When does a day begin?
For Westerners, a day begins at midnight. For Chinese, it begins at 11:00 p.m. Traditional Chinese divided a day into 12 time slots【時辰】. The 12 slots are assigned 12 earth branches【地支】. The Chinese fortune tellers still employ this scheme to calculate the fate of a person from his birthday. What about the Jews?
From the Bible, we deduce that the Israelites begins a day at sunset, roughly 6:00 p.m. The night is divided into 4 watches. When the sun rises, at roughly 6:00 a.m. in the morning, they started counting in hours.
Therefore, on Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit descended on the 120 believers who then began to speak in tongues, some onlookers dismissed them as drunk. Peter defended by saying that it was only the third hour of the day. That is, 9:00 a.m.
For these men are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day; (Acts 2:15).
According to the Gospel of Mark, Jesus was crucified at 9:00 a.m., the third hour (Mark 15:25). At noon, the sixth hour, there was darkness over the whole land (Mark 15:33) and Jesus died at 3:00 p.m., the ninth hour (Mark 15:34).
The Gospel of Matthew tells of a vineyard owner hiring workers at different hours of the day. At the eleventh hour, he hired workers who could work for one hour only. Yet, they got the same wage as those who had worked for 12 (Matthew 20:12)! So, we know that day time was divided in 12 hours. Perhaps this was adopted from the Romans or Greeks.
When Jesus warned us to keep alert and be always prepared for the sudden coming of the end, he has the following to say.
Watch therefore -- for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning --
lest he come suddenly and find you asleep (Mark 13:35-36).
Notice that he began with the evening.
In the Creation hymn of Genesis 1, a refrain is sung six times.
And there was evening and there was morning, an nth day (Genesis 1:5, 8, 13, 19, 23, 31).
Therefore, we may safely deduce that for Israelites, a day begins in the evening.
When I was saying my Lauds this morning, I suddenly discovered that Psalm 90 is using a different time scheme! It begins a day in the morning like us!
Thou turnest man back to the dust, and sayest, "Turn back, O children of men!"
For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night.
Thou dost sweep men away; they are like a dream, like grass which is renewed in the morning:
in the morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers (Psalm 90:3-6, RSV).
RSV is peculiar in using the phrase "is renewed", whereas KJV simply uses "groweth up" and others "sprouts anew".
Further down, we have one more line, suggesting a day begins in the morning.
Satisfy us in the morning with thy steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days (Psalm 90:14).
Naturally, I wonder whether Psalm 90 is the only exception. I have not read enough Bible. Perhaps there are other places indicating that a day begins in the morning and not in the evening. This is a good research topic for Bible students.
Dear Lord, whether a day begins in the evening or in the morning, the work of Your hands captivates me in awe. Let thy work be manifest to thy servants, and thy glorious power to their children. Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish thou the work of our hands upon us, yea, the work of our hands establish thou it (Psalm 90:16-17). Amen.
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