Biblegems
#178
Question: When Was Jesus Crucified? The
Gospel of Mark says it was the third hour, but John seems to suggest it was the
sixth hour.
Mark
15:25 reads: It was the third hour when they crucified him.
John
19:14-16 reads: It was the day of Preparation of Passover Week, about the
sixth hour. “Here is your king,” Pilate said to the Jews. But they shouted,
“Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!” “Shall I crucify your king?”
Pilate asked. “We have no king but Caesar,” the chief priests answered. Finally
Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified. So the soldiers took charge of
Jesus.
Most likely, John's
Gospel best reflects the actual timing of the crucifixion. Here are the three
possible answers to this apparent contradiction that have been suggested
over the years. Sound principles of biblical interpretation help reveal which,
if any, of these solutions is correct.
Possibility
#1
Some
speculate that Mark used Hebrew reckoning of time, while John used the Roman
system. In that case, John’s “sixth hour” would be 6 AM, not twelve
noon, and the three hours between 6 AM and Mark’s 9 AM would be taken up with
the beating, whipping and preparations for the crucifixion. While this is not
unreasonable in itself, there is absolutely no evidence in John’s Gospel to
suggest he, as a Jew, was thinking in terms of Roman time.
Possibility
#2
Others
suggest that verse 25 was not in Mark’s original Gospel but was added later
when the document was being copied for circulation throughout the early
Christian church. Occurrences of this type of error in copying are known as a
“gloss.” This happens when a scribe or copyist makes a side note on the margin
of the document being copied, and a later copyist mistakes the side note as
part of the original text. This is certainly possible, especially considering
the fact that Mark is the earliest of the Gospels, and Matthew and Luke seem to
draw on Mark’s time-line for the passion and crucifixion events, yet neither
mention the “third hour” of Mark 15:25.
Possibility
#3
This
solution also looks to copyist error as the likely culprit. In this case, the
Greek letter gamma was originally in its lower case form and doubled (gamma
gamma), which indicates the number “6.” An early copyist mistakenly
replaced the lower case with an upper case gamma, which indicates the
number “3.” This would be a very easy mistake to make when copying by hand, and
examples of this kind of error can be found in ancient manuscripts.
The last
two solutions point to an “error of transmission”—an error that was not part of
Mark’s original manuscript. This is human error in copying, not a mistake in
the Word of God as Mark first wrote it down under the inspiration of the Holy
Spirit.
Bible
translators today have available to them a vast number of ancient manuscripts,
where one can be compared against others with relative ease. This process is of
immense help in recognizing copy errors that do occasionally arise. While
errors in copying do take place from time to time, such “errors of
transmission” never affect doctrine. God’s Word is trustworthy and true!
For more
on the origins and authority of the Bible, please check out Bible Gems #172, 165, 149, 110, 105, 83, 64,
60, 59, 53, 31, 6.
