Roman versus Jewish Reckoning of Hours in the Gospel of John: An Exegetical Misconception That Refuses to Die
Adam Kubiś · The Biblical Annals · 2021
Examines the claim that the Gospel of John used a distinctively Roman system of counting daytime hours from midnight while the Synoptic Gospels used a Jewish system beginning at sunrise. Drawing on ancient extrabiblical evidence, Kubiś argues that Romans and Jews reckoned daytime hours in essentially the same way, from sunrise, despite Roman civil days being counted from midnight. The article applies the competing models to John 1:39, 4:6, 4:52, and 19:14 and concludes that the supposed Roman-versus-Jewish distinction in hourly reckoning is an exegetical misconception.