John 4:52

began to amend Or, was somewhat better; a colloquial expression. The father fancies that the cure will be gradual. The fever will depart at Christ's word, but will depart in the ordinary way. He has not yet fully realised Christ's power. The reply of the servants shews that the cure was instantaneous.

Yesterday at the seventh hour Once more we have to discuss S. John's method of counting the hours of the day. (See on John 1:39 and John 4:6.) Obviously the father set out as soon after Jesus said -thy son liveth" as possible; he had 20 or 25 miles to go to reach home, and he would not be likely to loiter on the way. 7 a.m. is incredible; he would have been home long before nightfall, and the servants met him some distance from home. 7 p.m. is improbable; the servants would meet him before midnight. Thus the modern method of reckoning from midnight to midnight does not suit. Adopting the Jewish method from sunset to sunset, the seventh hour is 1 p.m. He would scarcely start at once in the mid-day heat; nor would the servants. Supposing they met him after sunset, they might speak of 1 p.m. as -yesterday." (But see on John 20:19, where S. John speaks of the late hours of the evening as belonging to the day beforesunset.) Still, 7 p.m. is not impossible, and this third instance must be regarded as not decisive. But the balance here seems to incline to what is antecedently more probable, that S. John reckons the hours, like the rest of the Evangelists, according to the Jewish method.