How many hours are there in a standard
“day”, wherein there is both
“evening”, “night” [dark] followed by
“morning”, “day” [light]?
John 11:9 KJB - Jesus answered, Are there not twelve hours in the day? If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this world.
John 11:01 KJB - But if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because there is no light in him.
Jesus said that there are normally
“twelve hours” in the standard
“day” [
“the light”, the
“sun”] time, which then means, automatically, that there are
“twelve hours”, also, for the
“night” time, as per God's very character, whose ways are
“equal”, balanced [Leviticus 19:36; Job 6:2, 31:6, 32:10; Psalms 62:9; Proverbs 11:1, 16:11, 20:23; Isaiah 40:12,15, 46:6; Ezekiel 5:1, 45:10; Daniel 5:27; Hosea 12:7; Amos 8:5; Micah 6:11; Revelation 6:5 KJB]:
Ezekiel 18:25 KJB - Yet ye say, The way of the Lord is not equal. Hear now, O house of Israel; Is not my way equal? are not your ways unequal?
Ezekiel 18:29 KJB - Yet saith the house of Israel, The way of the Lord is not equal. O house of Israel, are not my ways equal? are not your ways unequal?
This
“division” [for God rightly divides [2 Timothy 2:15 KJB]] of
“night” and
“day” times into
“twelve hours” each, was from the beginning, for God separated the
“light” from the
“darkness” in these two
“equal” parts:
Genesis 1:3 KJB - And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
Genesis 1:4 KJB - And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
Genesis 1:5 KJB - And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
Thus there are 24 hours [even as there are 12 Patriarchal rulers in the OT, the time of Shadows/Types [Moon, Night], 12 Apostles in the NT, the time of the Day Star/Antitype [Sun, Day], and also there are 24 Elders upon their Thrones in the 3rd Heaven, Paradise – Heavenly Eden, itself] in a
“day”, beginning with evening followed by morning.
Side note: When earthly seasons would come, this would affect the division of night and day, and thus the hours would fluctuate between summer and winter, though still be in balance of 24 hrs.
Thus the
Maximum Time that the
“day and night” portion of a single day [without Divine intervention] can be, is
24 hrs, and so the
Maximum Time that the phrase
“three days and three nights” could be, is
72 hours:
Night - 12 Hours
Day - 12 Hours
Night - 12 Hours
Day - 12 Hours
Night - 12 Hours
Day - 12 Hours
Total = 72 Hours
However, the Scripture [KJB]
also includes
mere portions of any given part of
“day” or
“night” time to count, inclusively, as a
“day”. See:
Genesis 7:4,10, 17:12, 42:17-19; 2 Chronicles 10:5,12; Esther 4:16, 5:1; Luke 1:59, 2:21; Acts 10:3-30 KJB, etc.
As a for instance, circumcision - a male child could be born in the beginning, middle or nearing the end of any given day, and it would still be counted as the first day, unto his eighth day to be circumcised:
Genesis 17:12 KJB - And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed.
Luke 1:59 KJB - And it came to pass, that on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child; and they called him Zacharias, after the name of his father.
Luke 2:21 KJB - And when eight days were accomplished for the circumcising of the child, his name was called JESUS, which was so named of the angel before he was conceived in the womb.
Other instances (Genesis 7:4,10, 42:17-19; Exodus 24:18, 34:28; Deuteronomy 9:9,11,18,25, 10:10; 1 Samuel 30:12; 1 Kings 19:8; Job 2:13; 2 Chronicles 10:5,12; Esther 4:16, 5:1; Matthew 4:2; Mark 1:13; Luke 4:2; Acts 10:4-30.
Day and Night, see (Genesis 8:22; Exodus 13:21; Leviticus 8:35; Deuteronomy 28:66; Joshua 1:8; 1 Kings 8:59; 1 Chronicles 9:33; 2 Chronicles 6:20; Nehemiah 1:6, 4:9; Job 26:10; Psalms 1:2, 32:3-4, 42:3, 55:10, 88:1; Jeremiah 9:1, 16:13, 33:20,25; Lamentations 2:18; Luke 18:7; Acts 9:24, 26:7; Revelation 4:8, 7:15, 12:10, 20:10.
Night and Day, see (1 Samuel 25:16; 1 Kings 8:29; Isaiah 27:3; Jeremiah 14:17; Mark 4:27, 5:5; Luke 2:37; Acts 20:31; 1 Thessalonians 2:9, 3:8,10; 1 Timothy 5:5; 2 Timothy 1:3
The
Minimum time then for a single
“day and night” could then be any portion of that
“day” and any portion of that
“night”, thus even a measurement of mere minutes. Thus any could count from 1 minute to Sunset, and 1 minute after Sunset, and still accurately represent the singular phrase
“day and night” in a given context.
The phrase then does
not have to be
the Maximum,
nor of
the Minimum,
but could include anywhere at either end and in between.
Context will always determine for us how to proceed in determining whether we need to understand
the Maximum,
the Minimum or
somewhere in between them.
We also know that we are not merely dealing with a single
“day and night”, but rather
“three days and three nights”.
This means that
the Maximum amount of time can only be
72 hrs, being consecutive in time due to context, but that
the Minimum amount of time can be approximately
48 hrs and 2 minutes, or even mere seconds in technicality or if under Rabbinical time - when the 3rd star visibly appears. See the inclusive reckoning:
Night - 1 minute before daylight, sunrise, etc
Day - 12 hours
Night - 12 hours
Day - 12 hours
Night - 12 hours
Day - 1 minute after daylight, sunrise, etc