Sabbath Day’s Walk

SABBATH DAY’S WALK. Used only in Acts.1.12 (kjv “sabbath day’s journey”), where it designates the distance between Mount Olivet and Jerusalem. A Sabbath day’s walk was a journey of limited extent that the scribes thought a Jew might travel on the Sabbath without breaking the law. Such a journey was 2,000 cubits (3,000 ft.-938 m.) from one’s house, a distance derived from the statement found in Josh.3.4 that there was to be that much distance between the ark and the people on their march. The rabbis, however, devised a way of increasing this distance without infringing the law by depositing some food at the 2,000-cubit limit before the Sabbath, and declaring that spot a temporary residence.