1:
Sabbath day’s journey, the distance one is allowed to walk on the Sabbath. Exod. 16:29 legislates: ‘Let no man go out of his place on the seventh day.’ Num. 35:5 defines the Levitical pasture lands as extending 2,000 cubits in each direction from the city center. Tannaitic law defined the Sabbath day’s journey as 2,000 cubits. Acts 1:12 mentions that Jerusalem is a Sabbath day’s journey from the Mt. of Olives. The Zadokite Fragments (Damascus Document) also counted 2,000 cubits from the city as a Sabbath limit for walking after one’s animals. Boundary stones marking the Sabbath limits (Heb. tekhum shabbat) of the city were found in the excavation of Gezer. See also Sabbath. L.H.S. ’S JOURNEY,SABBATH JOURNEY,SABBATH DAY’S WALK
Achtemeier, P. J., Harper & Row, P., & Society of Biblical Literature. (1985). Harper's Bible dictionary. Includes index. (1st ed.) (889). San Francisco: Harper & Row.
2:
Sabbath Day’s Journey
The distance of travel permissible on the sabbath. Work was prohibited on the sabbath, and travel was considered work (Exod. 16:29). Therefore, scholars of the law had to determine what distance of travel was permissible. In the wilderness a sabbath day’s journey was the distance between the ark and the camp, which was 2000 cubits or ca. 914 m. (1000 yds.; Josh. 3:4). The same distance existed between the levitical cities and the boundaries of their pasture lands (Num. 35:4–5). In NT times a sabbath day’s journey was about the distance from the Mount of Olives to the temple (Acts 1:12).
Debates grew around the question of how much travel was permitted. Some Jews redefined their “home” by depositing food 2000 cubits from their home. This spot became a new home, and travel could extend another 2000 cubits from there. In some cases entire towns were declared one’s domicile, and thus travel could extend from the border (hence the importance of boundary markers).
Bibliography. D. A. Carson, ed., From Sabbath to Lord’s Day (Grand Rapids, 1982); E. P. Sanders, Jewish Law from Jesus to the Mishnah (Philadelphia, 1990), 6–23.
Gary M. Burge
Freedman, D. N., Myers, A. C., & Beck, A. B. (2000). Eerdmans dictionary of the Bible (1146). Grand Rapids, Mich.: W.B. Eerdmans.
