SABBATH DAY’S JOURNEY
Sabbath days Journey
( , Act 1:12; in Talmudical Heb. , techim hashshabbath) is a phrase for the prescribed distance which may lawfully be traversed on a Sabbath, and beyond which no Jew can go without violating the sanctity of the day, except he adopts the means appointed for exceeding the canonical boundary.
I. Distance of a Sabbath-way, and its Origin. From the injunction in Exo 16:29, that every man is to abide in his place, and not go out of his place on the Sabbath, the ancient Hebrew legislators deduced that an Israelite must not go 2000 yards, or 12,000 hand breadths as the ancient Hebrew yard consisted of six hand breadths five Greek stadia, for the Greek stadium measured 2400 hand breadths beyond the temporary or permanent place of his abode. Epiphanius’s definition of the Sabbath day’s journey at six stadia =14,400 hand breadths, or 750 Roman geographical paces (Hoer. p. 66, 82), is most probably based upon the larger yard, which the Jews adopted at a later period. SEE WEIGHTS AND MEASURES.
These 2000 yards are not to be measured from any and every spot, but according to definite and minute rules, the city having always to be reduced to a square. Thus if the Sabbath day’s walk is to be fixed from a circular city, an imaginary square must be circumscribed about it, and the measurement is not to be taken from the corners a in a diagonal direction i.e. from a to e inasmuch as thereby the distance between will be less than 2000 yards, but from a to f, whereby the allowable distance is increased in the direction of a e, as will be seen from the annexed diagram.
The permitted distance seems to have been grounded on the space to be kept between the ark and the people (Jos 3:4) in the wilderness, which tradition said was that between the ark and the tents. To repair to the ark being, of course, a duty on the Sabbath, the walking to it was no violation of the day; and it thus was taken as the measure of a lawful Sabbath day’s journey. This prohibition is not repeated in the law, but the whole spirit of the Sabbath institution obviously forbade a Jew to make a proper journey on that day (Josephus, Ant. 13, 8, 4), especially as the beasts of burden and travel were to rest (comp. Mat 24:20). Whether the earlier Hebrews did or did not regard it thus, is not easy to say. Nevertheless, the natural inference from 2Ki 4:23 is against the supposition of such a prohibition being known to the spokesman, Elisha almost certainly living as may be seen from the whole narrative much more than a Sabbath day’s journey from Shunem. Heylin infers from the incidents of David’s flight from Saul, and Elijah’s from Jezebel, that neither felt bound by such a limitation. Their situation, however, being one of extremity, cannot be safely argued from. Our Savior seems to refer to this law in warning the disciples to pray that their flight from Jerusalem in the time of its judgment should not be on the Sabbath day (Mat 24:20). The Christians of Jerusalem would not, as in the case of Gentiles, feel free from the restrictions on journeying on that day; nor would their situation enable them to comply with the forms whereby such journeying, when necessary, was sanctified; nor would assistance from those around be procurable. The Jewish scruple to go more than 2000 paces from his city on the Sabbath is referred to by Origen ( , 4, 2), by Jerome (Ad Algasiam, qu. 10), and by Oecumenius with some apparent difference between them as to the measurement. Jerome gives Akiba, Simeon, and Hillel as the authorities for the lawful distance.
Another reason for fixing the distance of a Sabbath day’s walk or journey at 2000 yards is that the fields of the suburbs for the pasture of the flocks and herds belonging to the Levites measured 2000 cubits or yards, and that in Exo 21:13 it is said, I will appoint thee a place ( ) whither he shall flee i.e. the Levitical suburbs or cities. Now, it is argued, if one who committed murder accidentally was allowed to undertake this journey of 2000 yards on a Sabbath without violating the sanctity of the day, innocent people may do the same. Besides, the place of refuge is termed , which is the same word employed in Exo 16:29. As the one , place, was 2000 yards distant, it is inferred, according to the rule the analogy of ideas or words ( ) that the command, Let no man go out of his place () on the seventh day (Exo 16:29) means not to exceed the distance of the place 2000 yards off (Hillel I, rule 2, in Erubin, 51 a; Maccoth, 12 b; Zebachim, 117 a). Josephus (War, 5, 2, 3) makes the Mount of Olives to be about six stadia from Jerusalem; and it is the distance between these two places which in Acts 1, 12 is given as a Sabbath day’s journey. Josephus elsewhere determines the same distance as five stadia (Ant. 20, 8, 6); but both were probably loose statements rather than measured distances; and both are below the ordinary estimate of 2000 cubits. Taking all circumstances into account, it seems likely that the ordinary Sabbath day’s journey was a somewhat loosely determined distance, seldom more than the whole and seldom less than three quarters of a geographical mile. See Selden, De Jure Nat. et Gent. 3, 9; Frischmuth, Dissert. de Itin. Sabbat. (1670); Walther, Dissert. de Itin. Sabbat.; both in Thesaurus Theolog. Philog. (Amsterd. 1720).
