*

rise in the East, before the sun sets in the West. But the moon was then actually about the full, namely, on the day of the crucifixion. This application of the verb, EжEpwσкε, (which is the exact rendering of nahar) to "the full moon, shining with superior splendour, in the serene and warm climates of Syria and Palestine †, entirely removes the impropriety of the former rendering; and by a usual Syriasm, not more just than beauful, correctly expresses the time, when "the moon," that rules the night, "was beginning to shine," shortly before sun-set, or commencement of the sabbath-day.

The natural day was at first divided into three parts, Morning, Noon, and Evening. David mentions these as hours or times of prayer. Ps. lv. 17. And Homer notices them also: Hwc, n Aεin, n μεσov nuap, "morning, or evening, or mid-day." Iliad

21. 111.

The natural night also was originally divided into three parts, or watches: Ps. lxiii. 6; and xc. 4. The first, or beginning of watches, is mentioned Lament. ii. 19; the middle watch, Judg. vii. 19; and the morning watch, Exod. xiv. 24. And to these Homer seems to allude:

Αστρα δε δη προβεβηκε, παρῳχηκεν δε πλεων νυξ,

Των δυο μοιραων, τριτατη δ' ετι μοιρα λελειπται.

"The stars are now far advanced, and more than two parts of the night are passed: a third part only is still left."

Herodotus also mentions the second watch of the night, IX. 50; as does Livy, VII. 35; with this observation, that it was the fittest for surprizing the enemy in their camp, "when oppressed with the deepest sleep 1." And Xenophon mentions the

* Lucentemque globum Lunæ.—Virgil.

+ The luminousness of a nocturnal sky in the West Indies, during the vernal season, is thus described in glowing colours, by the eloquent Edwards.

"The nights at this season, are transcendently beautiful. The clearness of the heavens, the serenity of the air, and the soft tranquillity in which Nature reposes, contribute to harmonize the mind, and produce the most calm and delightful sensations. The moon too, in these climates, displays far greater radiance than in Europe; the smallest print is legible by her light. And in the moon's absence, her function is not ill supplied by the brightness of the milky way, and by that glorious planet Venus, which here appears like a little moon, and glitters with so refulgent a lustre, as to cast a shade from trees, buildings, and other objects; making full amends for the short stay and abrupt departure of the crepusculum, or twilight”—in the torrid zone near the equator.

N. B. Venus, "the evening star," who is also Lucifer, "the morning star," becomes the harbinger either of night or of day, when the sun is depressed only ten degrees below the western, or eastern horizon, respectively.

Quod tempus mortales somno altissimo premit.

last watch, (or the third, according to Hutchinson,) which he thus accurately describes, Anab. IV. p. 250.

“But when it was about the last watch, and there remained only so much of the night as would enable them to cross the plain in the dusk *, then rising according to orders, they set out and arrived at the mountain along with the day."

2.

Afterwards, the strictness of military discipline among the Greeks and Romans, introduced an additional night-watch. Thus Arrian mentions an attack made by the Barbarians on Alexander's camp, "when it was now about the fourth watch," v. 24, The Romans also copied it; and from them the Jews in our Saviour's time. The second and third watches are mentioned Luke xii. 38; and the fourth watch of the night, Matt. xiv. 25; and the four are mentioned together, by our Lord, and described by the terms, Of, "the late watch," μEσovUKTIOV, "the midnight," adɛkтopopwvias, "the cock-crowing," and wow, "the πρωί, early." Mark xiii. 35. A double cock-crowing, indeed, is noticed by Mark, xiv. 30, where the other Evangelists mention only a single cock-crowing; Matt. xxvi. 34; Luke xxii. 34; John xiii. 38. But this is easily reconciled; the second, or principal, was that which they meant: thus Juvenal notices the second:

Quod tamen ad Galli cantum facit ille secundi,
Proximus ante diem caupo sciet. Sat. 9.

Which also was meant by Horace :

Sub Galli cantum consultor ubi ostia pulsat. Sat. 1.

