Charles Ellicott Commentary John 19

The earlier Gospels all make the darkness last from twelve until three (the sixth hour until the ninth hour). This is apparently intended to indicate the time of the Crucifixion, and they thus agree generally with St. John’s account.

St. John distinguishes between the condemnation to be scourged (John 19:1) and that to be crucified. In St. Matthew and St. Mark the flagellation is regarded as the preliminary and part of the punishment. If it was the third hour at which this commenced—i.e., if the incident of John 19:1 of this chapter is to be assigned to nine o’clock—then the Crucifixion itself would naturally come about twelve o’clock.

Saint John is not careful to give the time more than roughly about the sixth hour. The hours of that day may well have been confused, for their sorrow would have made minutes seem like hours, and the sun, which on other days marked the hours, was on that day itself darkened. Saint Matthew is equally uncertain at what exact time there was the cry with a loud voice (Matthew 27:46), and Saint Luke does not give the exact time when the darkness commenced (Luke 23:44).

That the third, sixth, and ninth hours (Compare to Matthew 20:3, 5) seem to have been, in common life, rough divisions of the day, corresponding to the watches of the night. An event occurring at ten o’clock might have been spoken of roughly as about the third hour, while it might, on the other hand, be thought of as within the division called the sixth hour.

That St. John’s narrative is that of an eyewitness, relating what he himself saw and remembered. (Compare Chronological Harmony of the Gospels, p. 35.)