By Jesus’ day, the Jews had adopted the Greek and Roman system of four watch periods during the night.

The Gospels refer to these watches a number of times. For example, it was “in the fourth watch of the night” when Jesus walked on water toward the boat where his disciples were. (Matt. 14:25)

The fourth division of the night, the “early in the morning” watch, ran from about three o’clock in the morning to sunrise.