The Crucifixion of Jesus Christ 

that they had allowed him to eat the Pasch on the wrong day in a room which belonged to them, they proved 

from ancient documents that from time immemorial the Galilaens had been allowed to eat the Pasch a day 

earlier than the  rest of the Jews . The reason was this: the sacrifices would not have been finished by the 

Sabbath if the immense multitudes who congregated together for that purpose had all been obliged to perform 

the ceremony on the same day . 

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    There is no contradiction between the synoptic Gospels and the Gospel of John. Jesus and His disciples 

celebrated the Passover meal a day early, on Thursday evening. Divine Providence arranged events so that 

Jesus could both celebrate the Passover supper with His disciples on Thursday evening and also be the 

Passover Lamb sacrificed on the Cross on Friday. Only those who are lacking in faith will believe that any part 

of Sacred Scripture could ever be in error. 

The Jewish Hour 

    In ancient times, the Jews kept track of the hours of each calendar day by dividing the daylight hours into 12 

parts and the night hours into 12 parts. There were 24 hours in each calendar day, but the length of each hour 

depended on the total amount of time of darkness or light. In the winter, when the daytime is short and the 

nighttime is long, an hour during daytime would be shorter than what we today would call an hour (60 

minutes). In the summer, an hour during daytime would be longer than 60 minutes. 

    Passover occurs after the spring Equinox, in late March or in April. At that time of year, if the daylight 

hours are counted from sunup to sundown, the number of minutes of daylight is greater than 12 times 60. In 

other words, there are more than 60 of our minutes to a Jewish daytime hour. In early April, the increase 

makes each Jewish hour about 3 minutes longer than what we would call an hour. The length of each daylight 

hour increases as summer approaches, and decreases as winter approaches, so the length of an hour depends 

on the day of the year. 

    The observation of the sun was used in daylight hours to determine the time. The first hour of the daylight 

time began at sunrise. The sixth hour was when the sun reached its highest point in the sky, midway between 

sunrise and sunset. One might call the sixth hour  noon,  but, in modern time keeping, 12:00 noon does not 

usually mark the exact time when the sun is highest in the sky. (Rather, this depends on the time of year and 

on one's distance from the center of each time zone.) But, when keeping track of time by the sun, noon would 

refer to the time when the sun is at its highest point in the sky (the technical term for this is  apparent solar 

noon ). The twelfth hour of the day ends at sunset, in the ancient Jewish way of keeping track of time. 

Astronomers refer to the method of keeping track of time by observation of the sun's position in the sky as 

 apparent solar time,  sometimes called  solar time  or  sun time. 

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 The times of day given by Blessed Anne 

Catherine are according to sun time, since the modern time zone standard had not yet been invented during 

her lifetime.

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The Hour of the Scourging 

     Then he released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, delivered him to be crucified.  (Mt 27:26). 

     The dreadful scourging had been continued without intermission for three quarters of an hour . 

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Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich tells us, based on her visions from God, that the scourging of Jesus lasted 

about 45 minutes.  It was not more than nine o'clock a.m. when the scouring terminated. 

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 Her statement 

that the scourging ended about 9 a.m. agrees with Sacred Scripture (as explained below). So the scourging 

began roughly a quarter after 8 a.m. 

The Hour of the Crucifixion 

     So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released for  them Barabbas; and having scourged Jesus, he 

delivered him to be crucified.  (Mk 15:15). 

     And it was the third hour, when they crucified him.  (Mk 15:25). 

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