ACC ~ John 19 v13 - 14

MARK’S ACCOUNT IS MORE GENERAL THAN JOHN’S

THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA: It was the day of preparation, that is, the sixth holy day of the week, [1] and it was about the sixth hour. For those who think that the words of the Evangelists are in contradiction, as some say at the third hour, others at about the sixth, it is necessary that we say something in this regard. Matthew and Luke, like John, said that there was darkness at about the sixth hour. [2] Indeed, Pilate went out immediately and sat at the tribunal and handed Jesus over to be crucified. And after he was fixed to the cross, the darkness began to spread, as the Evangelists said. There are any number of reasons why it is not surprising that Mark said that it was the third hour. [3] He said this, first of all, because he was not present. Second, he was not a disciple of our Lord but learned these facts from Peter or some other apostle. And finally, everyone has different opinions about times and hours, [4] and the doubt about the hours does not affect in any way the reported facts. In addition, we especially must notice that Mark did not say that it was the third hour about any specific and well-known fact. But by relating in a simple and general way the things that happened, he rightly said that they took place at the third hour and so designated the entire interval of time in which these facts happened. Then he added, “They crucified him.” [5] Therefore the sentence, “It was nine in the morning” refers to the account of all those events, which happened in the meantime. “They crucified him” is added concerning the previous events. COMMENTARY ON JOHN 7.19.14. [6]

[1] Hebdomas.

[2] That is, noon. See Mt 27:45; Lk 23:44

[3] Mk 15:25. Theodore assumes that the third hour mentioned by Mark is 9:00 in the morning.

[4] Theodore here reflects another solution that has been put forward to this problem of chronology, that is, that the different Gospel writers may have been writing with different conceptions as to when to begin counting the hours of the day.

[5] Mk 15:25.

[6] CSCO 4 3:333-34.

TIME DISCREPANCY?

AUGUSTINE: What else, then, is the meaning of the Evangelist Mark saying, “And it was the third hour, and they crucified him,” [1] but this, that the Lord was crucified at the third hour by the tongues of the Jew, at the sixth hour by the hands of the soldiers? [2] TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 117.1. [3]

[1] Mk 15:25.

[2] Augustine’s chronological solution in his Harmony of the Gospels 3.13.40-50 (especially par. 42) extends Theodore’s thought by asserting that Mark has a hidden agenda when he mentions the third hour. For Mark, the crucifixion technically begins when the Jews first cried out that Jesus should be crucified and extends to the later crucifixion by the Roman soldiers. Mark, Augustine says, did this so that the reader would understand who was truly responsible for Jesus’ death, noting that while the soldiers were the executioners, it was the cry to crucify him, which took place at the third hour and was inspired by the Jewish leaders, that was the cause of his death.

[3] NPNF 1 7:428*.

ONE POSSIBLE TIMELINE

IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH: On the day of the preparation, then, at the third hour, [1] Jesus received the sentence from Pilate, the Father permitting that to happen. At the sixth hour he was crucified. At the ninth hour he gave up the ghost. And before sunset he was buried. EPISTLE TO THE TRALLIANS 9 (LONGER VERSION). [2]

[1] Ignatius or, more likely, his editors in this case reflect a tradition that seems to contradict John but fits in with the broader Synoptic timetable.

[2] ANF 1:70**.

COPYIST ERROR?

EUSEBIUS OF CAESAREA: Mark says Christ was crucified at the third hour. John says that it was at the sixth hour that Pilate took his seat on the tribunal and tried Jesus. This discrepancy is a clerical error or an earlier copyist. Gamma () signifying the third hour is very close to the episemon () [1] denoting the sixth. As Matthew, Mark and Luke agree that the darkness occurred from the sixth hour to the ninth, it is clear that Jesus, Lord and God, was crucified before the sixth hour, i.e. about the third hour, as Mark has recorded. John similarly signified that it was the third hour, but the copyists turned the gamma () to the episemon (). MINOR SUPPLEMENTS TO QUESTIONS TO MARINUS 4. [2]

[1] See PGL 530-31.

[2] PG 22:1009.

PASSOVER AS TYPE GIVES WAY TO TRUE PASSOVER

PETER OF ALEXANDRIA: After his public ministry, Jesus did not eat of the lamb, but he himself suffered as the true Lamb in the Paschal feast, as John, the divine and Evangelist teaches us in the Gospel written by him. “… And it was the preparation of the Passover, and about the third hour,” [1] as the correct books render it and the copy itself that was written by the hand of the Evangelist, which by divine grace has been preserved in the most holy church of Ephesus and is there adored by the faithful. … On that day, therefore, on which the Jews were about to eat the Passover in the evening, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ was crucified. He was made the victim to those who were about to partake by faith of the mystery concerning him. This is what is written by the blessed Paul, “For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.” [2] It is not the case, as some who, carried along by ignorance, confidently affirm that after he had eaten the Passover, he was betrayed. We neither learn this from the holy Evangelists, nor has any of the blessed apostles handed it down to us. At the time, therefore, in which our Lord and God Jesus Christ suffered for us, according to the flesh, he did not eat of the legal Passover. Rather, as I have said, he himself, as the true Lamb, was sacrificed for us in the feast of the typical Passover on the day of the preparation, the fourteenth of the first lunar month. The typical Passover, therefore, then ceased, the true Passover being present: “For Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us,” as was said earlier. And he was that chosen vessel, as the apostle Paul teaches. FRAGMENT 1.7. [3]

[1] Peter here seems to give some credence to the belief of Eusebius and others, such as Severus and Theophylact, that there was an early error among the copies of John’s Gospel. See Eusebius above.

[2] 1 Cor 5:7.

[3] ANF 6:282**.

THE FIRST OF THREE DAYS

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: The inspired Evangelist is induced to signify, for our benefit, the day and hour because of the resurrection itself and his three days’ sojourn among the departed, that the truth of our Lord’s saying to the Jews might appear: “For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so also shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” [1] COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 12. [2]

[1] Mt 12:40.

[2] LF 48:619*. Irenaeus reflects the tradition that Jesus died on the same day as Adam; see Against Heresies 5.23.2.

Jn