Luke 23:44
New International Version
It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon,

New Living Translation
By this time it was about noon, and darkness fell across the whole land until three o’clock.

English Standard Version
It was now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour,

Berean Standard Bible
It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness came over all the land until the ninth hour.

Berean Literal Bible
And now it was about the sixth hour, and darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour.

King James Bible
And it was about the sixth hour, and there was a darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour.

New King James Version
Now it was about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour.

New American Standard Bible
It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness came over the entire land until the ninth hour,

NASB 1995
It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness fell over the whole land until the ninth hour,

NASB 1977
And it was now about the sixth hour, and darkness fell over the whole land until the ninth hour,

Legacy Standard Bible
And it was now about the sixth hour, and darkness fell over the whole land until the ninth hour,

Amplified Bible
It was now about the sixth hour (noon), and darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour (3:00 p.m.),

Christian Standard Bible
It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three,

Holman Christian Standard Bible
It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three,

American Standard Version
And it was now about the sixth hour, and a darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour,

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
But it was about the sixth hour and there was darkness upon all the earth until the ninth hour.

Contemporary English Version
Around noon the sky turned dark and stayed that way until the middle of the afternoon.

Douay-Rheims Bible
And it was almost the sixth hour; and there was darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour.

English Revised Version
And it was now about the sixth hour, and a darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour,

GOD'S WORD® Translation
Around noon darkness came over the entire land and lasted until three in the afternoon.

International Standard Version
It was already about noon, and the whole land became dark until three in the afternoon

Literal Standard Version
And it was, as it were, the sixth hour, and darkness came over all the land until the ninth hour,

Majority Standard Bible
It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness came over all the land until the ninth hour.

New American Bible
It was now about noon and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon

NET Bible
It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon,

New Revised Standard Version
It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon,

New Heart English Bible
And it was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon,

Webster's Bible Translation
And it was about the sixth hour, and there was a darkness over all the land until the ninth hour.

Weymouth New Testament
It was now about noon, and a darkness came over the whole country till three o'clock in the afternoon.

World English Bible
It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour.

Young's Literal Translation
And it was, as it were, the sixth hour, and darkness came over all the land till the ninth hour,

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
The Death of Jesus
43And Jesus said to him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.” 44 It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness came over all the land until the ninth hour. 45The sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was torn down the middle.…

Cross References
Matthew 27:45
From the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness came over all the land.

Mark 15:33
From the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness came over all the land.

Mark 15:34
At the ninth hour, Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?" which means, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?"

John 19:14
It was the day of Preparation for the Passover, about the sixth hour. And Pilate said to the Jews, "Here is your King!"


Treasury of Scripture

And it was about the sixth hour, and there was a darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour.

it.

Matthew 27:45
Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour.

Mark 15:33
And when the sixth hour was come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.

there.

Exodus 10:21-23
And the LORD said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness which may be felt…

Psalm 105:28
He sent darkness, and made it dark; and they rebelled not against his word.

Joel 2:31
The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.

earth.

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Afternoon Country Dark Darkness Earth Fell Hour Ninth Noon O'clock Sixth Three Whole
Luke 23
1. Jesus is accused before Pilate, and sent to Herod.
8. Herod mocks him.
12. Herod and Pilate become friends.
13. Barabbas is desired of the people,
24. and is released by Pilate, and Jesus is given to be crucified.
26. He tells the women, that lament him, the destruction of Jerusalem;
34. prays for his enemies.
39. Two criminals are crucified with him.
46. His death.
50. His burial.














(44-46) And it was about the sixth hour.--See Notes on Matthew 27:45-50; Mark 15:33-37. We can only conjecturally account for the omission of the "ELI, ELI, LAMA SABACHTHANI," so prominent in the other two reports; but it is at least conceivable, assuming the same sources of information as before, that the women who stood by the cross may have shrunk from repeating words so terrible, and have loved to dwell rather on those which seemed to them to speak, not of abandonment, but of an absolute and unshaken trust. It is remarkable that this, like the cry of apparent despair, is a quotation from the Psalms (Psalm 31:6).

