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Bible Dictionaries
Day
Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament
or DAY
1. Literal.—The length of the ‘day’ among the ancients was reckoned in various ways: thus, from morning to morning (Babylonians), from sunset to sunset (Athenians), from noon to noon (Umbrians), from midnight to midnight (Egyptians), and from dawn to dark by the common people, ordinarily (see Plin. HN ii. 79). The early Israelites seem to have regarded the morning as the beginning of the day (cf. Genesis 1:5; Genesis 1:8 ff.), but they likewise (due to the influence of the new moon) reckoned it from ‘even unto even’ (Leviticus 23:32). In Luke 22:34 also the new day began after sunset (cf. Luke 4:40). In the NT ἡμέρα was employed to express: (1) the period of light in opposition to night (Luke 6:13 ‘and when it was day,’—a frequent phrase in St. Luke’s writings, cf. Luke 4:42, Luke 22:66, Acts 12:18; Acts 16:35; Acts 23:12; Acts 27:29; Acts 27:33; Acts 27:39, also John 9:4, 2 Corinthians 11:25); (2) the natural day, including the periods both of light and darkness (Matthew 28:1 ἐπιφωσκούσῃ, cf. Luke 22:34); (3) an indefinite period of time (Luke 1:5; Luke 1:39 ἐν ταῖς ἠμέραις ταύταις, ‘in those days’; St. Luke is fond of this expression, it is not found in Jn., and occurs but four times in Mt. and the same number of times in Mk.; cf. Luke 2:1; Luke 4:2, Acts 2:18; Acts 3:24; Acts 7:41 etc., also Matthew 2:1; Matthew 3:1, Mark 1:9; Mark 8:1; Mark 13:17; Mark 13:24 in true Hebraistic style).
Except the Sabbath, the days of the week were numbered by the Israelites, not named. Nor had the Hebrews any precise subdivision of the day, for they had no word for ‘hour’; even the Aramaic שָׁעָה, which occurs in Daniel 4:16; Daniel 5:5, has no exact connotation. Like the Greeks, they seem to have learned from the Babylonians how to divide the day into 12 hours,—a division first met with in the NT: ‘Are there not twelve hours in the day?’ (John 11:9, cf. Acts 2:15, Matthew 20:3-6; Matthew 27:45-46 etc.). The length of the hour, however, was for a long time a variable quantity, depending, as it did, upon the season of the year, for it was always reckoned as the twelfth part of the light period. It therefore ranged from forty-nine to seventy-one minutes, according to the calendar. The more common divisions of the day among the Hebrews were morning, noonday, and evening (Psalms 55:17); but they frequently spoke of ‘sunrise’ and ‘dawn’ (Mark 16:2, John 20:1, Revelation 22:16), ‘the heat of the day’ (Matthew 20:12), ‘noon’ (Genesis 43:16, Deuteronomy 28:29), ‘the cool of the day’ (Genesis 3:8), and ‘between the two evenings,’ .e. towards evening (Exodus 12:6; Exodus 16:12, cf. Acts 3:1; Acts 10:3; Acts 10:30). The time of incense, and of cock-crowing (wh. see) was in the morning (Mark 14:30; Mark 14:72, Luke 1:10); the time of the ‘meal-offering’ was in the middle of the afternoon (1 Kings 18:29; 1 Kings 18:36); while ‘the time that women go out to draw water’ was towards evening (Genesis 24:11).
2. Figurative.—Figurative and metaphorical uses of the word ‘day’ are also frequent in the NT: e.g. the day of Christ’s appearance, i.e. of His apocalypse, or self-revelation (Luke 17:30 ‘in the day that the Son of Man is revealed,’ ἀποκαλύπτεται, a technical expression: cf. Luke 17:24, John 8:56; John 14:20; John 16:23; John 16:26, Romans 13:12, 1 Corinthians 1:7-8, 2 Thessalonians 1:7; 1 Peter 1:7; 1Pe_1:13; 1Pe_4:13); ‘the day of his Parousia’ (Matthew 7:22; Matthew 24:36, Mark 13:32; Mark 14:25, Luke 21:34, 2 Thessalonians 1:10, 2 Timothy 1:18, Hebrews 10:25); the days of His death and departure (Luke 5:35 ἐλεύσονται δὲ ἡμέραι, ‘But the days will come,’ i.e. days very different from the joyous days of wedding festivity); the Last, or Judgment day (John 6:39; John 11:24; John 12:48, Matthew 11:22, 1 John 4:17, 1 Thessalonians 5:2, 2 Timothy 3:1, James 5:3, and by contrast 1 Corinthians 4:3 ὑπὸ ἀνθρωπίνης ἡμέρας, which describes human judgment as opposed to Christ’s day of final account, ἡμέρα τοῦ κυρίου); His day of the offer of salvation (2 Corinthians 6:2, John 9:4; John 11:9); ‘the day of Christ’ (Philippians 1:10); ‘the day of the Lord’ (2 Thessalonians 2:2, Romans 2:10, 2 Corinthians 1:14, Revelation 6:17); ‘the day of God’ (2 Peter 3:12); ‘the Lord’s day,’ ἠ κυριακἠ ἡμέρα (Revelation 1:10); the day of the gift of the Spirit (John 14:20); the day of completed salvation (Romans 13:12); ‘the evil day,’ of trial and temptation (Ephesians 6:13); ‘as children of the day,’ i.e. as sons who abstain from doing evil (1 Thessalonians 5:5; 1 Thessalonians 5:8, Romans 13:13); a day of fuller knowledge (2 Peter 1:19); and, lastly, the somewhat enigmatical passage, ‘Give us this day (σήμερον) our daily (τὸν ἐπιούσιον) bread’ (Matthew 6:11, Luke 11:3); the latter expression (see art. Lord’s Prayer) is not found in classical Greek, and seems to have been specially coined by the Evangelists to convey in this single context the idea of ‘needful’ or ‘the coming day’s’; the Vulgate has supersubstantialem (cf. Amer. (Revised Version margin)). See, further, artt. Day of Christ, Day (That), Day of Judgment.
Literature.—Art. ‘Day,’ by H. A. White in Hasting's Dictionary of the Bible, by Karl Marti in Encyc. Bibl., and by F. W. Farrar in Smith’s DB [Note: Dictionary of the Bible.] 2 [Note: designates the particular edition of the work referred] ; also ‘Tag’ in Riehm’s HWB [Note: WB Handwörterbunch.] ; esp. Swete’s Com. on St. Mark, and Plummer’s Com. on St. Luke, ad loc.; and cf. the artt. Time, Night, Eschatology.
George L. Robinson.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Day'. Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdn/d/day.html. 1906-1918.
