VERS. I.
〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.
At the hour of Prayer, being the ninth hour.
WHether it was the ninth hour of the same day, wherein about the third, the Holy Ghost had been poured out, must be left to conjecture. This is cer∣tain that the ninth hour of the day (which with us is Three a Clock in the Afternoon) was the ordinary hour as for Sacrifice, so also for Prayer too. As to the hours of Sacrifice Josephus gives us this account: d 1.1 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. Twice a day, viz. in the morning, and at the ninth hour, they offer Sacrifices on the Altar. And concerning the hours of Prayer, the Talmu∣dists thus: e 1.2 R. Jose ben R. Chaninah saith, The Patriarchs appointed the Prayers. R. Joshuah ben Levi saith, they appointed them according to the daily Sacrifices. Morning Prayer is till the fourth hour. The Prayer of the Minchah, or Evening is till the Evening. Which is the great Minchah? That from the sixth hour and an half. Which is the less Minchah? from the ninth hour and an half, &c.
They distinguish betwixt the Afternoon Prayers, and the Evening Prayers, although part of them, if not all, were one and the same. For whereas the precise time for recital of the Phylacteries and the Prayers annext for the Evening, was not but at the entring in of night, yet they recited them in their Prayers at the Minchah. Hence that dispensation in the Gloss in Beracoth, f 1.3 The recital of the Shemaa in Bed, is the foundation. That is, after that the Stars have begun to appear: And so it is in the Jerusalem Talmud. If any one re∣cite them before that time he doth not do his duty. If it be thus, then why do we say our Phylactery-prayers in the Synagogue? It is that we way continue in prayer because of the words of the Law.