Commentaries:
Robertson's Word Pictures (NT)
Olivet (Elaiwnov). Genitive singular. Vulgate Olivetum. Made like ampelwn. Here only in the N.T., usually to orov twn Elaiwn (the Mount of Olives), though some MSS. have Olivet in Luke 19:29; Luke 21:37. Josephus (Ant. VII. 9, 2) has it also and the papyri (Deissmann, Light from the Ancient East, p. 170).
A sabbath day's journey off (Sabbatou exwn odon). Luke only says here that Olivet is a Sabbath day's journey from Jerusalem, not that Jesus was precisely that distance when he ascended. In the Gospel Luke (Luke 24:50) states that Jesus led them "over against" (ewv prov) Bethany (about two miles or fifteen furlongs). The top of Olivet is six furlongs or three-fourths of a mile. The Greek idiom here is "having a journey of a Sabbath" after "which is nigh unto Jerusalem" (o estin egguv Ierousalhm), note the periphrastic construction. Why Luke mentions this item for Gentile readers in this form is not known, unless it was in his Jewish source. See Exodus 16:29; Numbers 35:5; Joshua 3:4. But it does not contradict what he says in Luke 24:50, where he does not say that Jesus led them all the way to Bethany.
Other Robertson's Word Pictures (NT) entries containing Acts 1:12:
Luke 19:29
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