What Time of Day Did It Happen?

 Like today descriptions of events or incidents during the Bible times included the time of day or evening -- although not always mentioning the actual hour.


The actual expression used varied depending on whether they were talking about something happening during the  daytime or night.  People in Israel  would often used such  expressions such as the "sixth hour but also described things as happening in the  "morning', at "noon", or  "midday", and in the "evening" if they were talking about something between sunrise and sunset.


They did not do this during the night however. Hebrews initially divided  the night into periods of four watches of about 4 hours each, and later using the Roman and Greek practice of dividing the night into four watches of 3 hours.


These "watches"  ran between sunset and sunrise. The first "watch" ran from sunset to 9:00 p.m., the second between 9:00 p.m. and midnight, the third ended three hours later at 3:00 a.m. with the "cockcrowing" and the fourth ran from that time to sunrise or "early in the morning." It was during this fourth watch that Jesus walked on the Sea of the Sea of Galilee.


The actual passing of time was kept track of by two devices. The first was the sun dial during  daylight hours when the sun  or the clepsydra or water clock during overcast days or during the night. These were clay vessels  with sloped sides and a small hole in the bottom that allowed measured drops of water to flow from one bowl to another one stacked underneath. Both of these could be marked with degrees of measusre according to the Jewish Encycyclopedia

What Was In Their Wallet?

The use of coins  in the Bible lands had become quite common by the Seventh Century B.C.E. Although many purchases during the times of Abraham were paid for either by bartering  or through the exchange of gold and jewelry, such as when Abraham purchased Sarah's burial plot,  by 700 B.C.E. coins made with furnaces, molds, and stamps, became increasingly common in everyday commerce.


 By Jesus time in Palestine four of these had become popular.The least valuable of  these was the lepton or mite. The widow likely dropped two of these into the contribution box in the temple mentioned in Mark 12:42. (A worker could earn 2 of these in about 15 minutes.)


A little more valuable was  the silver drachma  which would have taken about a full day to earn. Two of these had to be paid in the yearly temple tax mentioned in Matthew 17:24


 The silver denarius was still more valuable and among other things was used by business owners to pay their workers who earned one of these for every 12 hour shift. (During the Roman occupation Jews had to use part of these earnings to pay the tribute tax mentioned in Romans 13:7.)


Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus, was paid off using the third popular type of coin, the silver shekel. These pure silver coins  were made in the city of Tyre and circulated in Palestine during Jesus' time.


The use of such  coins to conduct commerce was not a Jewish idea however. The earliest use of coins in the Middle was in Lydia (modern day Turkey)  sometime before 700 B.C.E. and their use quickly spread throughout the Middle-East in various styles and values as well as the ones Jewish people commonly kept in their money pouches to  cover expenses during Jesus' day.

The scribes and Pharisees Were Quite a Superstitious Lot

The idea of priests wearing  clothing or items to make them stand out from the common person had early beginnings, in the far eastern as well middle Mediterranean areas of the world.


Jewish scribes and Pharisees, for instance,   wore small leather boxes on their foreheads and upper left arm. This was promoted by their literal interpretation of the Hebrew Scriptures or Old Testament.


These small small leather square or rectangular  black boxes, called, phylacteries,  contantained a scripture passage in response to the command from  God, who said,  "These words that I am commanding you today must prove to be on your heart...And you must tie them as a sign upon your hand" and "as a frontlet band between your eyes."


Scholars think that the scribes and Pharisees had succumbed to this practice  by the third or second century B.C.E. And not for good reasons. 


Many of them made these little boxes extra large to impress the common people by their supposed piety. And many also thought that these phylacteries or black boxes were amulets that could protect them --a common superstition of the people of other nations, such as the Greeks. The Greeks called such black boxes "phylakterion and were a "means of protection".

How Far Could You Walk on a Sabbath Day?

How far can you walk in a day?   How far could you have walked on a Sabbath day during the time of Jesus and his apostles?


The answer to the first question would be, "about 20 to 30 miles" walking at a rate of about 2 miles per hour for eight hours, but if you  were a Jew living in or around  Jerusalem during and shortly after the time of Jesus you wouldn't be able to cover anywhere near that much ground.


Under Mosaic Law on the seventh day of the week Israelites -- and even foreigners -- were not stop all strenuous work and other activity in order to rest and have time to focus on religious matters -- such as the reading and meditating on the Scriptures.  God instructed them: "Let nobody go out from his [or her]locality."


The rabbis, as they did with many other aspects of the Law, carried this to an extreme putting a 2,000 cubic limit on how far anybody could walk. They called this a "Sabbath Day's Journey".  The actual distance was somewhere between 0.8 and 1 kilometer.


