Cornelius and Acts 10:30

[rstrats]

Let's say it had been a Thursday when Cornelius said - "Four days ago I was fasting until this hour...". To what day of the week would he have been referring if he had said "One day ago I was fasting until this hour"?

 

[BluePhantom]

Let's say it had been a Thursday when Cornelius said - "Four days ago I was fasting until this hour...". To what day of the week would he have been referring if he had said "One day ago I was fasting until this hour"?

Depends on whether or not the sun had gone down.

 

[Dajjal]

Monday

 

[Blackrook]

People counted days differently in Biblical times. They say that Christ rose from the dead on the third day, but they are counting the first day (Good Friday) when they say that. So Christ, the way we count days, rose from the dead on the second day (Sunday).

 

[Steven_R]

Let's say it had been a Thursday when Cornelius said - "Four days ago I was fasting until this hour...". To what day of the week would he have been referring if he had said "One day ago I was fasting until this hour"?

This must be the kind of math problems Bible banging home schoolers face when the rest of use were trying to figure out if the first train Chicago at noon and goes 70 MPH and the second leaves NYC at 40 MPH what time do they meet blah blah blah.

 

[rstrats]

BluePhantom,


re: "Depends on whether or not the sun had gone down."



I don't understand. Perhaps you could explain?

 

[rstrats]

Blackrook,
re: "People counted days differently in Biblical times."

So you're saying that if someone said on a Thursday that they got a hair cut 1 day ago, that they wouldn't be referring to Wednesday?

 

[rstrats]

Dajjal,
re: "Monday"

How is Monday 1 day ago from Thursday?

 

[BluePhantom]

BluePhantom,


re: "Depends on whether or not the sun had gone down."



I don't understand. Perhaps you could explain?

As Blackrook pointed out, days were counted slightly differently. In Jewish tradition, the day ends when the sun goes down but you still count the the time when you were awake as a day. It can be really confusing. Jut remember there were no clocks back then so you didn't go to bed on one day and wake up the next day like we do now. So if it was 11:00 PM and you hadn't eaten since 3:00 PM you could say "I haven't eaten today" and that would be correct because you had not eaten since the sun went down and a new day started, but you have still been awake the whole time

 

[rstrats]

BluePhantom,

re: "So if it was 11:00 PM and you hadn't eaten since 3:00 PM you could say 'I haven't eaten today'..."

You could, but only if a new calendar day started at midnight.



re: "Jut remember there were no clocks back then..."

They had hour glasses, water clocks, candles marked in increments, oil lamps with marked reservoirs, etc. The Messiah said there were 12 hours in a day so that would seem to suggest that they had a way of breaking the day down into hours.