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Bible Dictionaries
Morning
Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament
or MORNING.—Matthew 16:3; Matthew 20:1; Matthew 27:1, Mark 11:20; Mark 13:35; Mark 16:2; cf. Matthew 28:1, Luke 24:1, John 20:1. There was no exact division of the day into parts among the Jews until after the Exile. The broad divisions current were ‘evening,’ ‘morning,’ and ‘mid-day,’ which followed this order usually, after the Jewish method of reckoning the day prevailed ‘with the triumph of the Law.’ The Roman division of the night into four ‘watches,’ extending from six o’clock to six o’clock, is brought into striking view in Mark 13:35, where ὀψέ (in the evening), μεσονύκτιον, (at midnight), and ἀλεκτοροφωνίας (at cock-crowing), are given in connexion and contrast with πρωῑ̔ (in the morning). The passages in the Gospels in which πρωῑ̔ (morning) plays the most interesting and puzzling part are those connected with the visit of the women to the sepulchre after the resurrection of Jesus (Matthew 28:1, Mark 16:2, Luke 24:1, and John 20:1). Here Mt. has ‘late on the sabbath’ (Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885 ), while Mk. says ‘very early on the first day of the week,’ and Jn. while it was yet dark.’ No explanation will prove satisfactory to all. But Mt.’s ‘late on the sabbath’ may be taken as reckoning the following night as a part of the Sabbath—a departure from Jewish usage (Meyer). In short, we may suppose that the Babylonian method of adding diurnally the night to the day, rather than the day to the night (Israelitish), had come at this time, more or less, into common use among the Jews, so that there were two ways of reckoning complete astronomical days; namely, first, by ‘night-days,’ and, secondly, by ‘day-nights.’ Then we need only to suppose Mt. to be thinking of the ‘day-night,’ and the difficulty vanishes; for ‘late’ in that ‘day-night’ would mean about the end of the night which followed the end of the Sabbath. This would accord perfectly with Mk.’s note of time, ‘very early on the first day of the week.’ Another solution of the difficulty is suggested by J. H. Moulton (Prolegomena, p. 72), that, according to the usage represented in the papyri, Mt.’s words rendered in Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885 ‘late on the sabbath,’ should be rendered ‘late from the sabbath,’ which is equivalent to saying ‘after the sabbath.’ This, too, would bring the words into harmony with those of Mark and John.
Geo. B. Eager.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Morning'. Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdn/m/morning.html. 1906-1918.