II. Cases in which the Limits of a Sabbath day’s Journey could be exceeded. Though the laws about the Sabbath day’s journey are very rigorous, and he who walked beyond the 2000 yards, or moved more than four yards farther than his temporary place of abode, when the Sabbath day’s journey had not been determined beforehand, received forty stripes save one; yet in cases of public or private service, when life was in danger, people were allowed to overstep the prescribed boundary (Mishna, Erubin, 4; Rosh-hashanah, 2, 5). The Pharisees, or the orthodox Jews in the days of our Savior, also contrived other means whereby the fraternity of this order could exceed the Sabbath day’s walk without transgressing the law. They ordained that all those who wished to join their social gatherings on the Sabbath were to deposit on Friday afternoon some article of food in a certain place at the end of the Sabbath day’s journey, that it might thereby be constituted a domicile, and thus another Sabbath day’s journey could be undertaken from the first terminus. SEE PHARISEE.
This mode of connecting or amalgamating the distances ( ), as it is called, is observed by the orthodox Jews to the present day. Such importance have the Jews. since their return from the Babylonian captivity, attached to the Sabbath day’s journey that a whole tractate in the Mishna (Erubin) is devoted to it. Hence the phrase is mentioned in the New Test. (Act 1:12) as expressive of a well known law, and the so called Jerusalem Targum translates Exo 16:29, And let no man go walking from his place beyond 2000 yards on the seventh day, while the Chaldee paraphrase of Rth 1:16 makes Naomi say to Ruth, We are commanded to keep sabbaths and festivals, and not to walk beyond 2000 yards (comp. Mishna, Erubin, c. 5; Rosh-hashanah, 2, 15; Babylon Talmud, Erubin, 56 b, 57 a; Zuckermann, in Frankel’s Monatsschrift fur Geschichte und Wissenschaft des Judenthums [Breslau, 1863], 12, 467 sq.).
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Sabbath day’s journey
supposed to be a distance of 2,000 cubits, or less than half-a-mile, the distance to which, according to Jewish tradition, it was allowable to travel on the Sabbath day without violating the law (Acts 1:12; comp. Ex. 16:29; Num. 35:5; Josh. 3:4).
Fuente: Easton’s Bible Dictionary
Sabbath Day’s Journey
SABBATH DAYS JOURNEY.See preceding art. and Travel.
Fuente: A Dictionary Of Christ And The Gospels
Sabbath Day’s Journey
SABBATH DAYS JOURNEY.See Weights and Measures, I.
Fuente: Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible
Sabbath Day’s Journey
jurni ( , sabbatou hodos): Used only in Act 1:12, where it designates the distance from Jerusalem to the Mount of Olives, to which Jesus led His disciples on the day of His ascension. The expression comes from rabbinical usage to indicate the distance a Jew might travel on the Sabbath without transgressing the Law, the command against working on that day being interpreted as including travel (see Exo 16:27-30). The limit set by the rabbis to the Sabbath day’s journey was 2,000 cubits from one’s house or domicile, which was derived from the statement found in Jos 3:4 that this was the distance between the ark and the people on their march, this being assumed to be the distance between the tents of the people and the tabernacle during the sojourn in the wilderness. Hence, it must have been allowable to travel thus far to attend the worship of the tabernacle. We do not know when this assumption in regard to the Sabbath day’s journey was made, but it seems to have been in force in the time of Christ. The distance of the Mount of Olives from Jerusalem is stated in Josephus (Ant., XX, viii, 6) to have been five stadia or furlongs and in BJ, V, ii, 3, six stadia, the discrepancy being explained by supposing a different point of departure. This would make the distance of the Sabbath day’s journey from 1,000 to 1,200 yards, the first agreeing very closely with the 2,000 cubits. The rabbis, however, invented a way of increasing this distance without technically infringing the Law, by depositing some food at the 2,000-cubit limit, before the Sabbath, and declaring that spot a temporary domicile. They might then proceed 2,000 cubits from this point without transgressing the Law.
