In Jesus’s day ，they based time on the position of the sun. Sunrise was typically 6am. Sunset would typically be around 6pm. So first hour would be 6am, sixth hour would be noon, etc.
Biblical Example – Jesus’s Crucifixion
To give you a way to utilize this information in biblical study let’s take for example the day of Jesus’s crucifixion. Note, only Mark’s gospel gives specific times.
Jesus went before both Pilate and Herod, and was sentenced, flogged, and led to Calvary between 6am and 9am. According to Luke 23:33, Mark 15:25, Jesus was crucified at the third hour, i.e. 9am.
According to Mark 15:33, darkness came over the whole land from the sixth hour until the ninth hour, i.e. 12pm – 3pm. On the ninth hour, 3pm, Jesus dies. Jesus’s side is pierced, he’s brought down from the cross, wrapped up and sealed in a guarded tomb before sunset at 6pm. At sunset is when the Jewish Sabbath started.
| the third hour | 9am 巳初 | 太20:3 園主僱工 可15:25 主耶穌釘十字架徒2:15 五旬節聖靈降下 |
| the sixth hour | 12am 午正 | 太20:5 園主僱工;
太27:45 黑暗 |
| the seventh hour | 1pm 未初 | 約4:52 大臣兒子熱退的時間 |
| the ninth hour | 3pm 申初 | 太20:5 園主僱工； 太 27:45 黑暗；太27:46 耶穌斷氣 可15:33 黑暗；可15:34 耶穌斷氣 路23:44 黑暗 徒3:1 禱告時間，彼得約翰 徒10:30 禱告時間，哥尼流 |
| the tenth hour | 4pm 申 | 約1:39 約翰、安德烈跟從耶穌 |
| the third hour of the night | 9pm 亥初 | 徒23:23 保羅連夜被押往該撒利亞 |