A second is a second is a second, right? But if you’re at the big game it’s amazing what a difference it makes once there’s less than a minute left. Suddenly the scoreboard screams those seconds in fractions. Suddenly the clock moves maddeningly fast if you’re behind and agonizingly slow if you’re ahead.

But that’s a product of our digital technology. Sundials, or solar clocks, in the time of Jesus measured time slowly, imperceptivity, even majestically. Complicating things further, the hours weren’t the same length all year round. The first hour was sunrise and the last hour was sunset. Noon was midday. That meant the hours were much shorter in late December, and much longer in late June. 

Centuries went by and the idea of the way time moves didn’t change. A relatively recently discovered p…