Verse 44. - The time of the Crucifixion. And it was about the sixth hour. We have before given (see note on Luke 22:47) the approximate hours of the several acts of the last night and day. This verse gives us the time of the duration of the "darkness" - from the sixth to the ninth hour; that is in our reckoning, from 12 noon to 3 p.m. With this date the other two synoptists agree (comp. Matthew 27:45; Mark 15:33). Our Lord had then been on the cross three hours (see Mark 15:25, where it is stated that he was crucified in the third hour, i.e. 9 a.m.). But while the three synoptists are in perfect harmony, we are met with a grave difficulty in St. John's account, for in John 19:14: of his Gospel we read how the final condemnation of our Lord by Pilate took place about the sixth hour. At first sight, to attempt here to harmonize St. John with the three synoptists would seem a hopeless task, as St. John apparently gives the hour of the final condemnation by Pilate, which the three give as the hour when the darkness began, i.e. when the Sufferer had already hung on the cross for three hours. Various explanations have been suggested; among these the most satisfying and probable is the supposition that, while the three synop-tists followed the usual Jewish mode of reckoning time, St. John, writing some half a century later in quite another country, possibly twenty years after Jerusalem and the temple had been destroyed, and the Jewish polity had disappeared, adopted another mode of reckoning the hours, thus following, probably, a practice of the province in which he was living, and for which he was especially writing. Dr. Westcott, in an additional note on John 19:14, examines the four occasions on which St. John mentions a definite hour of the day; and comes to the conclusion that the fourth evangelist generally reckoned his hours from midnight. The Romans reckoned their civil days from midnight, and there are also traces of reckoning the hours kern midnight in Asia Minor. "About the sixth hour" would then be about six a.m. Before touching upon the strange darkness which at the sixth hour seems to have hung over the land like a black pall, we note that somewhere in the first three hours, possibly after the words spoken to the dying penitent, must be placed the incident of the entrusting the virgin-mother to St. John (John 19:25, etc.). There is no doubt that on the surface of this, his third word from the cross, lay a loving desire to spare his mother the sight of his last awful suffering. Hence his command to John to watch over from henceforth the mother of his Lord. We may assume, then, that, in obedience to his Master's word, John led Mary away before the sixth hour. So Bengel, who comments here, "Great is the faith of Mary to be present at the cross; great was her submission to go away before his death." And there was a darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour. St. Matthew gives us additional particulars respecting this phenomenon. He says that besides this darkness there was also an earthquake, and that several graves were opened, and the dead during those hours of solemn gloom appeared to many in the holy city. Early Christian writers of high authority, such as Tertullian ('Apol.,' ch. 21) and Origen ('Contra Cels.,' 2:33), appeal to this strange phenomenon as if attested by heathen writers. It was evidently no slight or imaginary portent, but one that was well known in the early Christian years. The narrative does not oblige us to think of anything more than an indescribable and oppressive darkness, which like a vast black pall hung over earth and sea. The effect on the scoffing multitude was quickly perceptible. We hear of no more cries of mocking and derision; only just at the end of the three dark hours is the silence broken by the mysterious and awful cry of the Sinless One related by SS. Matthew and Mark, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Godet's comment is remarkable: "The darkness, the rending of the veil of the temple, the earthquake, and the opening of several graves, are explained by the profound connection existing on the one side between Christ and humanity, on the other between humanity and nature. Christ is the Soul of humanity, as humanity is the soul of the external world." The darkness, he suggests, was perhaps connected with the earthquake with which it was accompanied, or it may have resulted from an atmospherical or cosmical cause. The phenomenon need not necessarily have extended over all the earth: it probably was confined to Palestine and the adjacent countries.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Greek
It was now
ἦν (ēn)
Verb - Imperfect Indicative Active - 3rd Person Singular
Strong's 1510: I am, exist. The first person singular present indicative; a prolonged form of a primary and defective verb; I exist.

about
ὡσεὶ (hōsei)
Adverb
Strong's 5616: As if, as it were, like; with numbers: about. From hos and ei; as if.

[the] sixth
ἕκτη (hektē)
Adjective - Nominative Feminine Singular
Strong's 1623: Sixth. Ordinal from hex; sixth.

hour,
ὥρα (hōra)
Noun - Nominative Feminine Singular
Strong's 5610: Apparently a primary word; an 'hour'.

and
καὶ (kai)
Conjunction
Strong's 2532: And, even, also, namely.

darkness
σκότος (skotos)
Noun - Nominative Neuter Singular
Strong's 4655: Darkness, either physical or moral. From the base of skia; shadiness, i.e. Obscurity.

came
ἐγένετο (egeneto)
Verb - Aorist Indicative Middle - 3rd Person Singular
Strong's 1096: A prolongation and middle voice form of a primary verb; to cause to be, i.e. to become, used with great latitude.

over
ἐφ’ (eph’)
Preposition
Strong's 1909: On, to, against, on the basis of, at.

all
ὅλην (holēn)
Adjective - Accusative Feminine Singular
Strong's 3650: All, the whole, entire, complete. A primary word; 'whole' or 'all', i.e. Complete, especially as noun or adverb.

the
τὴν (tēn)
Article - Accusative Feminine Singular
Strong's 3588: The, the definite article. Including the feminine he, and the neuter to in all their inflections; the definite article; the.

land
γῆν (gēn)
Noun - Accusative Feminine Singular
Strong's 1093: Contracted from a primary word; soil; by extension a region, or the solid part or the whole of the terrene globe.

until
ἕως (heōs)
Preposition
Strong's 2193: A conjunction, preposition and adverb of continuance, until.

[the] ninth
ἐνάτης (enatēs)
Adjective - Genitive Feminine Singular
Strong's 1766: Ninth. Ordinal from ennea; ninth.

hour.
ὥρας (hōras)
Noun - Genitive Feminine Singular
Strong's 5610: Apparently a primary word; an 'hour'.


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NT Gospels: Luke 23:44 It was now about the sixth hour (Luke Lu Lk)
Luke 23:43
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