the design of augmenting his unparalleled sufferings. After receiving this, Jesus "cried with a loud voice, and uttered with all the vehemence he could exert, that comprehensive word on which a volume might be written, It is finished! the important work of human redemption is finished; after which he reclined his head upon his bosom, and dismissed his spirit." (Matt. xxvii. 50.)

The last circumstance to be mentioned relative to the crucifixion of our Saviour, is the petition of the Jews to Pilate, that the death of the sufferers might be accelerated, with a view to the interment of Jesus. All the four evangelists have particularly mentioned this circumstance. Joseph of Arimathea went to Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus; then Pilate commanded the body to be delivered. And when Joseph had taken the body, he laid it in his own new tomb. (Matt. xxvii. 58-60. Mark xv. 45, 46. Luke xxiii. 50-53. John xix. 38-40.) And it may be fairly concluded, the rulers of the Jews did not disapprove of it: since they were solicitous that the bodies might be taken down, and not hang on the cross the next day. (John xix. 31.) The Jews, therefore, says St. John, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain on the cross on the sabbath day (for that sabbath day was an high day ;) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken

away.

Burial was not always allowed by the Romans in these cases. For we find that sometimes a soldier was appointed to guard the bodies of malefactors, that they might not be taken away and buried.1 However it seems that it was not often refused, unless the criminals were very mean and infamous. Cicero reckons it one of the horrid crimes of Verres's administration in Sicily, that he would take money of parents for the burial of their children whom he had put to death.2 Both Suetonius3 and Tacitus represent it as one of the uncommon cruelties of Tiberius, in the latter part of his reign, that he generally denied burial to those who were put to death by his orders at Rome. Ulpian, in his treatise of the duty of a proconsul, says: "The bodies of those who are condemned to death are not to be denied to their relations:" and Augustus writes, in the tenth book of his own life, "that he had been wont to observe this custom;"5 that is, to grant the bodies to relations. Paulus says: "that the bodies of those who have been punished, [with death], are to be given to any that desire them in order to burial."6

1 See the passage cited from Petronius Arbiter, in note 5. p. 157.

2 Rapiunt eum ad supplicium dii patrii: quod iste inventus est, qui e complexu parentum abreptos filios ad necem duceret, et parentes pretium pro sepultura posceret. In Ver. lib. i. cap. 3.

3 Nemo punitorum non et in Gemonias abjectus uncoque tractus. Vit. Tiber. c. 61. 4 Et quia damnati, publicatis bonis, sepulturâ prohibebantur. Ann. lib. vi. c. 29. 5 Corpora eorum qui capite damnantur cognatis ipsorum neganda non sunt. et id se observasse etiam D. Aug. lib. x. de vità suâ, scribit. Hodie autem eorum, in quos animadvertitur, corpora non aliter sepeliuntur, quam si fuerit petitum et permissum; et nonnunquam non permittitur, maxime majestatis causâ damnatorum, 1. i. ff. de cadaver. Punit.

6 Corpora animadversorum quibuslibet petentibus ad sepulturam danda sunt. 1. iii. eod.

It is evident, therefore, from these two lawyers, that the governors of provinces had a right to grant burial to the bodies of those who had been executed by their order: nay, they seem to intimate, that it ought not usually to be denied when requested by any.

Hence it appears, that burial was ordinarily allowed to persons who were put to death in Judæa: and the subsequent conduct of Pilate shows that it was seldom denied by the Roman governors in that country. There is, moreover, an express command in the law (of which we know that the later Jews were religiously observant,) that the bodies of those who were hanged should not be suffered to remain all night upon the tree. (Deut. xxi. 23.) The next day, therefore, after the crucifixion, being, as one of the evangelists says, a high day (John xix. 31.), a number of leading men among the Jews waited on Pilate in a body, to desire that he would hasten the death of the malefactors hanging on their crosses. Pilate, therefore, dispatched his orders to the soldiers on duty, who broke the legs of the two criminals who were crucified along with Christ; but when they came to Jesus, finding he had already breathed his last, they thought this violence and trouble unnecessary; but one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, whose point appears to have penetrated into the pericardium, or membrane surrounding the heart; for St. John, who says he was an eye-witness of this, declares that there issued from the wound a mixture of blood and water. This wound, had he not been dead, must necessarily have been fatal. This circumstance St. John saw, and has solemnly recorded and attested.2

1 See an instance, incidentally mentioned by Josephus. De Bell. Jud. lib. iv. c. 5. § 2.

And he that saw it bare record, and his record is true: and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe. John xix. 35.

CHAPTER IV.

