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Mat_24:20. Ἵνα ] Object of the command, and therefore its purport; Mar_14:35; Col_1:9.
μηδὲ σαββάτῳ ] without ἐν , as in Mat_12:1; Winer, p. 205 [E. T. 274]. On the Sabbath the rest and the solemnities enjoined by the law, as well as the short distance allowed for a Sabbath-day’s journey (2000 yards, according to Exo_16:29; see Lightfoot on Luk_24:50; Act_1:12; Schoettgen, p. 406), could not but interfere with the necessary haste, unless one were prepared in the circumstances to ignore all such enactments. Taken by themselves, the words μηδὲ σαββάτῳ seem, no doubt, to be inconsistent with Jesus’ own liberal views regarding the Sabbath (Mat_12:1 ff.; Joh_5:17; Joh_7:22); but he is speaking from the standpoint of His disciples, such a standpoint as they occupied at the time He addressed them, and which was destined to be outgrown only in the course of a later development of ideas (Rom_14:5; Col_2:6). As in the case of χειμῶνος , what is here said is simply with a view to everything being avoided calculated to interfere with their hasty flight. Comp. Mat_10:23.