whence Lat., hora, Eng., "hour," primarily denoted any time or period, expecially a season. In the NT it is used to denote (a) "a part of the day," especially a twelfth part of day or night, an "hour," e.g., Mat 8:13, Act 10:3, Act 10:9, Act 23:23, Rev 9:15; in 1Co 15:30, "every hour" stands for "all the time;" in some passages it expresses duration, e.g., Mat 20:12, Mat 26:40, Luk 22:59; inexactly, in such phrases as "for a season," Joh 5:35, 2Co 7:8; "for an hour," Gal 2:5; "for a short season," 1Th 2:17, RV (AV, "for a short time," lit., "for the time of an hour"); (b) "a period more or less extended," e.g., 1Jo 2:18, "it is the last hour," RV; (c) "a definite point of time," e.g., Mat 26:45, "the hour is at hand;" Luk 1:10, Luk 10:21, Luk 14:17, lit., "at the hour of supper;" Act 16:18, Act 22:13, Rev 3:3, Rev 11:13, Rev 14:7; a point of time when an appointed action is to begin, Rev 14:15; in Rom 13:11, "it is high time," lit., "it is already an hour," indicating that a point of time has come later than would have been the case had responsibility been realized. In 1Co 4:11, it indicates a point of time previous to which certain circumstances have existed.
Notes: (1) In 1Co 8:7, AV, "unto this hour," the phrase in the orginal is simply, "until now," as RV (2) In Rev 8:1, hemioron, "half an hour" (hemi, "half," and hora), is used with hos, "about," of a period of silence in Heaven after the opening of the 7th seal, a period corresponding to the time customarily spent in silent worship in the Temple during the burning of incense.