The precise beginning and ending of each of the four watches, is thus determined.

1. Of," the late," began at sun-set, and ended with the third hour of the night, including the evening dawn, or twilight. It was also called ofia wpa, even-tide, Mark xi. 11; or simply ofia, evening, John xx. 19, &c.

Μεσονυκτίου,

2. MEσOVUKTIOU," the midnight," lasted from the third hour till midnight.

3. Aλεktopopwvias," the cock crowing," lasted from midnight till the third hour after, or the ninth hour of the night. It included the two cock-crowings, with the second, or principal of which, it ended.

* Suidas renders σκοταιους, the word here used, by ετι σκοτίας ούσης, was still dusk;" as the phrase should be rendered, John xx. 1.

"while it

Πρωι,

4. Пlow," the early," lasted from the ninth to the twelfth hour of the night, or sun-rise, including the morning dawn, or twilight. It was also called Towia, morning, or morning-tide; pa being understood. John xviii. 28, &c *.

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The Jews reckoned two evenings: the former began at the ninth hour of the natural day, or third after noon; the latter began at sun-set, and was called έσπɛpa, evening, Acts iv. 3. The former, Tроç έσπεрav," towards evening," Luke xxiv. 29. The same usage prevailed among the Greeks. Thus Xenophon calls the former evening, Aaλn; and the latter, Oɛ. Compare Anab. p. 75 and 126, Hutchinson.

οψιας γενομενης,

The phrase ofias yevoμevns," when it was evening," sometimes ambiguously expressed both evenings, as in Matthew's account of the signal miracle of the loaves and fishes. Where the former was meant, when the miracle began, Matt. xiv. 15, as determined by Luke, nμɛpa nožaтo Kλivεv, “the day (or sun) ήμερα ηρξατο κλίνειν, began to decline," ix. 12. The latter evening was meant, when our Lord dismissed the multitude, Matt. xiv. 23; as ascertained by John, explaining the equivalent phrase, we de ofia Eyɛvɛro, “when it was evening," by the subsequent circumstance, in the next verse, και σκοτια ηδη εγεγονει, "And it had been already dusk." John vi. 16, 17.

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By the Law of Moses, the Paschal Lamb was required to be sacrificed '," Between the evenings,” Exod. xii. 6; Numb. ix. 3; and elsewhere. "At even, at the going down of the sun," including both, Deut. xvi. 6. And Josephus has well explained it, Θυουσι μεν, από εννατης ώρας έως ένδεκατης, “ The Jews sacrifice [the passover] from the ninth hour until the eleventh." Bell. Jud. 6, 9, 3, p. 1291. "CHRIST, our Passover," therefore critically fulfilled the Law, when he expired about the ninth hour, Matt. xxvii. 46, and was taken down from the cross, at the first evening, Mark xv. 42-45, and was interred before the second evening, or sun-set, Luke xxiii. 54. For so it behoved Him" to fulfil all righteousness," ceremonial as well as moral!

The inconveniences resulting from a variable beginning of the civil day, earlier or later, according to the different seasons of

Among the Romans, a public officer called Accensus, or Crier, used to proclaim the third hour, noon, and the ninth hour, as we learn from Varro: and still, the Mahometan Imans, or priests, proclaim day-break, noon, the first evening, twilight, and cock-crowing, from the minarets of their mosques.

the year, induced several ancient nations, the Egyptians, (according to Pliny, Nat. Hist. lib. ii. c. 77.) the Ausonians, the most ancient inhabitants of Italy, the Roman Pontifices, Hipparchus, the Grecian astronomer, and the Chinese astronomers of Cathai and Oighur, &c. to reckon their civil day from midnight to midnight, as from a fixed, invariable point; and this usage has been adopted by most of the modern nations of Europe.

