Then returned they unto Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem a sabbath day's journey. Then returned they unto Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, х Elaioonos (G1638)] - a form occurring here only in the Hew Testament.
Which is from Jerusalem a sabbath day's journey - a distance of 2,000 cubits, or between 7 and 8 furlongs, which tradition had long fixed as the proper limit of a Sabbath-walk. But Lightfoot's explanation of this from Joshua 3:4 - as if that established the practice of encamping in the wilderness at the distance of 2,000 cubits from the tabernacle, obliging the worshippers to walk that distance to attend its Sabbath-day's services-is not to be relied on. Here again the Tubingen assailants of this book try (after DeWette) to make out a contradiction between this statement and that of the Third Gospel, that it was from Bethany that our Lord ascended (Luke 24:50), 15 furlongs from Jerusalem, or double the distance here given. But this hardly deserves notice, because the Third Gospel merely says, "He led them out as far as Bethany" х heoos (G2193) eis (G1519) Beethanian (G963)] in the direction of it, and probably to that side of Mount Olivet where the road strikes down to Bethany (see the note at Luke 24:50). Even Strauss (as Lechler remarks) sees nothing in this objection. Chrysostom's conjecture appears to us objectionable, that the mention here of a Sabbath-day's journey was suggested to the historian's mind by our Lord's having ascended on the Jewish Sabbath. Still less to support it has Alford's addition to this conjecture, that it was intended to take off the offence of our Lord's having led His disciples so long a journey on that sacred day; for surely the Jews, who frequented Jerusalem at the festivals, would not need to be told the distance of Bethany from Jerusalem, and as for the Gentiles, such an explanation would be scarcely intelligible.