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Bible Dictionaries
Evening
Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament
or EVENING (ἡ ὄψια [sc. ὤρα], ἐσπέρα).—The Babylonians divided the day into equal parts by sun-watches. The ‘sixty system’ of minutes and seconds was in vogue among them. Among Syrian peoples also, it is likely, the same system prevailed. No trace of this is found among the Israelites, however, in the pre-exilic period. Another marked difference between the Babylonians and the Israelites is noteworthy. With the Israelites the day began at sunset, with the Babylonians at sunrise. It is at least certain that the reckoning from eve to eve became the exclusive method in Israel with the triumph of the Law. A kindred system prevailed among Arabs, Athenians, and Gauls (Pliny, HN ii. 79). It was customary, too, in ancient Israel to distinguish between the ‘first evening’ and the ‘second evening.’ It is not certain just where they drew the line (Edersheim). The phrase ‘between the two evenings’ (bên hâ‘arbayîm), Exodus 16:12; Exodus 29:39, as a designation of the time of the daily evening offerings, clearly meant some period in the late afternoon. The ‘first evening,’ it is generally thought, began about 3 p.m. and extended to sunset; the second began at sunset and continued into the night.
In Matthew 14:15; Matthew 14:23 we have the word ‘evening’ used in both senses. ‘When it was evening’ (Matthew 14:15) clearly refers to the first evening (cf. Luke 9:12 ‘and the day began to decline,’ Bible Union Ver.). For when the disciples suggested that Jesus send the multitude away, that they might go into the villages and buy themselves food, Jesus said they need not depart; and the feeding of the five thousand and the sending away of the multitude followed before ‘he went up into the mountain apart to pray.’ Then a second evening is spoken of in the words: ‘And when the evening was come, he was there alone’ (Matthew 14:23). In the latter case, Jesus, after seeing His disciples off (John 6:15), evidently sought the mountain solitude, as He did on other occasions, to spend much of the night in prayer (Matthew 14:25). This second evening, then, was evidently verging on the night.
Geo. B. Eager.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Evening'. Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdn/e/evening.html. 1906-1918.
