HOTTINGER, JOHN HENRY, a very teamed Biblical scholar, was born at Ziirich, loth March 162o. After being educated in his native city he went to Geneva ; thence to France and the Nether lands. In the last-mentioned country Ire studied at Groningen under Gomar and Alting, imbibing a taste for Oriental studies. He subsequently re paired to Leyden, and lived in the house of the celebrated Golius as domestic tutor. In 1641 he was called to Zurich as professor of ecclesiastical history. Before entering on this office he came to England, where he became acquainted with such men as Ussher, Pococke, Selden, and Whelock. Returning through France, he enjoyed the friend ship of Grotius. In 1643 he became professor of Hebrew in the Cardinum. In 1653 two new offices were assigned to him, the professorships of logic and rhetoric, and also of the O. T. In 1655 he went to Heidelberg, where he was professor of the O. T. and Oriental languages. In 1656 hc was also made rector of the University. On the Stli November 166i he returned to Zririch. In 1664 he went as ambassador to the Netherlands. In 1666 he received a call to Leyden University. He was drowned in the Limmat, 5th June 1667, along with his son, two daughters, and a friend. Thus he was but forty-seven years of age when death suddenly overtook him. Hottinger was a most laborious author, and contributed much to promote a better interpretation of the Bible. He followed the grammatical and historical method, to which the doctrinal element was justly subordinated. Seldom did he appear as an exegetical writer ; where he did, he showed tolerable freedom from prejudice. His great merit lies in laying a good foundation for a fundamental knowledge of the O. T. by the study of the Oriental languages. Hottinger was an excellent Semitic scholar. His works connected with Biblical literature are— The saurus philokims seu Clavis Scripturo, etc., 1649, 4to ; Yuris Hebrorzine leg,es 261, etc., 1655, 4to ; Snzegna Orientale, 1657, 4to; Gramma-Ilea lingua. sanctee libri duo, 1647, 4to ; Crammaticce Chal deo-Syriace libri duo 1652, 4to ; Gramnzatica quatuor lingztanim He'bnziere, Chaldaicce, Syriaca., atzpee A rabice harmonica, 165S, 4to ; Promptuariunt seu Bibliotheca Orientalis, etc., 165S, 4to ; Etyma logiczem Orientale, seu Lexicon harmonic-um heptag lotton, 1661, 4to ; Exercitatiozzes Anti-Mariano de Pentateuch° Samaritan°, etc., 1644, 4to ; Cippi Hebraici, 1659, 4to ; Krious e., His torhe Creationis exanzen, etc., 1659, 4to ; 'Apxato Xo-yla Oriental's, 1661, 4.to ; Historia ecclesiastica Novi Testamenti, 1651-1667, 9 vols. 4to. IIis MS. collections and papers fill fifty-two vols. fol. and 4to, and are in the Ziirich library.—S. D.
HOUR. [The Hebrew has no word for 'hour. The Chaldee MIT), def. NAVV, is rendered hour' in the A. V. of Dan. iii. -15 ; iv. 19, 33 ; v. 5, but this word means simply a short period of time, from NIT), to glance, a twinkling of the eye." The ancient Hebrews, like the Greeks (Homer, sape), were unacquainted with any other means of distinguishing the times of day than the natural divisions of morning, mid-day or noon, twilight, and night (Gen. xv. 12 ; XYlii. I ; XIX. 1, 15, 23). Even in the Septuagint eLtpa invariably sig,nifies a season of the year, as in Homer and Hesiod. As the Chaldxans claimed the honour of inventing this system of notation (Herod. ii. to9), it is most probable that it was during their residence in Babylon that the Jews became familiar with their artificial distribution of the day. At all events no trace of it occurs before the captivity of that peo ple , while, subsequently to their return to their own land, we find the pmctice adopted, and, in the time of Christ, universally established, of divid ing the day and night respectively into twelve equal portions (Matt. xx. 3-5 ; John xi. 9 ; Acts v. 7 ; xix. 34). The Jewish horology, however, in common with that of other Eastern nations, had this inherent defect, that the hours, though always equal to one another, were unequal in regard to the seasons, and that as their day was reckoned from sunrise to sunset, and not from the fixed period of noon, as with us, the twelve hours into which it was divided varied, of course, in dumtion accord ing to the fluctuations of summer and winter. The
inid-day, which with us is the twelfth hour, the Jews counted their sixth, while their twelfth hour did not arrive till sunset. At the equinoxes, their hours were exactly of the same length with ours, and the time from which they began to reckon their day at those seasons corresponded precisely with our six o'clock A.m. ; their first hour being our seven o'clock, their third (Acts ii. is) our nine, their ninth (Acts iii. r) our three o'clock P.m., and their eleventh (Matt. xx. 6) our five. This equality, however, in the duration of their hours, as well as in their correspondence to ours, was disturbed as the season approached towards the summer or winter solstice. In midsummer, when sunrise in Judxa takes place at five o'clock A.M., and sunset at seven P.M., the Jewish hours were a little longer than ours ; and the only one of tbeir hours which answered exactly to ours was the sixth, or twelve o'clock, while in all the rest there was a considerable difference. Their third hour was shortly bqfore our nine, and their ninth a little after our three. In like manner, in winter, when the sun rises at seven and sets at five, the Jewish hour was proportionally shorter than ours, their third hour not occurring till a little after our nine, and their ninth a little before our three. Hence it is evident that in order to determine ex actly the duration of Daniel's silence, for instance (‘ he was astonied one hour,' Dan. iv. 19), or the exact time when the darkness at Christ's crucifixion ended, it is necessary to ascertain the particular seasons when these incidents occurred.
In ancient times the only way of reckoning the progress of the day was by the length of the shadow—a mode of reckoning which was both contingent on the sunshine and served only for the guidance of individuals. By what means the Jews calculated the length of their hours—whether by dialling, by the clepsydra or water-clock, or by some horological contrivance, like what was uscd anciently in Persia ( Joseph. Antiq. xi. 6, io), and by the Romans (Martial, viii. 67 ; Juv. Sat. x. 245), and which is still used in India G4siat. Resear. v. SS), a servant notifying the intervals, it is now impossible to discover. The Chaldee word rim, (Dan. iv. 16), which signifies announcer, seems to countenance the latter (as it seems to refer to the mode employed by the Persians, Romans, and In dians) supposition.
Besides these smaller hours, there was another diviion of the day into larger hours, with refer ence to the stated periods of prayer, viz., the third, sixth, and ninth hours of the day (Ps. lv. ; Joseph. .4nti9. iv. 4. 3)• The night was divided into twelve equal por tions or hours, in precisely the same manner as the day. The most ancient division, however, was into three watches (Antiq. lxiii. 6 ; xc. 4) ; the first, or beginning of the watches, as it is called (Lament. ii. 19) ; the middle-watch (Judg. vii. 19), and the morning-watch (Exod. xiv. 24). When Judxa became a province of Rome, the Roman distribution of the night into four watches was in troduced [see COCK-CROWING and DAY] ; tc which division frequent allusions occur in the N. T. (Luke xii. 38 ; Matt. xiv. 25; Mark xiii..35), as well as to that of hours (Matt. xxv. ; xxvi. 4o ; Mark xiv. 37 ; Luke xxii. 61 ; Acts xxiii. 23 ; Rev. iii. 3).
It remains only to notice that the word hour is sometimes used in Scripture to denote some deter minate season, as mine hour is not yet come,' this is your hour, and the power of darkness,' the hour is coming,' etc.—R. J.