Now it was the Preparation Day of the Passover, at about the sixth hour. He said to the Jews, “Behold, your King!”
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 14. The Parasceve of the Pasch; that is, the day before the paschal sabbath. The eve of every sabbath was called the Parasceve, or day of preparation. But this was the eve of a high sabbath, that is that which fell in the paschal week. Challoner.—It was about the sixth hour when they crucified him. Saint Mark, in his gospel, says, it was at the third hour that Jesus was crucified. These two evangelists are easily reconciled, if we consider that according to the custom of the Jews, all that took place between the third hour and the sixth hour of their day, was said to have happened in the third hour: their days being divided into four parts of three hours each, in the same manner as the nights were into four watches, of three hours each. Saint Mark, therefore, might say very well, that the crucifixion of our Saviour took place in the third hour: though it might have been towards the conclusion of this general division of the day: whilst Saint John, with a reason equally as good, says that it happened about the sixth hour. John Nicolaus, in his marginal notes on Saint Thomas’ Aurea Catena.
“the sixth hour” would have been 6:00 a.m. according to the Roman timekeeping system, or noon for the Jewish timekeeping system in use, then.