Bible Dictionaries

1910 New Catholic Dictionary

Scriptural Hours

In both Greek and Roman times the idea of an hour as the twenty-fourth part of a day, appears occasionally in scientific works but never in popular literature, or common life. In the time of Our Lord there were only three divisions of time which the people were used to note, the third, sixth, and ninth hours; the sixth being midday, was better marked than the others; the third was the modern 9 A.M., the sixth, noon; and the ninth, at about three. These three divisions were used vaguely by most people without any accurate estimate of the duration of an hour.