A COMPLETE STUDY
ON THE NT USE OF THE WORD "EVENING" by Keith Hunt Studies are usually started because something, small or large, is triggered in the mind by another article read, a statement said by someone, or written by someone, perhaps by a question asked, maybe by a person finding what seems to them as a contradiction in the Bible, or by some technical information found on a certain point. There are many reasons as to why an individual will start an in-depth study on a specific word or thought or doctrine in the Bible. This particular study was precipitated by an article I was reading, actually a couple of articles at the same time, but ceratin things from the one blended into a point found in the other. I had never thought about the matter of the word "evening" very much, well not as used in the NT, I had studied it in some detail as used in the OT. One thing I have leant over the years is that the truth of God's word is deep and never ending, and I have leant also that the Eternal never gives all the truth to anyone all at the same time. Truth is ever being revealed to those who WANT and LOVE it, to those who will be corrected from their errors. Jesus promised His true disciples that when the Spirit came it would lead them into all truth, but there are certain basic requirements laid down in the word of the Lord to be a true disciple of Christ. One very important point or really a few points is that found in Isaiah 66:2, " .......but to THIS man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a CONTRITE spirit, and TREMBLES at My WORD." The attitude of true repentance and a humble respectful fear of the word of the Lord is essential in any person for them to receive more truth. This mind-set that is pleasing to God and one He can look to and work with, must be able to put aside all pre-conceived ideas, all theology teaching that may have been acquired from other human persons. It requires the mind to be clean from anything that would hinder the Spirit to guide into all truth. This can be difficult for many people to do, for human nature can be very strong at times, just not willing to let go, clean itself out, and simply tremble before the word of the Lord. It is often harder to change the mind and learn new things about what the mind considers an old subject, than not knowing anything about the subject in the first place. It is not easy for human nature to be corrected, to be shown its errors, its misunderstanding, its false ideas that were built upon a lack of in-depth research or careless reading into verses things just not there. Many millions of Christians believe many false doctrines because of the previous points. We who observe the Sabbath, know that man does not have an immortal soul, that death is a sleep until the resurrection, we who know such truths can understand to a point, why so many are in the dark over what seems to us as plain truth. We will say, well they haven't really studied those subject in depth, or they misapply certain verses, or they read into verses things that are not there. What we need to remember is that it could be possible we also are in some parts of our theology, as they are, and growing in grace and knowledge of Christ Jesus, as we are told to do, cannot function if our minds are not trembling before the word, and also loving the truth above all things, wanting it, craving for it, thirsting for it like a man in the desert without water. We need to always keep in mind 2 Thes.2, verses 7 through 12. And the potent verse of Hebrews 4:12, "For the word of God is quick and powerful, sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow......" Then we have what Paul told Timothy in 2 Tim.3:16, "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness." So we have set the correct road to travel on, the mind is ready, but there are a few other good things we need to understand and to put into practice as we undertake any study in the word on any topic, or as in this particular article, as we study how the NT uses the word "evening." One very important rule is to collect together all the verses that use the word "evening" in this study, or all the verses on whatever Bible topic you are going to make an in-depth study on. The Bible Concordance by STRONG can help along this line, yet BETTER STILL (for our study in the NT) is the ENGLISHMAN'S GREEK CONCORDANCE, which will give you every place the word "evening" is found, in an easier way that using Strong's Concordance. We then need to look up each passage, read the verse, and the context before and after to see if there is any more help given to us in understanding how the word is used. Greek lexicons and the like, can be helpful, but only to a point. Often the true use and meaning as used by the writers of the NT can only be ascertained by seeing every place within its context where the word is used in the NT. By this method you get a "feeling" for the word, its possible main meaning and its possible slight variations. You will also notice it may not mean exactly the same in all verses within a certain context. Yes, at times the same word was used in different contexts with slightly different purposes in mind. This study will show a little of that as we see how the word "evening" was used