The morning twilight, day-break, or dawn, is described with still greater variety of expression, but with a propriety and consistency not usually noticed, and totally lost in our public translation, by the four evangelists; in their accounts of the departure of the Galilæan women from their respective habitations, in order to visit the holy sepulchre on Easter day, that auspicious day of our Lord's "rising," or resurrection, (as the Saxon word implies) which was called a “high day” in the Jewish ritual, (John xix. 31.) as being the second or principal day of the Paschal week, on which the wave sheaf, or first-fruits of the barley harvest was offered, Levit. xxiii. 10, 11; whence our Lord himself was figuratively styled "the first-fruits” of the spiritual harvest of the resurrection, 1 Cor. xv. 20. In opposition, perhaps, to this truly “high day” in a double sense, the first Sunday after Easter is styled in our almanacks, Low Sunday.

1. Matthew represents the time of the women's departure, Οψε σαββατων, τη επιφωσκουση εις μιαν σαββατων. “ Late after the Sabbath, at the dawning on the first day of the week." Matt. xxviii. 1.

Ofe oaßßarwv is a phrase signifying "a good while after the Οψε σαββατων sabbath-day had expired, at the evening twilight, on our Saturday;" i. e. when the natural night was now far advanced. Philostratus uses the same phrase, Ove Towiкw, to denote, "Long after the Trojan [times.]" This was necessary, to appropriate the ensuing dawn to the morning, rather than to the evening. Luke xxiii. 54.Τη επιφωσκουση, "at the dawning;" here the expression is elliptical, put for ovv Tη w Eπipwσкovσn, "along with the dawning morn;" corresponding to vravyasovons έw, ὑποφαίνουσης έω, ὑπο πρωτην έω, &c.

Ημος δ' ουτ' αρ' πω ήως, ετι δ' αμφιλύκη νυξ.

"When it was not yet morn, but still twilight night."

2. Mark expresses it differently:

Iliad, VII. 433.

Διαγενομένου σαββατου, λιαν πρωι της μιας σαββατων.

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After the sabbath-day was thoroughly past, very early on the first day of the week." Mark xvi. 1, 2.

Here the phrase, διαγενομένου σαββατου, is explanatory of Matthew's of oaßßarwv; the particle dia, in composition, being intensive, or heightening the signification of the simple verb yivouaι, as in diayivwokw, "to know thoroughly." Acts xxiii. 15. Пlow included the whole time of " the early watch;" and to mark the dawn, Mark adds λav, "very," which is put elliptically for evvvxov λiav, by Mark himself, i. 35, “very far in the night."

3. John expresses the precise time of the Towɩ, or “early watch," differently from Mark:

Τη μια των σαββάτων, πρωι, σκοτίας έτι ούσης. "On the first day of the week, early, while it was still dusk," John xx. 1. This is a more definite expression than Mark's. EKOTIα should not be rendered "dark," as in our translation, which is rather the rendering of σкотоç, of which σkоria is a diminutive. The whole phrase corresponds to Homer's

Πρωι, ὑπ ̓ ηοι, οἱ συν τεύχεσι θωρηχθεντες.

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'Early, about morn, they, armed with their weapons."

where ὑπ' not seems to be a contraction of ὑποφώσκουσης έω, sublucente Aurora, as more fully expressed by Aristotle, vπopwσκουσης έω, και ηδη πρωι, "While morn was dawning from beneath, and it was now early."

4. Luke expresses it differently from the rest by an elegant and scientific phrase:

Τη μια των σαββάτων, όρθρου βαθέος. "On the first day of the week, while the rising [sun] was deep [sunk beneath the horizon.]" Luke xxiv. 1.

The morning twilight begins as soon as the sun arrives within 18 degrees below the horizon, for then the smallest stars disappear. This phrase also is used by the best classic writers: Aristophanes, Thucydides, Aristides, &c., use it; and Plato explains it, Η ου πρωι ετι εστιν; πανυ μεν ουν—όρθρος βαθυς. "Is it not yet early?-Surely it is—the rising [sun] is deep." Crito, p. 32 *.

5. The accurate Mark alone records the time of the women's

* From this variety of phraseology, yet harmony of time, the reader may judge whether the Evangelists were skilled, or not, in the niceties of the Greek language, as used by the oldest and purest classic authors.