ON THE JEWISH AND ROMAN MODES OF COMPUTING TIME, MENTIONED IN THE SCRIPTURES.

I. Days.-II. Hours.-Watches of the Night.-III. Weeks.-IV. Months.-V. Years, Civil, Ecclesiastical and Natural.-Jewish Calendar. VI. Parts of time taken for the whole.-VII. Remarkable Eras of the Jews.

IT is well known that, in the perusal of antient authors, we are liable to fall into many serious mistakes, if we consider their modes of computing time to be precisely the same as ours: and hence it becomes necessary that we observe their different notations of time, and carefully adjust them to our own. This remark is particularly applicable to the sacred writers, whom sceptics and infidels have charged with various contradictions and inconsistencies, which fall to the ground as soon as the various computations of time are considered and adapted to our own standard. The knowledge of the different divisions of time mentioned in the Scriptures will elucidate the meaning of a multitude of passages with regard to seasons, circumstances, and ceremonies.

I. The Hebrews computed their DAYS from evening to evening, according to the command of Moses. (Lev. xxiii. 32.) It is remarkable that the evening or natural night precedes the morning or natural day in the account of the creation (Gen. i. 5. &c.): whence the prophet Daniel employs the compound term evening-morning (Dan. viii. 14. marginal reading) to denote a civil day in his celebrated chronological prophecy of the 2300 days: and the same portion of time is termed in Greek νυχθημερον.

The Romans had two different computations of their days, and two denominations for them. The one they called the civil, the other the natural day: the first was the same as ours; the second, which was the vulgar computation, began at six in the morning, and ended at six in the evening. The civil day of the Jews varied in length according to the seasons of the year: the longest day in the Holy Land is only fourteen hours and twelve minutes of our time; and the shortest day, nine hours and forty-eight minutes. This

1 Tacitus, speaking of the antient Germans, takes notice that their account of time differs from that of the Romans; and that instead of days they reckoned the number of nights. De Mor. Germ. c. xi. So also did the antient Gauls (Cæsar de Bell. Gall. lib. vi. c. xvii.); and vestiges of this antient practice still remain in our own country. We say last Sunday se'nnight, or this day fortnight. The practice of computing time by nights, instead of days, obtains among the Mashoos, an inland nation, dwelling in the interior of South Africa. Travels by the Rev. John Campbell, vol. i. p. 182. (London, 1822. 8vo.)

2 Pliny, Hist. Nat. lib. ii. c. lxxvii.; Censorinus de Die Natali, c. xxiii.; Macrobius Saturnal. lib. iii. c. iii. See also Dr. Ward's Dissertations on several passages Prelim. Obs. v. Scripture, p. 126.; and Dr. Macknight's Harmony, vol. i

portion of time was at first divided into four parts (Nehem. ix. 3.); which, though varying in length according to the seasons, could nevertheless be easily discerned from the position or appearance of the sun in the horizon. Afterwards the civil day was divided into twelve hours, which were measured either from the position of the sun, or from dials constructed for that purpose.

II. These HOURS were equal to each other, but unequal with respect to the different seasons of the year; thus the twelve hours of the longest day in summer were much longer than those of the shortest day in winter. The earliest mention of hours in the sacred writings occurs in the prophecy of Daniel (iii. 6. 15. v. 5.): and as the Chaldæans, according to Herodotus,1 were the inventors of this division of time, it is probable that the Jews derived their hours from them. It is evident that the division of hours was unknown in the time of Moses (compare Gen. xv. 12. xviii. 1. xix. 1. 15. 23.); nor is any notice taken of them by the most antient of the profane poets, who mentions only the morning or evening or mid-day. With Homer correspond the notations of time referred to by the royal psalmist, who mentions them as the times of prayer. (Psal. lv. 17.) The Jews computed their hours of the civil day from six in the morning till six in the evening: thus their first hour corresponded with our seven o'clock; their second to our eight; their third to our nine, &c. The knowledge of this will illustrate several passages of Scripture, particularly Matt. xx. where the third, sixth, ninth, and eleventh hours (v. 3. 5. 6. 9.) respectively denote nine o'clock in the morning, twelve at noon, three and five in the afternoon; see also Acts ii. 15. iii. 1. x. 9. 30. The first three hours (from six to nine) were their morning: during the third hour, from eight to nine, their morning sacrifice was prepared, offered up, and laid on the altar precisely at nine o'clock; this interval they termed the preparation. (Пagaoxεun, John xix. 14. where the "preparation of the passover" fixes the precise time when our Saviour was before Pilate.) Josephus confirms the narrative of the evangelists.3

The night was originally divided into three parts or watches (Psal. lxiii. 6. xc. 4.), although the division of twelve hours like those of the day afterwards obtained. The first or beginning of watches is mentioned in Lam. ii. 19.; the middle watch in Jud. vii. 19.; and the morning watch in Exod. xiv. 24. It is probable that these watches varied in length according to the seasons of the year: consequently those, who had a long and inclement winter watch to encounter, would ardently desire the approach of morning light, to terminate

1 Lib. ii. c. cix.

- Πως η δειλη, η μεσον ήμαρ. Ηom. Il. lib. xxi. 3.

