning rather than Jewish reckoning. I am saying this because during the Second Temple period, Judea was influenced by the culture of its Greek Hellenism and, of course, Judea was under the Roman system of authority. It seems fair enough to suggest that if Mark had wanted to express the timeline from a Judean perspective, he would have written
his account saying, “about the third watch of the night,” meaning 0200 hours to 0600 hours. But because Mark wrote his account saying, “the fourth watch of the night” this looks to me like Roman reckoning between 0300 hours and 0600 hours based on Roman historical records such as that which is written about from

Flavius Vegetius Renatus in his Epitome rei militaris 3.8.17. 

• Four foot-soldiers of each century and four cavalrymen of each troop are on guard every night. As it seemed impossible for a sentinel to remain a whole night on his post, the watches were divided by the clepsydra into four parts, that each man might be on duty for not more than three hours. All guards are mounted by the sound of trumpet and relieved by the sound of the cornet.

Here is another example to assess:   

• Mark 13:35-37. Watch therefore, for you do not know when the master of the house is coming—in the evening, midnight, at the crowing of the rooster, or in the morning—lest, coming suddenly, he finds you sleeping. And what I say to you, I say to all: Watch!”

Again, this statement from Mark looks to me like Jewish AND Roman reckoning because he speaks about four different parts of the night. They are: 

• A) Evening is referring to the timeframe that follows just after sunset, as it continues into the nighttime. 

 According to religious Judean time: 1800 to 2200 hours or 6:00 – 10:00. We can see one of many examples of this in Exodus 16:13, “So it was that quails came up at evening and covered the camp.” According to secular Roman time: 1800 to 2100 hours or 6:00 – 9:00. 

• B) Midnight is referring to a timeframe that is called the “mid of the night.”

According to religious Judean time: 2200 hours to 0200 hours meaning the second or middle of three night-time watches. We can see one of many examples of this in Judges 7:19 - So Gideon and the hundred men who were with him came to the outpost of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, just as they had posted the watch; and they blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers that were in their hands.

According to secular Roman time: 2100 to 0000 hours or 9:00 to 12:00.

• C) Crowing of the Rooster:

According to religious Judean time: about 0430 to 0600 hours. In Hebrew, this timeframe was called kri'at hagever (קריאת הגבר) meaning, the Call of the Rooster.” From handed-down Jewish Oral Tradition, the “Call of the Rooster” timeframe was defined according to the arrival of the first rays of early morning light, a boundary line separating between the coming end of the night and the coming arrival of a new day. 

According to secular Roman time: 0300 to 0600 hours. According to Roman historical accounts, the start of the Roman fourth watch began at 0300 hours with the blast of a trumpet. It was called Gallicinium or the time of the “cockcrow.”  In his work “Natural History,” Roman historian Pliny the Elder said “[Cocks] go to bed with the sun and at the fourth camp watch recalls us to our business and our labor and do not allow the sunrise to creep up on us unawares, but herald the coming day with song (Natural History 10.24.1).

I will bring up more detail about this particular Jewish and Roman timeframe in a later, upcoming episode when I come to speak about the event of Peter’s denials of Yeshua. Stay tuned! 

• D) Morning:

According to religious Judean time: 0600 hours or 06:00. In Hebrew, the timeframe that follows sunrise is always called “boker” and it means the light of the new day or the next day. We can see an example of this in many places in Hebrew scripture. For example, in Numbers 11:32, “And the people stayed up all that day, all night, and all the next day, and gathered the quail.”

According to secular Roman time: 0000 hours (or what we call 12-midnight). Roman mornings started at 12-midnight and, in fact, even today, many western cultures follow this timeframe of Roman reckoning. For example, one might say, “I get up to start my days at three o’clock in the morning or perhaps, “I start work at 9 o’clock at night and finish at 5 o’clock in the morning.”However, the natural Roman day started at the 6th hour with sunrise and you can see a reference to this when Yeshua appeared before Roman Governor Pilate at the 6th hour. I will address this in more detail later when I come to speak about that event during Yeshua’s last Passover week. 

