When is Between the Evenings?

A question I have wrestled with for a while, as many have in the Church of God, is the definition of “between the evenings.” Most of the arguments regarding “between the evenings” are based on historical records, which are then used to work backward into the Bible to arrive at a definition. 

Some of the other writers on this blog have undertaken to write about this, and until now, I have largely remained silent on the topic simply because I have not studied it for myself. 

I was one of those who took others' papers on the topic and relied on historical sources to define what “between the evenings” actually meant, so this is no judgment of those who do the same. The main question I wanted to examine is whether or not, by strictly using Scripture, it’s possible to define the term “between the evenings.”

My conclusion is that it is indeed possible to define the terms solely based on Scripture, and it’s not even that complicated. I realize this post may be quite controversial, but these are my findings after using Sola Scriptura to define the term.

First off, the phrase is not just used regarding the Passover; it is used to specifically define the timing of several other events as well. 

Exodus 12:6 NKJV - 'Now you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it between the evenings.

Exodus 16:12 NKJV - "I have heard the complaints of the children of Israel. Speak to them, saying, 'Between the evenings you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread. And you shall know that I [am] the LORD your God.' "

Exodus 16:13 NKJV - So it was that quails came up at evening and covered the camp, and in the morning the dew lay all around the camp.

Leviticus 23:5 NKJV - 'On the fourteenth [day] of the first month between the evenings [is] the LORD's Passover.

Numbers 9:5 NKJV - And they kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month, between the evenings, in the Wilderness of Sinai; according to all that the LORD commanded Moses, so the children of Israel did.

Deuteronomy 16:6 NKJV - "but at the place where the LORD your God chooses to make His name abide, there you shall sacrifice the Passover in the evening, at the going down of the sun, at the time you came out of Egypt.

Joshua 5:10 NKJV - Now the children of Israel camped in Gilgal, and kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month in the evening on the plains of Jericho.

The main event the phrase is used to define is the Passover, but it is also used in reference to burning incense, offering the evening sacrifice, and tending the lamps in the Tabernacle. They would do these things every single day, so they were a much more common practice than the Passover, which, of course, was once a year. 

Exodus 29:39 NKJV - "One lamb you shall offer in the morning, and the other lamb you shall offer between the evenings.

Exodus 29:41 NKJV - "And the other lamb you shall offer between the evenings; and you shall offer with it the grain offering and the drink offering, as in the morning, for a sweet aroma, an offering made by fire to the LORD.

Exodus 30:7 NKJV - "Aaron shall burn on it sweet incense every morning; when he tends the lamps, he shall burn incense on it.

Exodus 30:8 NKJV - "And when Aaron lights the lamps between the evenings, he shall burn incense on it, a perpetual incense before the LORD throughout your generations.

Numbers 28:4 NKJV - 'The one lamb you shall offer in the morning, the other lamb you shall offer between the evenings,

While the Passover timing is never really specified beyond “between the evenings” (Deuteronomy gets a little more specific, but that's a discussion for another time) in the Old Testament, we do have some places that specify the general timing of when the evening sacrifice would take place. 

There were three things, again, that must be done every evening. 

They must offer the lamb, grain, and wine offerings, they must burn incense, and they must tend to the lamps. These three things had to be done every day, and the symbolism here is fantastic. If we had the time to go through all the types of Christ in these three duties, I would, but people like shorter articles, so here we are. 

Anyway, these three things happened without fail, so when we see the practice taking place later in the Old Testament, we can pretty much guarantee that the practice is the same as what they were practicing shortly after constructing the Tabernacle. 

We actually have some offhand mentions of when they were offering the evening sacrifice later on, the first mention being in Kings. The account we are going to look at is the occasion when Elijah challenged the priests of Ba'al to a cook-off to show who the real God is, and the false priests gave it their all.

1 Kings 18:26 NKJV — So they took the bull which was given them, and they prepared [it,] and called on the name of Baal from morning even till noon, saying, “O Baal, hear us!” But [there was] no voice; no one answered. Then they leaped about the altar which they had made.