in the NT. Another very important Bible study basic rule to use is that after getting all the verses together on the subject, you then look for the easy to understand verses that may establish the first and main (and maybe only) meaning of the word. The verses that really do have some teaching to them on the use of the word, if of course there are such verses within our whole collection of verses where the word is found. The TWO above rules we shall use as we now proceed to put aside all Bible Dictionaries, all Bible Lexicons, all the words of men as to what they might think or say on our word "evening." We shall just look at all the places where this word "evening" is used in the NT, just the Bible itself, and let the word of the Lord show us the way the writers of the NT used this word. We shall try not to add or to take away from the word. ALL THE PLACES WHERE 'EVENING' IS USED IN THE NT From the volume I have of the Englishman's Greek Concordance, page 581, we have two verses that use the Greek OPSE and are rendered as "even" and "at even" in the KJV. They are: Mark 11:19 and 13:35. For the Greek word OPSIA we have 15 places where it is used in the NT. This is the word we want to focus on and here are those fifteen places: Mat.8:16; 14:15,23; 16:2; 20:8; 26:20; 27:57; Mark 1:32; 4:35; 6:47; 11:11; 14:17; 15:42; John 6:16; 20:19. Ah, now you may want to stop here and study all these verses for yourself before you continue in my study. Remember to read the context. See if you can find the KEY verses that really do teach us about how this word is used. Another key to correct Bible understanding is that we should let the Bible INTERPRET ITSELF! The plain simple verses come first, then the other verses are understood in the light that the plain verses given us. In our case, if the word "evening" cannot be found with words that modify it to mean late morning, or middle afternoon or with words such as "at evening, being the 10th hour" (about 4 p.m.), and the plain verses show a basic time frame that does not include an evening in the morning, or middle afternoon, or even the 11th hour as the Jews would often put it by the way they divided the day(which would be around our 5 p.m.), then we should be able to conclude the use of "evening" as explained by the clear verses is the acceptable use whenever the writers of the NT used the word. Let me remind you, we are looking at this word "evening" as used by the NT, not as understood by some Greek scholar, or the Jews of yesterday or today, or some Bible Dictionary that was written by human hands. God uses the Greek word OINOS, translated wine in the KJV, in every place where we find the word "wine." Now it is quite simple to look up all those verses where the word "wine" appear, read the contexts, find the simple clear verses that put together show OINOS is fermented juice of the grape, and then quite logically see that when Jesus turned water into wine, He turned water into fermented alcoholic wine, not unfermented Welch's grape juice. I know Dr. Samuele Bacchiocchi can not see it, but that does not mean you cannot. The Bible is pretty simple to understand most of the time, if we let it interpret itself. So let us now start to find the simple verses concerning this word "evening" - the verses that shed clear light as to its time of day meaning. "EVENING" - UNDERSTANDABLE VERSES The first verse is right out of the mouth of Jesus Himself, really pretty clear, well in the light of the fact that there is no verse in the NT that tells us "evening" began at the stoke of the 12th hour, or some human dial on a human made clock, it is I think pretty clear. MATTHEW 16:2, " He answered and said unto them, When it is EVENING, you say, It will be fair weather: for the SKY IS RED. " If you like me have lived on the Western Prairies, you will have no trouble getting the picture on this simple meaning to the word "evening." In this CONTEXT "evening" is when the sun goes down over the horizon. Please, let's not argue over a thing like: "Well I've seen the sky red and the sun was up just a little bit." Most of the time, the sun has just disappeared over the horizon when the sky can become, in that area of the horizon, aglow with a brilliant red color. This is what Jesus was referring to, what the farmers are referring to when they use that expression and prediction for the coming weather. So, one very clear, easy to understand verse that tells us in the NT "evening" is when the sun sets over the horizon. Ah, I think a child can understand that, maybe the wise and prudent can not, but a child can. Here's another simple verse, just for the children among us: " And at even, WHEN THE SUN DID SET, they brought unto Him....." (Mark 1:32). Here we find the NT writer QUALIFYING for us, with additional words, the time of day he wanted us to clearly understand that "evening" was, or had come. Evening was when the sun did set, when the sun went over the horizon, when the sky could often be aflame with a red color. It would have been the cool of the day, when they brought to Jesus perhaps dozens upon dozens of sick to be healed, and it is written he healed many of them. You will find that before the evening had come it was the Sabbath day, and yes, Jesus had healed two