Permit me to now give you one more example of day hours and night watches from the gospel records. Yeshua was presenting a parable about watching and waiting for his return. With his parable, he said in 

• Luke 12:38. And if he should come in the second watch or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants.

This appears to be a Judean or Jewish reckoning of time because Yeshua spoke about an all-night second or third watch. Biblically, this would mean either 2200 to 0200 hours (that is, 10:00 – 2:00) OR 0200 to 0600 hours (that is, 2:00 to 6:00). However, some claim that Luke was writing about the second or third watch of the 4 three-hour Roman night-time watches.

I admit the interpretation could go in two different ways and therefore it is difficult to know. Personally, I’m of the opinion that the statement is about Jewish time reckoning because Luke often expressed time from a cultural Jewish perspective. For example, in Luke 22:1, “Now the Feast of Unleavened Bread drew near, which is called Passover.” 

Early in biblical history, Unleavened Bread and Passover were their own distinct festivals. Much later on in Jewish antiquity, the two biblical events came to be merged into one all-encompassing festival and Luke speaks of the events as merged which is very Jewish. Another example is from Luke 18:12-13: Yeshua’s story about the Pharisee and the Tax Collector. The Tax Collector stood afar off praying, “Be merciful to me, a sinner” but the Pharisee prays, “I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.” His statement, “I fast twice a week” is a reference to the Judeans who fasted on Mondays and Thursdays, meaning that fasting and praying was a religious practice occurring on the same days that the judges of the Jewish legal system tried courtroom cases. 

Given Luke’s clear tendency to record events according to Jewish reckoning and Yeshua’s many lessons within the context of biblical Jewish thought, I am assuming the reference to a second or third watch is more a biblical Hebraism than Roman calendrical time.  

SUNSET TO SUNSET RECKONING BY THE “OFFICIAL” SECOND TEMPLE PERIOD CALENDAR

During the Second Temple Period, a very early tradition originated with the Men of the Great Synagogue or the Men of the Great Assembly (see Mishnah Avot 1:1). At that time, about 100 to 400 Before the Common Era (B.C.E.), the beginning and the end of the Sabbath were officially solemnized by waiting for three medium-sized to appear. This is referred to as sunset to sunset reckoning. To officially mark the separation between the Sabbath and the six working days, it was taught in 

• Mishnah Torah Sabbath 29:1. One should remember it [the Sabbath] at its beginning and its conclusion by reciting the Kiddush when the Sabbath begins and the Havdalah when it ends.

Stringencies were in place in order to avoid any uncertainty as to whether the evening was part of the preceding day or of the following night. It was taught that one who inadvertently does forbidden work on the eve and the conclusion of Shabbat, that one was liable to a sin-offering. With the coming end of the Sabbath and the beginning of the next six working days, the separation between the two was called Havdalah from the Hebrew root Beit Dalet Lamed in

• Genesis 1:4. And Elohim saw the Light as Good; and Elohim divided (Hebrew: yavdel) the Light from the darkness.

SUNRISE TO SUNRISE RECKONING BY THE “UNOFFICIAL” SECOND TEMPLE PERIOD CALENDAR

Unlike the Judean Pharisees, many groups and communities among the Sectarians of ancient Israel including the Qumran communities in the regions of the Dead Sea, as well as many among the Galileans in the north of Israel, adopted a more ancient and biblical view of figuring time; that of the more biblical sunrise to sunrise reckoning.

In biblical days, nighttime was always understood as a different day compared to the arrival of the morning sunrise. In Hebrew, boker refers to sunrise and always signified the next new day or the next following day. Therefore, in the biblical narratives, tomorrow is expressed from the Hebrew word “mimacharat.”  There are generous examples showing this biblical terminology such as in

• 1 Samuel 19:11. Saul also sent messengers to David’s house to watch him and kill him in the morning (Hebrew: boker). And Michal, David’s wife, told him, saying, “If you do not save your life tonight, tomorrow (Hebrew: machar) you will be killed.”

 Here is another example.

