time in the Gospel According to John

The fourth chapter of the Gospel According to John (NABRE) includes a description of the encounter between Jesus and a Samaritan woman at a well. One of the more interesting interpretation questions in this text concerns the correct translation of when this all occurs. The Gospel According to John 4:6 (NABRE) is translated as “it was about noon.”

The Greek text here can be literally rendered as “it was about the sixth hour.” How do the translators get from “the sixth hour” to noon? The ancient Jews counted time differently from the way in which the Romans did and from the way that we do today. They began counting hours from sunrise, so the sixth hour by Jewish time is six hours from sunrise—or about noon.

The Romans kept time as we do today from midnight and noon, and interestingly, a case can be made that the Gospel According to John follows Roman rather than Jewish time, though all of the synoptic Gospels (the Gospels According to Matthew, Mark, and Luke) do seem to follow Jewish time. That case is largely based on the Gospel According to John 19:14 (NABRE) and the timing of Pilate’s judgment of Jesus. By Roman time, this would be first thing in the morning at around 6 a.m., right when the Romans would have been free to begin official business. If the Fourth Gospel follows Jewish time, however, this judgment would have to have taken place at noon—which leaves very little time for the way of the cross, the Crucifixion, and the death of Jesus all to have taken place by 3 p.m. Other context from the texts prior suggesting everything has been taking place overnight and in the early morning also suggest it’s much more likely that this event happened in the early morning.

While there is no definitive answer, if the Gospel According to John does follow Roman time, this encounter with the Samaritan woman happens at 6 p.m. or dinner time. How does that view of when this event happens change your reading of the encounter?

you also may like our study of the Gospel According to John
The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth, a 25-lesson Catholic Bible study with an imprimatur, examines the Fourth Gospel’s view of Jesus Christ as the Son of God, with special emphasis on the institution of the sacraments of the Church as the means by which Christians are purified and made holy. This recently revised study includes maps and additional commentary, and takes a closer look at the way in which Jesus relates to individual men and women. Click on the book’s cover to view a sample lesson.

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