John 19:14

ἦν δὲ παρασκευὴ τοῦ πάσχα, “now it was the preparation of the Passover”. παρασκευή was the usual appellation of Friday, the day of preparation for the weekly Sabbath. Here the addition τοῦ πάσχα shows that it is used of the day preceding the Passover. This day was, as it happened, a Friday, but it is the relation to the feast, not to the ordinary Sabbath, that is here indicated. Cf. John 19:42. ὥρα δὲ ὡσεὶ ἕκτη. “It was about the sixth hour,” i.e., about 12 o'clock. But Mark (Mark 15:25) says: “It was the third hour and they crucified Him”. The various methods of reconciling the statements are given in Andrew's Life of Our Lord, p. 545 ff. Meyer leaves it unsolved “and the preference must be given to the disciple who stood under the cross”. But if the crucifixion took place midway between nine and twelve o'clock, it was quite natural that one observer should refer it to the former, while another referred it to the latter hour. The height of the sun in the sky was the index of the time of day; and while it was easy to know whether it was before or after midday, or whether the sun was more or less than half-way between the zenith and the horizon, finer distinctions of time were not recognisable without consulting the sun-dials, which were not everywhere at hand. Cf. the interesting passages from rabbinical literature in Wetstein, and Professor Ramsay's article in the Expositor, 1893, vol. vii., p. 216. The latter writer found the same conditions in Turkish villages, and “cannot feel anything serious” in the discrepancy between John and Mark. “The Apostles had no means of avoiding the difficulty as to whether it was the third or the sixth hour when the sun was near mid-heaven, and they cared very little about the point.” καὶ λέγει … ὑμῶν, “and he says to the Jews: Behold your king!” words uttered apparently in sarcasm and rage. If he still wished to free Jesus, his bitterness was impolitic.