Bible Dictionaries
Hour

Vine's Expository Dictionary of NT Words

whence Lat., hora, Eng., "hour," primarily denoted any time or period, expecially a season. In the NT it is used to denote (a) "a part of the day," especially a twelfth part of day or night, an "hour," e.g., Matthew 8:13; Acts 10:3,9; 23:23; Revelation 9:15; in 1 Corinthians 15:30 , "every hour" stands for "all the time;" in some passages it expresses duration, e.g., Matthew 20:12; 26:40; Luke 22:59; inexactly, in such phrases as "for a season," John 5:35; 2 Corinthians 7:8; "for an hour," Galatians 2:5; "for a short season," 1 Thessalonians 2:17 , RV (AV, "for a short time," lit., "for the time of an hour"); (b) "a period more or less extended," e.g., 1 John 2:18 , "it is the last hour," RV; (c) "a definite point of time," e.g., Matthew 26:45 , "the hour is at hand;" Luke 1:10; 10:21; 14:17 , lit., "at the hour of supper;" Acts 16:18; 22:13; Revelation 3:3; 11:13; 14:7; a point of time when an appointed action is to begin, Revelation 14:15; in Romans 13:11 , "it is high time," lit., "it is already an hour," indicating that a point of time has come later than would have been the case had responsibility been realized. In 1 Corinthians 4:11 , it indicates a point of time previous to which certain circumstances have existed.

Notes: (1) In 1 Corinthians 8:7 , AV, "unto this hour," the phrase in the orginal is simply, "until now," as RV (2) In Revelation 8:1 , hemioron, "half an hour" (hemi, "half," and hora), is used with hos, "about," of a period of silence in Heaven after the opening of the 7th seal, a period corresponding to the time customarily spent in silent worship in the Temple during the burning of incense.