Biblical mile


Biblical mile is a unit of distance on land, or linear measure, principally used by Jews during the Herodian dynasty to ascertain distances between cities and to mark the Sabbath limit, equivalent to about ⅔ of an English statute mile, or what was about four furlongs. The basic Jewish traditional unit of distance was the cubit, each cubit being roughly between The standard measurement of the biblical mile, or what is sometimes called tǝḥūm šabbat, was 2,000 cubits.

Etymology

The word mīl, as used in Hebrew texts between the 2nd and 5th centuries CE, is a Roman loanword, believed to be a shortened adaptation of the Latin mīliarium, literally meaning, "milestone," and which word signifies "a thousand" ; hence: Roman mile. The word appears in the Mishnah, a compendium of Jewish oral law compiled by Rabbi Judah the Prince in 189 CE, and is used to this very day by religious Jews in the application of certain halachic laws.

Halachic applications

Nearly two thousand years of Jewish exile from the Land of Israel have given rise to disputes over the precise length of the biblical mile observed by the ancients. Some hold the biblical mile to be 1 km 152 m, while others hold it to be 960 m, depending on the length they prescribe to each cubit. Originally, the 2,000 cubit Sabbath limit was measured with a standard 50-cubit rope.
ScholarCubitBiblical mile
Avraham Chaim Naeh
Chazon-Ish
Ḏerāʿ 52.9 or 52.3 cm

Distances between cities