that day, two we are told about, but obviously his BIG HEALING drive did not begin until it was evening, when the sun did set, and the whole town came out to Him. So far we have found two very plain verses connected with the word "evening." Here is yet another one, but this time we have to dig a little more and use the context, but it is there, it is there. Matthew 20. Let's start in verse.....well, first a little understanding of how the Jews divided the daylight part of a day will be helpful. Remember Jesus once said, "Are there not twelve hours in a day....." (John 11:9). The Jews divided the daylight portion of a 24 hour day into 12 equal parts, what we would call an hour, so there were 12 hours from morning to evening or dawn to sunset/dusk. and of course 12 hours from dusk to dawn. Generally those hours were thought of as from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.(day) and 6 p.m. to 6 a.m.(night). The Jews divided the night into "watches." 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. was the first watch, 9 p.m. to midnight was the second watch, midnight to 3 a.m. was the third watch, and 3 a.m. to 6 a.m. was the fourth watch. Back to Matthew 20. A vineyard owner goes out early in the morning, we are not told exactly how early, but we could guess at around 6 or 7 o'clock in the morning. He hires persons to work in the vineyard. Verse 3 tells us he goes out at the 3rd hour, around 9 a.m. to hire more laborers. Verse 5, he goes out to hire more laborers at the 6th hour - around 12 noon. Remember an hour is an hour, not a second or a minute, so it was "around noon" that he went out again. Then about the 11th hour he goes out once more to hire laborers to work in the vineyard(verse 6). I want to jump a few verses here to show you that it is clearly told us that those who were hired at the 11th hour, did work for ONE HOUR! Those who complained that they had worked all day and the late comers only worked for ONE hour (for the same reward) did state very plainly that the 11th hour workers DID WORK for ONE hour (verses 9-12). So, it is quite simple, a child can do it, if you start to work around the 11th hour and work for one hour, you finish working around the 12th hour! Simple arithmetic, no college degree needed. The CONTEXT also clearly shows us that NONE of the laborers GOT PAID until AFTER the 11th hour workers had worked for one hour, taking us to at least the 12th hour. And that was the END of the DAYLIGHT portion of the 24 hour day. And so with that bit of plain truth, we have what is written in verse eight!! " So when EVEN was come....." the owner of the vineyard calls the hired laborers together to give them their wages for their work of the day. EVENING is clearly not noon, it is clearly not 2 p.m. nor is it the 9th hour(3 p.m.), and it is also not the 11th hour either! Evening is AFTER the 12th hour, at the END of the daylight portion of the 24 hour day. They had worked during the daylight hours of the day, the 12th hour came at the end of the daylight, when the sun set over the horizon, when it would have been difficult to see to work. Evening THEN CAME, and the owner was ready to pay them their wages. The Bible interprets the Bible, here evening was AFTER the 12th hour, for those called to work in the vineyard at the 11th hour worked for one hour only, and then when evening had come worked stopped and they were all going to be paid their wages. WE HAVE SEEN THREE EXAMPLES THAT CLEARLY,
AS PLAIN AS THE NOSE ON YOUR FACE, INTERPRET FOR US (we do not need Vine's Dictionary, Thayer's Greek Lexicon, or any Lexicon. We do not need " Word Meaning in the NT " by Ralph Earle or any other
fellow, we do not even need Strong's Concordance) WHAT THE WORD
"EVENING" MEANS AS USED BY THE WRITERS OF THE NT.
You think it is all just too simple? Not at all my friends!
God has made sure that His word can be understood by those
with a child like mind, who will get all the scriptures together
on any subject and who will let the Bible interpret the Bible. It
is the so-called "educated" - the wise and the prudent, who often
have the most trouble reading and understanding the Bible.
A QUESTION WE NEED TO ASK
The Lord has given us THREE witnesses, clear and plain
witnesses, as to the interpretation and meaning of the word
"evening" as used in the NT. But we have other verses where that
word is used. Our question must be then: Is there another verse
that interprets "evening" to mean something, some time, OTHER
than at SUN-SET and after? Is there a verse that says something
like, "At evening, at the 10th hour......" or "At evening, when
the sun was still high....." Is there ANY verse that would put a
qualifying phrase with the word "evening" to show us that the NT
writers also thought of evening as SOMETIME BEFORE dusk, or when
the sun set over the horizon?
Well go to it, look at all the other verses in the NT where
the word "even" or "evening" is used. Search the scriptures,
look them up!!
You will find NOT ONE VERSE used by the NT writers where
they believed, taught, understood, interpreted, that "evening"
was ANYTHING OTHER than starting from at LEAST sun-set, dusk, the
time when the sun went down behind the horizon, and it was what
we often call twilight time, or dusk.