From noon till the evening sacrifice, the false prophets of Ba'al sacrificed, hopped around, cut themselves, and shrieked for Ba'al to hear them. Elijah, being a first-class troll, took his opportunity to mock them about their stupid beliefs. 

1 Kings 18:27 NKJV — And so it was, at noon, that Elijah mocked them and said, “Cry aloud, for he [is] a god; either he is meditating, or he is busy, or he is on a journey, [or] perhaps he is sleeping and must be awakened.”

1 Kings 18:28 NKJV — So they cried aloud, and cut themselves, as was their custom, with knives and lances, until the blood gushed out on them.

They continue these shenanigans past midday until the evening sacrifice, or as it's literally called, the going up of the present.  

1 Kings 18:29 NKJV — And when midday was past, they prophesied until the [time] of the offering of the [evening] sacrifice. But [there was] no voice; no one answered, no one paid attention.

1 Kings 18:29 (LSV) and it comes to pass, at the passing by of the noon, that they feign themselves prophets until the going up of the present, and there is no voice, and there is none answering, and there is none attending.

Once it became clear to everyone that Ba'al wasn't going to answer his exhausted prophets, Elijah had the people construct an altar, lay the wood and bull on it, and then pour gallons of water on it until it was thoroughly drenched. 

1 Kings 18:36 (LSV) And it comes to pass, at the going up of the evening present, that Elijah the prophet comes near and says, “YHWH, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known today that You are God in Israel, and that I, Your servant, have done the whole of these things by Your word;

So, at exactly the moment of the evening sacrifice, grain offering, and burning of incense, Elijah prays to God, and fire falls from heaven to consume the entire offering, altar, and even the water on the ground around the altar. God leaves no doubt in anyone’s mind exactly who the One sending this fire was, and the people bow and worship. 

What time did this occur at?

At the time of the minhah, which is the evening grain offering and sacrifice that takes place between the evenings. 

So naturally, this is after sunset, right?

Actually, based on the rest of the story, and much to my surprise, no. 

Let's read on. 

Next, after offering the sacrifice, Elijah and the rest of the people (or possibly just Elijah) capture and slaughter the false prophets of Ba'al, to the last man, all 450 of them. 

1 Kings 18:40 (LSV) And Elijah says to them, “Catch the prophets of Ba‘al; do not let a man escape from them”; and they catch them, and Elijah brings them down to the Brook of Kishon, and slaughters them there.

Slaying 450 men with the sword takes a long time. There were all-day battles recorded in the Bible where fewer than forty men were killed or wounded, so this wasn't a quick job, and it would have taken some light to do it properly. 

Our story does not yet end here either. 

Elijah tells Ahab to go up and eat and drink because rain is coming, and he himself goes and climbs a mountain, yet another task that needs some light to execute properly. 

1 Kings 18:41 (LSV) And Elijah says to Ahab, “Go up, eat and drink, because of the sound of the noise of the shower.”

1 Kings 18:42 (LSV) And Ahab goes up to eat, and to drink, and Elijah has gone up to the top of Carmel, and he stretches himself out on the earth, and he places his face between his knees,

Elijah, once on top of this mountain, prays seven times and sends his servant to check the sky after each prayer. The servant looks toward the Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, and comes back six times, saying he sees nothing. 

1 Kings 18:43 NKJV — and said to his servant, “Go up now, look toward the sea.” So he went up and looked, and said, “[There is] nothing.” And seven times he said, “Go again.”

1 Kings 18:44 NKJV — Then it came to pass the seventh [time,] that he said, “There is a cloud, as small as a man’s hand, rising out of the sea!” So he said, “Go up, say to Ahab, ‘Prepare [your chariot,] and go down before the rain stops you.’ ”

The seventh time, he sees a cloud the size of a man's hand rising out of the sea, but something is interesting about this. 

The time between sunset and dark is about half an hour, give or take ten minutes, so if that's when the evening sacrifice took place, it would have been full on dark long before Elijah ever climbed Mount Carmel. 

