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Monthly Question Page
Q. Could you explain what is meant by “a sabbath day’s journey” (Acts 1:12)?
A. This is mentioned as the greatest distance a Jew was allowed to travel on the Sabbath. There is no instruction as to this in the law, but when some of the people went out to gather manna on the Sabbath, Moses said, “Abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day” (Exodus 16:29). In New Testament times it was understood that a person might travel two thousand cubits or five eighths of a mile; this extent had been fixed on because when the Israelites were marching they were commanded to keep this distance from the ark (Joshua 3:4). When they were in the land, the distance was reckoned from the gate of the city from which the traveller started. This is what is referred to in Acts 1:12. “Then returned they unto Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem a sabbath day’s journey.” The Lord referred to this custom when He said, concerning the judgment of Jerusalem, “Pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day” (Matthew 24:20).
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