Letting the Bible interpret itself, we have NO CHOICE
(unless of course we are one of the wise and prudent, or just
want to hold to some pet doctrine come hell or high water) but to
see that the NT tells us that "evening" is not one bit earlier
than dusk or twilight, when the sun sets behind the horizon.
There is not one verse in the NT that tells us: "You must
interpret "evening" by the Greek scholars to come" or "You must
interpret the NT use of "evening" by the Jewish Encyclopedias"
(The Jews reject the NT so how would they know how the NT uses
the word "evening" in any case).
The word "evening" and how it is used by the NT writers is
interpreted for us by the very NT where the word is found.
A LATER EVENING
We have seen that "evening" comes at sun-set, when the sun
drops down behind the horizon and the sky can often turn a
brilliant red color, when the 12th hour of the day has come and
work is stopped. So evening cannot in the NT (and this study is
dealing with the NT) be before about 6 p.m. (using the 12 hours
to a day, and basing it on the Jewish day clock) but it can be
later of course as sun-set can be after 6 p.m. So the context
tells us a possible close time frame. In the case of the vineyard
owner the context tells us that they were going on the Jewish
time clock of the daylight portion of a day, so we can know it
was evening in this case at around or shortly after 6 p.m. -
shortly after the 12th hour, when the 11th hour workers had
worked for an hour, and then all were paid their wages in the
"evening." Unless there is a qualifying context such as in the
vineyard parable, "evening" must be understood as interpreted by
the other two scriptures we have seen, as being no sooner than
sun-set. It would take a qualifying phrase, or words within the
context (as in the vineyard parable) to make "evening" anything
other than sun-set, dusk. Even the qualifying words found in the
vineyard parable, make it clear that evening did not come before
the 12th hour - before about 6 p.m. in that day the parable was
using. Of course if the sun sets at 5:15 because of the time of
the year, and we have no qualifying words in the context (as in
the vineyard parable) then evening in that context is sun-set, no
matter what time the hands on a man made clock show.
But now in one passage we are going to find that the writers
of the NT thought it quite proper to think of "evening" as L O
N G E R than just twilight or dusk. Twilight or dusk was
evening to them, yes, for sure, but sometime AFTER dusk could
ALSO be counted as "evening."
Let's turn to the gospel of Matthew and chapter 14.
Many people from various cities had followed Jesus, there
was one particular multitude that He had compassion on and He
healed their sick (verses 13,14). Then verse 15 says, "And when
it was evening......" The Greek for "And when it was" is one
word, and that word is in the Aorist tense. Now, the Aorist tense
is the expression of a momentary or transient single action in
past time. An example would be "he closed the door" (a single
action done in the past) as opposed to "he is closing the door"
(a single action in the present).
From what we have seen in our study so far, we would have to
understand this as no sooner than dusk, sun-set. The action of
the sun going down over the horizon was a single action of that
time, and finished, the evening or dusk had come. At that time
the disciples came to Jesus and notice what they said, which also
bears out that this evening was not early or late afternoon, but
evening or sun-set, they said, "...and the time is NOW PAST, send
the multitude away, that they may go into the villages, and buy
themselves victuals."
Jesus had spent all day or all afternoon with them, healing
their sick, the day had moved on, the evening had now come, the
sun had set, it was dusk, and you can then imagine the disciples
concern. What would they all eat if Jesus did not send them away?
It would have only been very logical at that time of the day,
when the evening had come, to think about having these people go
away to eat their evening meal, especially as we are told there
were children present. So the logic in the context also shows
evening was indeed evening, not middle or late afternoon, but
evening.
Christ did not send them away, but had them sit down and He
performed another miracle with the five loaves and two fish - He
fed them all with it, and still had twelve full baskets
remaining. There were five thousand men and also women and
children, maybe 8 to 10 thousand altogether. Please think now.
From sitting down, to having twelve disciples walk around or
have pass around baskets of food to perhaps 8 thousand persons or
more, to the time of eating the food, to the time of collecting
all the food that remained, HOW LONG DO YOU THINK IT WOULD TAKE?
One hour, maybe two hours? Well if we would say one hour and a
half, I think we would not be far out. Even if you want to go
with one hour, that's fine.