The Mediterranean Sea is 13 miles away from Mt Carmel, so to see a small cloud rising in the dark, against the backdrop of the sea, would be impossible. 

Not only that, but in the next verse, the sky becomes black with clouds, something that can only happen if the sky had some degree of light to begin with. 

1 Kings 18:45 NKJV — Now it happened in the meantime that the sky became black with clouds and wind, and there was a heavy rain. So Ahab rode away and went to Jezreel.

1 Kings 18:46 NKJV — Then the hand of the LORD came upon Elijah; and he girded up his loins and ran ahead of Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel.

Finally, Elijah outruns Ahab back to the city and gets there before the rain, yet one more thing that would require light in order to be able to perform it. 

We have, then, at least a few hours of daylight after the offering of the evening sacrifice, yet some amount of time between it and noon as well, which enables us to begin to pinpoint exactly when this offering took place. 

Now, let's look at what the New Testament has to say on the matter. 

The New Testament is different in that it does not explicitly refer to the evening offering, but refers to one element of the evening offering and adds one more element to help us pin down the exact time. 

Our first stop is going to be the father of John the Baptist, the day he was serving in the temple and had an angel appear to him. The exact time of the appearance of the angel is described as being at the hour of incense and the hour of prayer. 

Luke 1:8 (LSV) And it came to pass, in his acting as priest, in the order of his division before God,

Luke 1:9 (LSV) according to the custom of the priesthood, his lot was to make incense, having gone into the temple of the LORD,

Luke 1:10 (LSV) and all the multitude of the people were praying outside, at the hour of the incense.

Do you remember those three things took place at the same time each evening? 

Incense, offerings, and lighting the lamps?

Well, here we see Zacharias's job was to burn this incense, and at the same time, he was offering the incense, the people were gathered to pray at what is known in the New Testament as the hour of prayer. 

Based on the information given here, we now know that the offering of the incense, which coincides with the evening sacrifice, also coincides with one of the hours of prayer. I say one of the hours of prayer because there were actually three, and you guessed it, two of them line up exactly with the morning and evening offerings. 

We don’t see a reference to an hour of prayer in the Old Testament, at least not by that name, but we do have references to praying three times a day. 

Psalm 55:17 NKJV - Evening and morning and at noon I will pray, and cry aloud, And He shall hear my voice.

The three times for prayer were the morning sacrifice, noontime, and the evening sacrifice. That one time the wicked men tried to get Daniel killed by making prayer illegal, he continued his daily practice of praying three times a day. 

Daniel 6:10 NKJV - Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went home. And in his upper room, with his windows open toward Jerusalem, he knelt on his knees three times that day, and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as was his custom since early days.

Ezra fasted until the evening sacrifice and then offered up his prayer to coincide with the evening offering.

Ezra 9:5 NKJV - At the evening sacrifice I arose from my fasting; and having torn my garment and my robe, I fell on my knees and spread out my hands to the LORD my God.

Whether they knew the significance of prayer, being incense and offerings or not, twice a day, the prayers of the Israelites were timed to coincide with the physical offerings of grain, a spotless lamb, and incense. 

However, I do think they understood more than we do, and this next passage not only affirms that, but it directly links the hour of prayer, incense, and the evening sacrifice, leaving no doubt as to the fact that the hour of prayer occurs in tandem with the offering of incense. 

Psalm 141:2 NKJV - Let my prayer be set before You [as] incense, The lifting up of my hands [as] the evening sacrifice.

Now, this is all well and good, you know, we’ve linked the hour of prayer firmly with the offering of incense, the evening sacrifice and grain offering, and the tending of the lamps, but we still don’t know what time of day this occurred at.

The Jews counted hours of the day from sunrise and assigned 12 hours to the day (John 11:9), so the timing of their clock to ours would depend on the time of year it was, but the 1st hour was roughly 7 am, and the last hour of the day, the 12th hour, was roughly 6 pm. 

