:More literally, "It was about the sixth hour." <br>KJV "''and'' it was about the sixth hour.''"
:The Jews and the Romans of the first century of the Christian Era ([[BCE and CE|CE]]) reckoned the "hours of the day" as from sunrise, and the hours of the night as from sunset (which the Jews reckoned as the beginning of the next day "in the evening" before the dawning of the day and its morning). At the Vernal and Autuman Autumnal [[Equinox]], when day and night are equal in length, the hours of the day were reckoned beginning at sunrise, about 0600 hours military time, from six o'clock in the morning, at the end of the fourth watch at the twelfth hour of the night, when the hours of the day begin to be reckoned. The first hour of the day was about 6 am to 7 am, the third hour from about 8 to 9 am, the sixth hour from about 11 am to noon, the seventh hour from about noon to 1 pm, the ninth hour about 2 to 3 pm, the tenth hour about 3 to 4 pm, the eleventh hour of the day about 4 pm to 5 pm, and the twelfth hour of the day ended at sunset, at the beginning of the first watch of the night, beginning with the first hour of the night, until the third hour of the night at about 8 to 9 pm. The second watch of the night was from the ninth hour to the twelfth, the fourth watch from about 3 am to sunrise.
:In the first century, the "sixth hour of the day" was not 6 o'clock in the evening. It was about six hours after sunrise, near noon, at the time of the heat of the day. [[Mediterranean Sea|Mediterranean]], [[Middle East]]ern and [[North Africa]]n peoples normally rest during the heat of the day in summer, from about noon, or shortly thereafter (1 pm), to about 3 pm, from the seventh to the tenth hour of the day. Latin countries such as [[Spain]] and [[Mexico]] call this period of rest "''siesta''". The women of a community normally gathered to draw water from the community well or from the nearest flowing stream or river at dawn and at sunset, at the coolest time of the day. The Samaritan woman at the well of Sychar in Samaria came to get water at a time when the women of her community would not be there. Jesus rested there in the shade of the trees at the beginning of the heat of the day while his disciples went into the city to purchase food.