After all this was done and finished, Jesus constrained His
disciples to get into a ship and go ahead of Him to the other
side (verse 22). He would send the multitudes away. Notice verse
23. After the multitudes left Jesus went up into a mountain by
himself to pray. Then Matthew wrote, "....and when the EVENING
WAS COME He was there alone." The Greek tense for "was come" is
the same as in verse 15, it is the Aorist tense. Single action
in past time. But did not Matthew already tell us that BEFORE
the five thousand plus people had been fed, that it was evening
ALREADY, that evening had come already? Yes, he told us that in
verse 15. But now he tells us that an evening had come that was
AFTER the feeding of the five thousand and after they had all
been sent away, and when Jesus went up into a mountain to pray by
Himself. In other words to Matthew the evening was L O N G
E R than just the period that dusk, or twilight covers. To
Matthew evening could be on into the dark of night, for even if
you want to take only one hour for the five thousand to be fed,
by the time they all left and Jesus went into the mountain by
Himself to pray, it would have been DARK!! Just no way around
it, by the time Christ was in the mountain it was dark but still
it was evening, as Matthew put it.
So "evening" can be, within a certain context, used in the
NT as a time period that covers the beginning of dusk, sun-set,
and on into the dark, sometime after dusk.
And why should we be shocked at that thought? For we often
do the same thing to this very day. Say it is the time of the
year when the sun sets at 7 p.m. I may say to a friend(who has a
dog like I do), "I will meet you in the park to walk our dogs
this evening at sun-set." Later on, say about 9 p.m. when it is
dark, I may meet someone else in the park and say to them, "It's
it a lovely evening."
Now, if I was still walking the park at say 11 p.m. I would
probably say to the person above, "Isn't it a lovely night."
There is a time (not fixed by a man made hour and minute on
a clock) when we move from saying "evening" to saying "night."
It's just something we do automatically. We just have a
"feeling" for evening extending from sun-set into darkness for a
while, before it becomes night. Matthew was simply exhibiting
this common feeling for "evening." To him the events that
started at the first evening, dusk, and continued into the
mountain where Jesus went alone to pray, was still evening,
perhaps a few hours in total length of time.
ANOTHER SURPRISE - EVENING BELONGING
TO THE PRECEDING DAY
Let's read Mark 4:35, " And the SAME DAY, when the EVEN WAS
COME, He said......"
"What!!" Many Sabbath observers will now be saying, "but
evening belongs to the next day, the day just starting or coming
when evening comes, at sun-set." And they will be off to search
the Greek, or try to figure around what is said here. They will
do hand stand, jumps, cart-wheels, and many other things to the
word to make this verse NOT SAY what it SAYS!
But this verse does say what it says, that evening had come
and it was still the same day as before!
Notice John 20:19, "The SAME DAY, at EVENING, being the
FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK......."
This is when Jesus came through the walls of the room where
the disciples were gathered together for fear of the Jews, and
showed Himself to them. And it was done at EVENING on the first
day of the week. This was not Saturday night, they had not yet
gone to the tomb, and did not know Jesus was already resurrected
on Saturday night. This was Sunday EVENING!
And there is no reason to jump to the idea that John was
using Roman time, when in others parts of his gospel he clearly
used Hebrew time.
We have seen from our study that letting the NT and only the
NT, interpret the use and meaning of "evening" we have no choice
but to realize that when Jesus came to them it was at DUSK,
SUN-SET, Sunday evening, and John says that time frame still
belonged to the FIRST day of the week, not the second day.
Twice we find in the NT that an "evening" can BELONG TO THE
SAME PRECEDING DAY!!
Again, for you Sabbath keepers who are now doing Olympic
hand flips on the mat of the word of God, to try to say this
cannot be correct, just STOP for a moment, and think back to the
OT, and if you are Sabbath keepers that also observe the
Festivals of Lev.23, then THINK about that chapter for a second,
calm down, and try to remember a certain verse. yes, that verse
is Lev.23: 32.
Ah, ah, indeed so, even(a pun intended) the OT uses at
times, that "evening" BELONGS to the day PRECEDING it! In God
giving instructions as to WHEN to observe the Day of Atonement,
He had Moses write it: ".....a sabbath of rest.....in the NINTH
day of the month AT EVEN, FROM EVEN TO EVEN, SHALL YOU CELEBRATE
YOUR SABBATH."