In this next section, we see Peter going up onto a house top to pray about the 6th hour of the day, or the midday prayer. The noon prayer. 

Acts 10:9 NKJV - The next day, as they went on their journey and drew near the city, Peter went up on the housetop to pray, about the sixth hour.

So, we have the midday prayer established, but what about the evening prayer?

Well, we actually have that established as well.

Acts 3:1 NKJV - Now Peter and John went up together to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth [hour].

The hour of prayer is the ninth hour (3 pm), and a couple of places in Acts indeed confirm this. 

Acts 10:3 NKJV - About the ninth hour of the day he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God coming in and saying to him, "Cornelius!"

Acts 10:30 NKJV - So Cornelius said, "Four days ago I was fasting until this hour; and at the ninth hour I prayed in my house, and behold, a man stood before me in bright clothing,

Based on this vital information, we can also now establish that the evening incense, the evening sacrifice, the tending of the lamps, and the hour of prayer all occurred in unison at the ninth hour, or roughly 3 pm. I say roughly because the offerings were supposed to occur between the evenings, and they would only begin at 3 pm. 

Slaughtering and preparing an animal for offering takes a fair amount of time, so it could extend into the 9th hour a fair amount. 

Therefore, we can establish that the first evening is 3 pm, or the time when the sun takes a downward turn in the sky. The second evening occurred at the 12th hour of the day, which we call sunset, or roughly 6 pm. 

The idea, which I used to hold, that between the evenings is from sunset to dark, has no basis in Scripture, and I can’t even find eyewitness history that such an idea ever existed in competition with the concept of between the evenings being between the 9th and 12th hour. 

That was the first seed of doubt in my mind, when, despite all the claims, I couldn’t find even one single primary historical source that alluded to the Sadducees holding to a different timing and definition of between the evenings. 

Not one. 

Not only that, but the Sadducees were the ones in charge of the temple at this point, so if there truly was ever a debate, then the timing of the offerings and practices would reflect their beliefs, not the Pharisees, but we don’t see that.

I know I said I wasn’t going to get into history, but it bears mentioning for just a moment. Haha

Moving on.

What about the morning offering, since we’re on the topic?

Well, I believe it was about the third hour of the day, from what I can find in Scripture. It’s the hour the Holy Spirit came, for one thing. 

Acts 2:15 NKJV - "For these are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is [only] the third hour of the day

The most confirming piece of evidence, however, is the timing of the crucifixion. Remember, the priests were supposed to offer a lamb every morning and every evening, and what do we see with Jesus?

Mark 15:25 NKJV - Now it was the third hour, and they crucified Him.

Mark 15:33 NKJV - Now when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.

Mark 15:34 NKJV - And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" which is translated, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?"

They begin His crucifixion at the third hour, as the morning lamb was being offered, and then He dies at the ninth hour as the evening lamb was being offered. 

Wow.

How did I miss that for so long?

God’s timing and plan are perfect down to the minute, and there is little doubt in my mind that this is a coincidence! 

The last thing I want to look at is the LXX and the wording it uses to translate between the evenings. The LXX is dubious at best for things like this, especially when the Jewish translators could insert their bias, as they do regarding counting the wavesheaf, but it confirms what we have already seen, so why not?

The Greek phrase is πρὸς ἑσπέραν (pros hesperan), and it means towards evening or sunset, making it even more visually precise than between the evenings. That’s what the Hebrew phrase and the Greek phrase both equal, though, a time before sunset, but after the third hour. 

Now, fun fact, the only time this exact phrase is used in the New Testament is in Luke. 

Luke 24:29 NKJV - But they constrained Him, saying, "Abide with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent." And He went in to stay with them.

.

That’s the only time, shortly after His resurrection, that the Greek equivalent of between the evenings is used. 

Coincidence?

Perhaps.

However, I no longer believe in coincidences when it comes to the Word of God. His timing and plan are too perfect throughout Scripture for there to be anything like a coincidence. 

I hope this post proves useful for you! If you have any thoughts or comments, please leave them below!