• 1 Samuel 5:3-4. And they, the Ashdod people from the next morning (in their shoulder from the next morning – Heb: v’yashkim ashdodim mimacharat) noticed “Wow! He – Dagon – had fallen on his face to the earth in front of the ark of Yehovah.” So, they took Dagon and set him in his place again. And they, at the morning sunrise (Hebrew: boker) from the next day, there was Dagon, fallen on his face to the ground before the ark of Yehovah. 

Another example.

• Judges 6:37-38. (Gid’eon said) … I will put a fleece of wool on the threshing floor; if there is dew on the fleece only, and it is dry on all the ground, then I shall know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said. And so, it was thus, from early the following morning (Hebrew: v’yashkem mimacharat). 

So, how did all of Yeshua’s ministry events fit in with these ideas? Reading through the gospel narratives you will notice time and again that a biblical 24-hour day is comprised of five different dayparts. But then, there is yet a sixth special daypart that is unique to the theme of the Feast of Passover. Here are all the dayparts that you will see in scripture. 

•  Morning “boker” from sunrise 0600 (6:00) to 1200 (12-noon)
• Evening 1 “early erev” from about 1200 (afternoon) to 1800 (6:00)
• Evening 2 “late erev” from about 1800 (6:00) sunset to about 1900 (7:00) with three stars
• Night “lailah” from about 1900 (7:00) and three stars to 0500 hours (05:00) “dawn”
• Shoulder of the Morning “shachar” – sunrise boundary – from about 0500 hours. We call it dawn.

The special daypart which is unique to the theme of Passover is the Hebrew phrase, beyn ha’arbyim. It is a six-hour daypart midway between Evening 1 and Evening 2 meaning “in between the evenings” OR “in between the mixtures” of light and dark, which is a reference to about 1500 hours or 3:00. 

As I explained earlier, this is what the Law of Moses required as it speaks about the slaughter of the Passover lamb “in-between the evenings” meaning midway between 12:00 and 6:00; hence, about the time of the “evening mincha offering” at 3:00, which is a concept that shows up many times in scripture. For example: 

• Daniel 9:21. Yes, while I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, reached me about the time of the evening offering.

 And this...

• Numbers 28:4. The one lamb you shall offer in the morning, the other lamb you shall offer in the evening.

 And this...

• Acts 10:3. About the ninth hour of the day, he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God coming in and saying to him, “Cornelius!”

This is precisely when Yeshua breathed his last and died at about the ninth hour according to biblical Jewish time reckoning, what we would call 1500 hours or 3:00 in order to fulfill the Torah’s requirement from Exodus 12:6 that the Passover Lamb should be slaughtered beyn ha’arbyim – “in-between the evenings.”

Among the various communities of Second Temple Period Israel that adopted the sunrise to sunrise paradigm, as it was in ancient biblical days, these rejected the innovative Pharisaic notion that a day was always sunset to sunset.

THE COUNTING OF DAYS

During the Second Temple period when Pharisaic Judaism was growing dramatically popular, if an event happened just prior to sunset on any given day then the event was attributed to the same day as when the event commenced. Even if there was very little time remaining just before sunset, still, the event was linked to that very day and not the next day. If, however, the event occurred in the evening just after the physical sunset, then it had to be decided if the event was to be credited to the next day according to the sequence of Jewish time reckoning. One place where we learn about the paradigm is from 

• Luke 13:31-32. On that very day, some Pharisees came, saying to him (Yeshua), “Get out and depart from here, for Herod wants to kill you.” And he said to them, “Go, tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I shall be perfected.’ “

And...

• Luke 13:33. Nevertheless, I must journey today, tomorrow, and the following.

 And...

• John 4:43. Now after the two days (Hebrew concept: with two days behind) he departed from there and went to Galilee.

 And unsurprisingly, all this explains

• Matthew 28:1. Now after the Sabbath, as the first of the week began to dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb.

Accordingly, this is based on a sunrise to sunrise paradigm meaning the women arrived at the tomb around the fifth biblical daypart which is called shachar in Hebrew. For the women, it was towards the end of the regular weekly Sabbath or what we would refer to as Saturday night or by biblical Hebrew standards, they arrived at the shoulder of the next day sunrise. In other words, for the ladies, it was not yet “Sunday Morning” when they came.  Soon, I will be talking more about this.