SATURDAY (Path of)
Limited distance that the scribes allowed to travel on a Saturday. In Acts. 1:12, the expression designates the route between the Mount of Olives and Jerusalem, or extending from Jerusalem to a point on the mountain from where Bethany could be seen (Lk. 24:50).
If measured from the eastern gate of Jerusalem (following the Jewish method) to the Church of the Ascension on the summit of the Mount of Olives, the distance is 690 m. as the crow flies; Walking tour would be longer.
According to Josephus, it was 5 to 6 furlongs from Jerusalem to the Mount of Olives (Ant. 20:8, 6; Wars 5:2, 3). The ordinance of the Sabbath road dates back to the prohibition of leaving the camp on the seventh day (Ex. 16:29).
The origin of the evaluation of a Saturday path is:
(A) An interpretation of Num. 35:5, which attributes to each Levitical city a territory of two thousand cubits from the walls.
(B) The idea, based on Joseph. 3:4, that the camp of Israel was two thousand cubits from the ark and the Tabernacle, and where, evidently, the Israelites could go on the Sabbath day.
Citizens had permission to move around the interior of their city, if it was not large. Rabbinic casuistry invented an escape from this strict ordinance:
A fictitious residence could be established to store food corresponding to two meals, within the limit of two thousand cubits. Then, it was allowed to travel two thousand cubits beyond this second place on a Sabbath day.