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( òֶøֶá , e'reb, e dusk; ἑóðÝñá , ὀøßá ), the period following sunset, with which the Jewish day ( íõ÷èήìåñïí ) began (Gen_1:5; Mar_13:35). SEE DAY. Some writers have argued that the first creative day (Gen_1:5) is reckoned from the morning, when light first appeared (Gen_1:3), as if "evening" then designated not a portion of time, but a termination of the first creative period or age; but this does violence to the whole order of the narrative, in which a period of night invariably precedes one of daylight, precisely in accordance with the conventional Hebrew usage of a íõ÷èήìåñïí or "evening-and-morning," and as the terms are expressly defined in the former clause of Gen_1:5. If "evening" in the phrase in question be distinguishable from the "night" as a terminus, it is certainly a terminus a quo, as dating the latter from the aboriginal "darkness," Gen_1:2, and not a terminus ad quem of the ensuing day. SEE NIGHT.
The Hebrews appear to have reckoned two evenings in each day; as in the phrase áֵּéï òִøְáִּéַí , between the two evenings (Exo_16:12; Exo_30:8), by which they designated that part of the day in which the paschal lamb was to be killed (Exo_12:6; Lev_23:5; Num_9:3; Num_9:5; in the Hebrews and margin); and, at the same time, the evening sacrifice was offered, the lamps lighted, and the incense burned (Exo_29:39; Exo_29:41; Num_28:4). But the ancients themselves disagreed concerning this usage; for the Samaritans and Caraites (comp. Reland, De Samarit. § 22, in his Diss. Miscell volume 2; Trigland, De Karaeis, chap. iv) understood the time to be that between sunset and twilight, and so Aben Esra at Exo_12:6, who writes that it was about the third hour (9 o'clock P.M.); the Pharisees, on the other hand, as early as the time of Josephus (War, 6:9, 3), and the Rabbins (Pesach, 5:3), thought that "the first evening" was that period of the afternoon when the sun is verging towards setting (Gr. äåßëç ðñùú v á ), "the second evening" the precise moment of sunset itself ( äåßëç ὀøßá ), according to which opinion the paschal lamb would bed slaughtered from the ninth to the eleventh hour (3 to 5 o'clock P.M.). The former of these opinions seems preferable on account of the expression in Deu_16:6, "when the sun goeth down," áְּáåַֹà äִùֶּׁîֶùׁ ; and also on account of the similar phraseology among the Arabs (Borhaneddin, Enchiridion Studiosi, 8:36, ed. Caspin, Lips. 1838; Kamus, page 1917; on the contrary, see Pococke, Ad Carmen Tograi, page 71; Talmud Hieros. Berach. chapter 1; Babyl. Sabb. 2:346, fol.; Bochart, Hieroz. 1:634, Lips.). SEE PASSOVER.