Ok – Here’s the something I stumbled onto while researching ‘Brief Bible Blunders #3′…

The question was – when was Jesus crucified?

Marks answers – The first day of Passover 9 am
Mark 14:12 On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, when it was customary to sacrifice the Passover lamb, Jesus’ disciples asked him, “Where do you want us to go and make preparations for you to eat the Passover

Mark 15:25 And it was the third hour, and they crucified him.

John answers – The day before passover – afternoon
John 19:14 And it was the preparation of the passover, and about the sixth hour: and he saith unto the Jews, Behold your King!

Most people believe that John was using the Roman measurement of time when dealing with the crucifixion. Mark used the Hebrew system of measuring time. This is both plausible and possible, and if one compares the two times – then low and behold both accounts really seem to be lining up! Why is that? Well, to put it simply – there is another reason for the difference between John and Mark that the external evidence points to…

In the 200’s ad, one of the Ante-Nicene Fathers, Peter, Bishop of Alexandria, Egypt, wrote about the problem with John 19:14 in section 6 of a work entitled:That up to the Time of the Destruction of Jerusalem, the Jews Rightly Appointed the Fourteenth Day of the First Lunar Month: (http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf06.ix.vi.v.html)

“When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus forth, and sat down in the judgment-seat, in a place that is called the Pavement, but in the Hebrew, Gabbatha. And it was the preparation of the passover, and about the third hour,” as the correct books render it, and the copy itself that was written by the hand of the evangelist, which, by the divine grace, has been preserved in the most holy church of Ephesus, and is there adored by the faithful. (http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf06.ix.vi.v.html)

When Peter of Alexandria wrote this, he was not trying to prove any kind of point about the timing of Jesus’ death, he was quoting the verse for other reasons. However, he notes in passing that the original manuscript, which was still available at that time, had it correct. There seems to be no motivation whatsoever for Peter of Alexandria to have made up this idea.

Even today, a few ancient manuscripts still say “third hour” in John 19:14, but because the number is small, most of the master Greek texts that are the basis of English Bible translations say “sixth hour”.

The Adam Clarke Commentary discusses the “third hour” manuscripts.(http://www.studylight.org/com/acc/view.cgi?book=joh&chapter=019)

The sixth hour—Mark says, Mark 15:25, that it was the third hour. trith, the third, is the reading of DL, four others [other manuscripts], the Chron. Alex., Seuerus Antiochen., Ammonius, with others mentioned by Theophylact. Nonnus, who wrote in the fifth century, reads trith, the third. As in ancient times all the numbers were written in the manuscripts not at large but in numeral letters, it was easy for g three, to be mistaken for v six. The Codex Bezae has generally numeral letters instead of words. Bengel observes that he has found the letter g gamma, three, exceedingly like the vepisemon, six, in some MSS. {Episemon = greek ‘st’ combined, similar appearance to final form sigma with a nearly flat top. Similar appearance to upper case gamma G.} The major part of the best critics think that trith, the third, is the genuine reading. See the note on Mark 15:25.

The only other Bible translation I could find that says “third hour” for John 19:14 is the Concordant Literal New Testament. Yet I believe “third hour” (9 a.m.) is the right translation. Why? It is consistent with the other books of the Bible, some ancient manuscripts actually contain this reading, the ancient writer Peter of Alexandria claims it is correct, a copying mistake seems likely and there seems to be no doctrinal reason why John 19:14 would have been altered.”

Though Adam Clarke thinks it was a mistake – it seems just as likely to me that it was done to intentionally make the hour known to Roman reader’s… thats my opinion, of course.