During the siege of Jerusalem, the Jewish historian relates that the priests ere not interrupted in the discharge of their sacred functions, but continued twice a day, in the morning, and at the ninth hour (or at three o'clock in the afternoon), to offer up sacrifices at the altar. The Jews rarely, if ever, ate or drank till after the hour of prayer (Acts x. 30.), and on sabbath days not till the sixth hour (twelve at noon, Josephus, de vita sua, § 54.): which circumstance well explains the apostle Peter's defence of those on whom the Holy Spirit had miraculously descended on the day of Pentecost. (Acts ii. 15.)

VOL. III.

22

their watch. This circumstance would beautifully illustrate the fervour of the psalmist's devotion (Psal. cxxx. 6.), as well as serve to explain other passages of the Old Testament. These three watches are also mentioned by various profane writers.2

During the time of our Saviour, the night was divided into four watches, a fourth watch having been introduced among the Jews from the Romans, who derived it from the Greeks. The second and third watches are mentioned in Luke xii. 38.; the fourth in Matt. xiv. 25.; and the four are all distinctly mentioned in Mark xiii. 35. Watch therefore, for ye know not when the master of the house cometh; at EVEN (O48, or the late watch), or at MIDNIGHT (MedOvUXTIOU), or at the COCK-CROWING (aλExτopopwvias), or in the MORNING (pw, the early watch). Here, the first watch was at even, and continued from six till nine; the second commenced at nine and ended at twelve, or midnight; the third watch, called by the Romans gallicinium, lasted from twelve to three; and the morning watch closed at six. A double cock-crowing indeed is noticed by St. Mark, (xiv. 30.) where the other evangelists mention only one. (Matt. xxvi. 34. Luke xxii. 34. John xiii. 28.) But this may be easily reconciled. The Jewish doctors divided the cock-crowing into the first, second, and third; the heathen nations in general observed only two. As the cock crew the second time after Peter's third denial, it was this second or principal cock-crowing (for the Jews seem in many respects to have accommodated themselves to the Roman computation of time), to which the evangelists Matthew, Luke, and John refer. Or, perhaps, the second cock-crowing of the Jews might coincide with the second of the Romans.3

It may be proper to remark that the word hour is frequently used with great latitude in the Scriptures, and sometimes implies the space of time occupied by a whole watch. (Matt. xxv. 13. xxvi. 40. Mark xiv. 37. Luke xxii. 59. Rev. iii. 3.) Perhaps the third hour mentioned in Acts xxiii. 23. was a military watch of the night.4

The Jews reckoned two evenings: the former began at the ninth hour of the natural day, or three o'clock in the afternoon; and the latter at the eleventh hour. Thus the paschal lamb was required to be sacrificed between the evenings (Exod. xii. 6. Lev. xxiii. 4.); which Josephus tells us, the Jews in his time did, from the ninth hour until the eleventh.5 Hence the law, requiring the paschal lamb to be

1 Thus the 134th psalm gives us an instance of the temple watch: the whole psalm is nothing more than the alternate cry of two different divisions of the watch. The first watch addresses the second (v. 1, 2.), reminding them of their duty; and the second answers (v. 3.) by a solemn blessing. The address and the answer seem both to be a set form, which each individual proclaimed or sung aloud, at stated intervals, to notify the time of the night. Bishop Lowth's Isaiah, vol. ii. p. 357.

2 See Homer, Iliad, lib. x. v. 252, 253. Livy, lib. vii. c. xxxv. and Xenophon, Anab. lib. iv. p. 250. (edit. Hutchinson.)

3 Lightfoot Hor. Heb. on John xiii. 38. (Works, vol. ii.p.597.) Grotius and Whitby on Matt. xxvi. 34. Dr. Hales's Analysis of Chronology, vol. i. p. 112. By which writers various passages of classical authors are cited.

4 Fragments annexed to Calmet's Dictionary, No. cclxiii. p. 164.

5 De Bell. Jud. lib. vi. c. ix. § 3.