They had already been told this Sabbath day of Atonement was
the 10th day of the seventh month (verse 27). Yet in verse 32,
they are to begin to observe it from EVEN(evening) of not the
10th day, but the NINTH day. The evening or dusk coming AFTER
the daylight portion of the ninth day was here still referred to
as BELONGING to the NINTH day.
The Bible starts out with the EVENING coming first and being
a part of the first day of the creation week (Gen.1). Generally
speaking and in the MAIN, this is the way to understand it,
evening belongs to the day it starts, BUT.....never forget it, or
you can end up doing big cart-wheels with the word of God, all to
NO AVAIL, the word of the Lord does at times put "evening" as
BELONGING TO THE PRECEDING DAY. It is so, and you should get used
to the idea, for if you do not you will not see the real truth of
the matter about the last day of Christ's physical life on this
earth.
The KEYS in the use of this word "evening" in the NT we have
now seen. They are important keys to remember as we use those
keys to correctly understand the rest of the NT scriptures that
use this word "evening."
The verses we have left I will now look at in the order they
are found in the Englishman's Greek Concordance.
THE REST OF THE VERSES AND THE REST
OF THE STORY
Mark 11:19
This is quite a straight-forward verse, the evening came and
He went out of the city. The events preceding were during the
daylight hours of the day. Jesus had gone to Jerusalem and thrown
certain ones out of the Temple. With what we have leant from
our study, when the sun had set over the horizon, when evening
had come they left the city.
Mark 13:35
Again nothing earth-shattering in this verse. The word
"evening" (in this case "even") is part of a common language
that we all use in various ways at various times in our
descriptive explanations of things. Certainly "evening" is part
of our 24 hour day, as is midnight, or morning, and the farmers
among us may still use "the cockcrowing."
Matt.8:16
Jesus did healing miracles on the Sabbath day, that's one
thing that really got the Pharisees red hot with anger. But Jesus
did not hold tent meeting healing revivals on the Sabbath. Most
of His healings of the multitudes was done on the other six days
of the week.
It had been the Sabbath. Christ had been in Peter's house
and He had healed Peter's mother-in-law. As the sun was setting
over the horizon, as the last bright rays disappeared (Luke
4:31-40), as the "even was come" (the Greek word for "was come"
is the same as in many other places we are looking at, and it is
in the Aorist tense - had in one action taken place in the past).
When it was dusk, and the Sabbath past, then Jesus held His
healing revival, and a great multitude was about Him.
Matt.26:20
This was the time Christ had told two of His disciples to go
and prepare the Passover, when the day of unleavened bread had
arrived that the Jews killed the Passover on (this I have fully
explained in other studies on the Passover). It was the 14th
day of the first month - Nisan. As shown in other studies the
13th day had come to an end. It was time to observe the Passover
in the beginning hours of the 14th day. The two disciples did as
Jesus requested of them and made ready the Passover (verse
17-19). Jesus sat down sometime later after the Passover was
prepared and it was "...when the even was come...."
The words "was come" is the same Greek word as before in
most of these passages, and it is in the Aorist tense - an action
already done in past time.
This particular evening had begun earlier when the two
disciples had gone forth to prepare the Passover, on the day that
the Jews killed the Passover - the 14th. So the evening was
already come, and when Jesus came to sit with the twelve to
partake of the Passover later, after it was prepared, Matthew
says evening have come already in the past.
This is where "evening" is L O N G E R than dusk,
sun-set, twilight and that part of time that leads into darkness.
From the study above, this is "evening" that stretches from
dusk to sometime in the early hours of darkness.
Matt.27:57
" And when even was come, there came a rich man of Arimathea
named Joseph.....He went to Pilate and begged the body of
Jesus....."
The words "was come" ....yes, you have it, the same as the
others above, and yes, the Greek is Aorist tense - action taken
place in the past.
Letting the NT interpret the NT, letting the Bible interpret
the Bible, putting aside all pre-conceived ideas, teachings we
may have inherited, to one side, just going on what we have leant
from how the NT writers used the word "evening" - no more and no
less, the understanding of this verse is very clear.