And in some cases even this intricacy of preparation was unnecessary. If, for instance, the approach of the Sabbath found one on his journey, the traveler might select some tree or some stone wall at a distance of 2,000 paces and mentally declare this to be his residence for the Sabbath, in which case he was permitted to go the 2,000 paces to the selected tree or wall and also 2,000 paces beyond, but in such a case he must do the work thoroughly and must say: Let my Sabbath residence be at the trunk of that tree, for if he merely said: Let my Sabbath residence be under that tree, this would not be sufficient, because the, expression would be too general and indefinite (Tractate Erubhn Jos 4:7).
Other schemes for extending the distance have been devised, such as regarding the quarter of the town in which one dwells, or the whole town itself, as the domicile, thus allowing one to proceed from any part of the town to a point 2,000 cubits beyond its utmost limits. This was most probably the case with walled towns, at least, and boundary stones have been found in the vicinity of Gaza with inscriptions supposed to mark these limits. The 2,000-cubit limits around the Levitical cities (Num 35:5) may have suggested the limit of the Sabbath day’s journey also. The term came to be used as a designation of distance which must have been more or less definite.
Fuente: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Sabbath-Day’s Journey
Sabbath-Day’s Journey (Act 1:12), the distance which the Jews were permitted to journey from and return to their places of residence upon the Sabbath-day (Exo 16:29). There is some diversity of sentiment with respect to the precise distance indicated. But taking all circumstances into account, it seems likely that the ordinary Sabbath-day’s journey was a somewhat loosely determined distance, seldom more than the whole and seldom less than three-quarters of a geographical mile.
Fuente: Popular Cyclopedia Biblical Literature
Sabbath-day’s Journey
This is mentioned as the greatest distance a Jew was allowed to travel on the Sabbath. There is no injunction as to this in the law, but when some of the people went out to gather manna on the Sabbath, Moses enjoined, “Abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day.” Exo 16:29. In N.T. times it was understood that a person might travel two thousand cubits (about five furlongs); this extent had been fixed on because when the Israelites were marching they were commanded to keep the above named distance from the ark, and it was concluded that when they were encamped, there was the same distance between the tabernacle and the tents, and that this space was constantly travelled for worship. When they were in the land the distance was reckoned from the gate of the city from which the traveller started. Act 1:12. The Lord perhaps referred to this custom when He bade the disciples pray that, in the judgement of Jerusalem, their flight should not be “on the Sabbath-day.” Mat 24:20.
Fuente: Concise Bible Dictionary
Sabbath Day’s Journey
About two thousand paces.
Act 1:12
Fuente: Nave’s Topical Bible
Sabbath-day’s Journey
Sabbath-day’s Journey. Act 1:12. The law, as regards travel on the Sabbath, is found in Exo 16:29. As some departure from a man’s own place was unavoidable, it was thought necessary to determine the allowable amount, which was fixed at 2000 paces, or about six furlongs from the wall of the city. The permitted distance seems to have been grounded on the space to be kept between the Ark and the people, Jos 3:4, in the wilderness, which tradition said was that between the Ark and the tents. We find the same distance given, as the circumference outside the walls of the Levitical cities, to be counted as their suburbs. Num 33:5 The terminus a quo was, thus, not a man’s own house, but the wall of the city where he dwelt.
Fuente: Smith’s Bible Dictionary
SABBATH DAY’S JOURNEY
(about two thousand cubits)
Act 1:12