After witnessing Jesus' ascension to the heavens after his resurrection, his apostles made such a trip from the Mount of Olives back to nearby  Jerusalem.

Why is There No Mention of The End of The Seventh Day?

 If those who claim  that the Creative  ays of the Bible were a literal 24 hours were correct  -- why is there no mention to the end of the Seventh  Creative Day?


The simple answer to this question is that it is still continuing and that the Creative Days were not just 24 hours in duration -- but thousands of years

Did the Garden of Eden Ever Exist?

Did the Garden of Eden actually exist or is it merely the stuff of myth and fable? At one time no one doubted its existence,   but skeptics from the time of Plato and Aristotle abound -- even emerging from the world's religions.

 Aristotle and Plato, no doubt witnessing all the suffering in the world claimed that the idea such a paradise as the Garden of Eden could have existed was ridiculous.  "The earth is too wretched a place they would argue".

Early attempts to counter this argument seem hilarious when you look back at them, but were taken quiet seriously by some at the time. These included the idea that God had actually created this paradise on an extra high mountain peak -- just above this degraded earth. Others claimed that it had been at the North Pole or the South Pole.

Skeptics of course were right. Such claims were the stuff of fantasy or science fiction, but that does not mean that the Garden of Eden never existed.

 Bible says it actually existed. The Bible at Genesis 2: 6-14 says it near a river,   which turned into four "heads" or rivers:  the Pishon - "encircling the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold....bdellium gum and the onyx stone"; the Gihon -- "the one encircling the entire land of Cush."; the Hiddekel; -- "the one going to the east of Assyria." and the Euphrates.

So have archaeologists or geologists, following these descriptions been able to find any trace of the Garden? No!  And most have dismissed the idea of a Garden of Eden as nonsense -- a belief  belief shared  even many religious leaders who view much of of the Bible as myth.

But, are they right? Jesus would say no. And he would have witnessed everything that happened at the time of creation from the heavens. He believed in the existence of Adam and Eve and their paradise home.He spoke of them as being real people. Not allegorical figures.  Was Jesus deceived or was he a liar? Neither of these notions is feasible.

So what could have happened to the Garden of Eden?  Quiet simply it could have been obliterated by nature over time. Remember we are speaking of something that existed over 6000 years ago and the Garden was in an earthquake belt that today accounts for 17 percent of the world's earthquakes.  over the centuries these could have changed this area drastically -- even by the time of Moses who wrote about Adam and Eve  2500 years later.

And there was something else that could have made drastic changes in the georgraphy of the Garden of Eden and surrounding areas over the centuries  -- the Flood of Noah's day. The power of water, as seen during the recent Japanese earthquake and tsunami, is devastating, capable of making huge changes in the surface of the earth -erasing the Garden from the surface of the earth.


This is something that God would have permitted. Remember, he had blocked all access to it with angels as described in the Bible. Don't believe it never existed just because we can't find it.


God likely never wanted it to be found after the rebellion of Adam and Eve.

Why Did Pontius Pilate Become Fearful?

Pontius Pilate was a cunning politician and often treacherous but not usually a fearful ruler.Why then did he become fearful when hearing the charge that Jesus had made himself God's Son?  For two good reasons.


Although they tolerated their Roman rulers within  Israel there was always some group, such as in the infamous Dagger Men, who often assassinated  Roman officials in broad daylight, seeking the opportune moment to instigate rebellion against Rome.


 Exactly how much this threat affected Pilate when passing sentence on Jesus is not clear  but it is no secret that  Roman rulers  had tried to appease the Jewish people by leaving much of the day to day government, including religious matter up to the Jews themselves and did not want to become entangled in religious problems unless it was something that threatened Rome.


So Pilate likely was concerned about alienating the Jewish religious leaders as well as most of the general Jewish population who had so much hatred for Jesus.


On top of this there was the Roman emperor himself.  By the time of Pilate and Jesus Roman emperors had become regarded as gods, successors to Julius Caesar who had been posthumously declared a god.  So all  of his successors were declared  divi filius  or "Son of a Divine One."


Thus when the Jewish High Priest alleged  Jesus was trying to establish him as a God and King in opposition to Caesar and that Pilate would be an accomplice to him if he did not execute Jesus Pilate caved in to their demands out of fear.  


And he was afraid of more than just getting the Jewish people mad.  The Roman emperor at this time was Tiberius Caesar, a man who demanded complete loyalty. He executed anybody he considered an enemy -- without hesitation.


So when the Jews started claiming the Pilate would be disloyal to Caesar if he did not order the execution of Jesus he fearfully ordered Jesus" scourging and execution on a stake.


He ordered Jesus execution although he knew that Jesus was innocent of the Jewish charges as described in John 19: 8, 12-16.