I have gone into great detail explaining it in an earlier
study, so I will not here repeat that detail. But by the time all
was done that afternoon of the 14th of Nisan, and no one was
going to come near the body of Jesus, for various reasons, not
the least that the Jews who wanted Christ dead before the Sabbath
of the 15th came, could not care one hoot what happened to Him
after He was dead. They sure were not interested in removing and
burying Him. Also the flesh and blood family of Jesus were not
standing before Pilate to request His body, nor were any of the
close disciples of Jesus seeking His body. By the time Joseph
realized all this, time had moved to "the evening." It was
the evening and it was the "preparation" as other Gospel writers
record it( "And now when even was come, because it was
preparation, that is, before Sabbath" Mark 15:42, original
Greek).
The sun had set, it was dusk, and it was evening that
BELONGED to the day of preparation. The Gospel writers used that
evening as belonging to the day that pre-ceded it, belonging to
the 14th day, the day of preparation for the coming 15th Sabbath
day, just as we have seen in our study above is used not only in
the NT but the OT as well.
In the passage in Luke 23:50-56, the words connected with
Sabbath, "drew on," are in the Greek IMPERFECT tense. This tense
is also PAST tense, not future tense. It is different from the
Aorist tense in that the Imperfect tense means an action comes in
the past and continues. Again I have fully explained this in
earlier studies on this topic.
Using the principle of Lev.23 and the evening coming after
the day of the ninth, but belonging to the ninth(verse 32), the
Gospel writers said it was the evening, but it was the evening of
the preparation day, the day of the 14th. It would still be dusk
or sun-set, just as it was still dusk or sun-set of the ninth day
in Lev.23:32 when Israel was to observe the day of Atonement,
from that evening to the next evening, so they were then
observing the day of Atonement on the 10th day of the seventh
month (verse 27), and from even to even, but they started to
observe it the evening of the ninth day.
Understanding this important use of the word "even" or
"evening" in the Bible from time to time, is one of the keys to
put all the verses in the NT on the death of Christ together so
it all fits and all makes a whole, without any contradictions
with the rest of the NT.
Understanding the Greek tenses used can also be very
important at times. The problem with English is that it is
difficult if not impossible to express in one word some
of the Greek tenses, unless you translate the NT Greek in an
amplified type of English as the Amplified Bible does. But then
the Amplified Bible does not give you all the Greek tenses in the
NT that's for sure. It was not really designed or published for
that ENTIRE service or purpose. The complete Greek tenses of
words used in the NT are found in such works as "The Analytical
Greek Lexicon" published by Zondervan.
Joseph came to Pilate at sun-set, dusk, the evening of the
14th, the preparation day. By the time he had permission to have
the body of Christ, to walk to the hill, take it down and wrap it
in linen, and place it in the tomb that was nearby in a garden,
and the ladies followed all of this to see where the body was
laid, the Sabbath had and was continuing to come (imperfect
tense) just as Luke reported to us in his gospel, chapter 23.
Mark 6:47
This is Mark's account of the same reporting that Matthew
did. We have covered this above.
Mark 11:11
The same type of "evening" leaving from Jerusalem as He did
a day later from Jerusalem, that we covered above under Mark
11:19.
Mark 14:17
Mark's account of it being the beginning of the 14th of
Nisan, the day they killed the Passover (verse 1), and two
disciples(the other gospels show) going forth to prepare
the Passover. Then Jesus with His twelve in THE EVENING eating
and observing the Passover meal. This whole context showing that
the use of the word "evening" in the NT means evening, not
mid-afternoon or late-afternoon, but evening.
Mark 15:42
The same as we have already seen above. The evening had
come (Greek tense is Aorist). The evening belongs here to the day
pre-ceding it, the 14th day, so it is still preparation(the
Lev.23:32 principle), before Sabbath.
John 6:16
Same here as in Matt.14:23 covered above.
IS THAT IT?
Yes, friends, those are all the NT verses that use the
word "even" or "evening." Put aside all the ideas of men, all
the Greek word dictionaries written by men, the Jews
interpretations who do not believe in the NT to begin with. Put
that all to one side, and the NT itself makes it clear as to how
it uses the words "even/evening." Understand a few Greek tenses,
in a few passages, and everything just fits together like hand
and glove.
The wonder of it all, O, the wonder of it all, as the old
hymn goes, but I'll changed the words here from, "that Jesus
loves me"(which He does) to "that the Spirit is still leading
into all truth" as Jesus said it would. It is indeed so doing for
those who will search the scriptures daily, be corrected and LOVE
the truth.
...................................
Written January 1998
