: (Iriiten (fl« I'rincipiis, Iv. 17) says that the Jews held 2000 •lis (}<rx>x^«/r **'X^*) to bo each moo's ' place ' (t»«**) (on the Mbbolh).
and then to have deduced the 2000 ells from the distance ordained (Jos 3') to be between the people on the march and the ark in front of them ; or, aa some suppose, from the distance between the tabernacle in tlie wilderness and the outermost part of the camp ; but, jirobablj-, the case of the taoer- nacle was only an imaginary liabbinical inference from that of the ark. By the ' analogy ' in the use of mal;(im, ' place,' in tx 10'-^ and iu Ex 21" — where the ' place is a Levitical city of refuse with borders extending (it was alHrmed) 2000 ells from the walls (Nu 35')— the man's 'place' of Ex 16=» became, in due course, the city in which he dwelt, together with its borders measuring 2000 ells straight out fiom the sides of the rectangle hypo- thetically constituting the city. (This measure- ment seems, from Nu 35*, with its 1000 ells, to have been an exegetical mistake : the 2000 ells appar- ently refer to each side of the larger rectangle cir- cumscribing the borders). According to GLnsburg (Kitto's Cyclop., art. 'Sabbath Day's Journey '), it was argued that ' if one who committed murder accidentally was allowed to undertake this journey of 2000 yards (ells?) on a Sabbath without violating the sanctitj' of the day, innocent people rai^ht do the same.' Compare also J. Lightfoot on Lk 24°'', and his quaint remark on the ' pleasant art [the Rabbis] have of working anything out of anything.'
This Rabbinical regtiiation, being obviously and often inconvenient, was not allowed seriously to hamper 'the movements of the Jews. They secured, legally, a wider freedom by a simple device, which « as called the ' connexion of boun- daries' or the 'amalgamation of distances.' If a man desired to travel more than 2000 ells on a particular Sabbath day he could adapt the law to his project by carrying, before that Sabljath began, to some point within the Sabbatical limit, food enough for two meals ; he could then and there eat the one moiety and bury the other, and could thus establish a domicile (to use a modem expres- sion, a 'place within the meaning of the Act'), from which he could date his journey on the coming Sabbath. Even this precaution was not de rigueur. He could, if he preferred, ej'e a tree or a wall at a distance of 2000 ells from the place of his actual abode and declare it his legal a!bode for the Sabbath — that is, his legal startini'-jioint for his projected Sabbath journey, provided he used words suHiciently definite as to the tree or wall, and, as Schiirer phrases it, 'did the thing thoroughly ' {HJP II. ii. 122, quoting'£niii7i, iv. 7).
J. Massie.
SABBATICAL YEAR (including Jubile Year and Land Laws). — In this article several distinct topics are treated together, wliich are too closely related to one another to be dealt with separately without a good deal of overlapping. A clear summary statement of the position of the Sabbatical and Jubile years in the cycle of Hebrew sacred seasons will be found under the art. Feasts AND FASTS.
The 7 j'ears' period recurs at every stage of the legislation, but not always with itfentical provi- sions, or even with application to the same suoject. The 50 years' term is first found in the Priestly Code, but it is applied to cases previously connected with the 7 years period. Consequently it will be
• There is no necessary discrepancy between Lk 24^0 and Ac V^. In the former passage it is Hjii<l that our Lord took out the diBciples V«< wptt li«iy«..cx., 'until they came within view of Bethany' (Blass, XT (iraminar, 139 n. 4), which (Jn ll'") was 16 furlongs from Jerusalem. In the latter passage it is said that the disciples ' returned from the Mount called olivet, which iB nigh unto Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's Journey off' — that is, from 6 to 6 furlongs. The Mount of '(Hives was a ridge about a mile long, and it Is this and not Bethany whose distance is thus mea.'iurLKl after Luke's manner (cf. 24i:'), for the purpose of in- fonning readers unacquainted with the locality. Bethany waa on the south-east slope of the ridge, about a mile beyond the summit. It is unlikely that Luke intended to represent the Ascension os takiui; place either withiu or close to the vUloge.
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SABBATICAL YEAR
clearest to gather the whole material from the successive sources in such a form as to make coui- jjaxison easy. Accordingly, tlie same letter is vised to mark corresponding matter in the following paragraphs.
I. Comparative Summary of Laws.— (i.) Tke earliest Legislation — E. — a. The 7 years' ]ieriod is found in tlie Covenant Book Ex 23""-, and among the Judgments Ex SP'* (cf. vol. i. p. 810).
b. In the former it is laid down as an obligation that every Hebrew owner of land should ■ let it rest and lie fallow' in the 7th j-ear. Hupfeld and Wellhausen apply this to the increase only, as though it was lawful to sow, but not to reap ; but it is better, with Dillmann, Nowack, etc., to take it, as in our versions, as prescribing an entire ce.ssation of all field work ; for the two verbs in V." ' let drop (or ' release ') and leave alone ' (njE^^f'fi B?y?}')i seem obviously in contrast to both verbs in v.'" 'sow' and 'gather.' The oliveyards and vine- yards are to come under the same rule as the corn land, i.e. no work is to be done in them in the 7th year. The aim expressed is ' that the poor of thy people may eat.' And so stringent is the rule that, if all is not consumed by tlie poor, the remainder must not be garnered, but must be left for ' the beast of the field ' to eat. It is not explicitly stated that the owner and his family were not to eat of the spontaneous growth of the fallow year, but the passage, taken by itself, rather suggests that they might not.