Travel Around the Time of Christ

Travel during the time of Jesus Christ and his Apostles  could an arduous -- often dangerous adventure by land or sea. You had to be tough and determined to reach your destination.


Travel by Land


The Romans by this time had built a system of roads major centers in the empire. These were up to 15 feet wide, paved with stone and even had curbs.  Addition to this many of these Romans roadways had a series of inns constructed every so many miles. Although many of these were often dirty and centers for things like prostitution they did provide a place to rest for the careful traveler.


In Palestine, however travelers faced far more dangers from the weather, wild animals, and robbers while traveling along these dirt trails cut through fields and ravines -- which provided ideal hiding places for robbers wanting to ambush travelers.


As night fell  travelers, loaded down with personal belongings such as a staff for protection, extra shoes and clothing, a money bag, a collapsible leather bucket for drawing water from streams, a water flask and other items either made quick encampments beside the roads or stayed in caravansaries -- stone enclosures with rooms build around a court yard built every so many miles beside the roadways.


These places were often dirty but did provide some protection from the weather and thieves.


These roadways were used by a wide variety of  travelers -- from people on foot, loaded down with their personal belongs when making longer journeys to merchants transporting their goods on donkeys, in wagons pulled by oxen for heavier loads, and even on the backs of camels and couriers racing by with mail or royal decrees.


Lucky travelers  could stay with family or friends along the route.


Travel By Sea


Travel by sea could also be a very hazardous undertaking. The Apostle Paul, says at 2 Corinthians 11: 25-27 that, "Three times I experienced shipwreck, a night and a day I spent in the deep."


Following the lead of the early sailors from Tyre and Israel, who were the early pioneers in Mediterranean coastal and deep ocean voyages, sailors from Israel and other countries such as Rome and Greece had become very skilled coastal and deep water sailors.


But still their wooden vessels, whether the small coastal ships or larger Roman galleys  were no match  for the sometimes violent Mediterranean, shipwrecks, such as the ones Paul mentioned, were fairly common and few long voyages were attempted between the middle of September and May.


And even when the weather was good these were not cruise ships for travelers. Most of them were used for ferrying troops  as well as cargo up and down the Mediterranean.


There were few comforts on these vessels for the travelers such as Paul and others.With below decks crammed with cargo travelers had to sleep on the open decks in all kinds of weather, dependent on the food and other items they brought with them to make the trip as bearable as possible. The ship's captain or master provided passengers only with water.


Such was travel through the Mediterranean area during the time of Christ and the Apostles -- with none of the comforts  travelers or tourists enjoy today.  Still the early Christians made good use of  these road and maritime routes to spread their message and traders and merchants used them to establish profitable  trade routes from one end of the Mediterranean to the other.

The Houses of Ur

Abraham and Sarai  gave  a great deal of comfort when they responded to God's command to leave their homes in Ur and spend the rest of their lives as nomads living in tents.


When Leonard Woolley excavated the site of ancient Ur  between 1922 and 1934 he found at least 73 two-story homes that had  built of brick -- not clay or other less durable materials.


These homes he found which featured up to a dozen rooms or more and featured whitewashed walls, a drainage system and others features  were the homes of the middle- class such as "shopkeepers , petty mer chants, scribes, and so on, "


Many of these homes were constructed with the rooms opening onto a paved central courtyard. This courtyard sloped gradually towards a central drain for carrying away waste and rain water -- a style also used by the Romans


In addition to these features,   many of the larger homes featured  en-suite lavatories in the guests rooms  on the ground level of the house.


Other rooms on the ground or main level contained  slaves quarters  and kitchens with fireplaces for cooking and heating.


The family slept in the upper rooms which were at the top of a staircase.  These family bedrooms were  entered through  a wooden balcony which were built around the upper walls of the courtyard below.  A very attractive and practical design very similar to the way  some townhouses and even office building are laid out today.

Search for Water in Bible Times

Man's search for drinkable water has always been a concern for people around the world and people in ancient Israel were no exception. They built a variety of sources from water channels through rock y ground  to water stations around springs and the traditional well according to author Andre Chouraqui.


Home builders designed their homes with enough of a slope to direct the rain towards underground cisterns cut into the ground where it was stored during the rainy season from October to April so they didn't go thirsty during the arid summer months.


On a national scale  Israelite engineers cut channels into the rocky hillsides to capture the water thunderingdown  the torrent valleys into large cisterns cut into rock near larger cities and towns such as the one that King Hezekiah built near Jerusalem to keep it supplied with  cool, refreshing  water.  This one consisted of the underground pool as well as a conduit or channel to carry the water into the city.


Smaller cities  villages such En-shemesh were built  in locations  were water that had sunk into the ground in the highlands emerged lower down the slopes as bubbling springs. Such springs are mentioned  in numerous parts of  the Hebrew Scriptures or Old Testament.


In still other parts of the country they  built the traditional wells in order to tape into the underground water supply that was kept replenished by  these underground rivers running from the highlands to the valleys.


According to Chouraqui the early Israelite engineers were quite remarkable in their design and construction of systems, especially the cisterns with their supply channels cut into the rock,  to capture, store and transport water to the people.

God's Name in Early German Bible

Back in 1537 a Catholic theologian, Johann Eck,  identified the God we all refer to as Lord or Adonai as Jehoua in his German translation of the Bible.

This might come as a surprise to many of because most of the time God is referred to simply as Lord or sometimes Adonai. But long before the time of Eck  the early writers of the Hebrew Scriptures or the Old Testament  used the Hebrew equivalent of Jehovah in placed like Deuteronomy 6:4.

Morever 2800 years ago Jesus Christ made God's name -- Jehovah -- known and it was recorded  in the early Christian Greek Scriptures or the New Testament so  Eck had good reason to include God's personal name in his German translation of the Bible.

Everybody has a name and God is no exception. Johann Eck certainly got it right, although many translation since his time have not.

Don't Assume The Day Always Begins at Midnight

Most of us, in the Western world at least, assume the calendar day starts and ends at midnight, but this has not always been so -- and with some people it still is not today.


There was no set way of counting days following the Noachian Flood and the spread of civilizations throughout the Middle-East. Some began and ended their days in the evenings. Some started each new day at sunrise. Some began a new day at midnight.


Like us  the ancient Egyptians and Romans had a day that ran  from midnight to midnight. But the Babylonians started their days at sunrise. But others like the Jews. Numidians and Phoenicians set a 24 hour day which ran from one evening to the next -- from one sunset to the next.


This was a pattern established by Jehovah God in his six creative days were one day started in the evening and ended the following morning ( Genesis 1: 5, 8, 13, 19, 23, 31) and in his commands to observe the seventh day as a Sabbath at Leviticus 23: 28, 32 were he said: "from one evening to the next you should observe your sabbath."


This is a custom still practiced by modern day Jews.

The Ships of Tarshish

The Phoenicians were among the first builders of ocean going vessels in the Mediterranean Sea. These were ships that helped make King Solomon very rich -- and the Phoenicians, at least for a time, not only very rich but also the masters of the Mediterranean from Tyre along its eastern shores as far West as Spain.


Their seamanship grew gradually. First they built and sailed smaller vessels made from Juniper wood and propelled by the wind and linen sails and sailors manning oak oars up down the eastern end of the Mediterranean trading with their neighbours to the North and South of them such as Israel and King Solomon of Israel thousands of years before the time of Christ.


As their ship technology and building skills grew over the years they eventually built vessels over a hundred feet long and their sailors ventured farther West along the northern shores of Africa creating trading alliances and settlements as they went.


Eventually they reached what today is known as the Straits of Gibraltar at the western entrance to the Mediterranean and crossed over to Spain where they established a lucrative trading business with the inhabitants of Tarshish who had an abundance of minerals such as gold, silver, and other minerals to trade.


Because of their ability to withstand the often violent weather they encountered on these 4,000 mile voyages these ships soon became renowned as "The Ships of Tarshish" and other nations, such as Israel, seeking to building their own navies  on the  Mediterranean and Red Seas  copied both the design and name  of these early ocean going vessels

Forgotten Bible Translation Was Unique, Contentious

How would you like to own a Bible that was comfortable to hold while you looked up easy to find information and with a typeface that was easy to read, unlike copies of the Bible produced with a Gothic typeface trying to imitate handwriting?. If you lived back in 1560 you could have had all of this and more. This translation of the Bible,  translated by William Whitting, was the first in English with numbered verses and running heads across the top of the pages -- much like many modern Bible translations do today

It was very popular not only with the general public but also literary giants such as Shakespeare and Marlowe who took their Biblical quotations from it no doubt not only because it had such features   but also because its editors strove for textual accuracy and clarity. Examples of this include:

• The English words retained the sense of flavor of the original Hebrew.
• God's name, Jehovah, was rendered in a number of places like Exodus 6:3 and Psalm 83:18.
• Explanatory editions were written in Italics.
• Words added for grammatical clarity in English were enclosed by square brackets.
• Marginal notes explaining difficult passages
• Illustrations, maps, and prefaces
• Genealogical tables
• Text summaries

However, it was not a Bible translation liked by many religious leaders because of what they considered radical marginal notes and kings like King James I hated it because some of these notes also challenged the "divine right of kings."

It was eventually replaced by the King James or Authorized version at the instigation of this James I who wanted to promote a Bible version that did not challenge his (and other monarch's) claims to such divine authority , but not before the Geneva Bible had done much to encourage Bible reading.