Then Jesus went almost immediately on another trip from Magdala up to the region and cities of Caesarea Philippi north of Capernaum and the Sea of Galilee in the mountains as it goes up to Mt. Hermon. That is about 50 miles (80 km) north so the round trip would be at least 100 miles (160 km). Matt. 16:13-28 and Mark 8:27-30
Again almost immediately Jesus leaves with His disciples on a trip to what we believe is Mt. Tabor (the mount of transfiguration) Matt. 17:1-13 and Mark 2:13 this walk would be about 60 miles (96 km) round trip.
The above trips are just the longest trips that we have a record of in the northern area of Israel as He based out of Capernaum. It does not include the short trips to nearby cities. Also it does not include any mileage for such verses like this; “Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom”…Matt.9:35.
Time and again we see Jesus in other cities surrounding the Sea of Galilee and Capernaum I do not see any way that this would be any less that 100 miles walking total (160 km). So I will use this figure.
Now lets look at Judea and the area near Jerusalem. Not counting the trips to and from Jerusalem for Galilee lets look at trips recorded where Jesus left Jerusalem and returned from that area.
Jesus is in Jerusalem and then sends out the 70 followers to go before Him into every city and place where He Himself was about to go. Luke 10 1-37 This is believed to be Judea. We then see Him back at Bethany then Jesus is in Perea, which is across the River Jordan. Then in Jericho and back in a big loop. Also there are many trips by Jesus from Jerusalem to Bethany and vice versa. Most of this is recorded in Luke 10th chapter through Luke 21st chapter. The area of Perea is across the River Jordan for a distance of about 25 miles (40 km). He went into Perea, which is very large. Let’s just say he went 25 miles (40 km) deep into the territory. It would be at least 100 miles (160 km) round trip and yet Jesus went into many cities and villages.
It would think the most conservative estimate would be to say that all these trips combined would be about 200 miles (321 km).
Total Miles Jesus walked during His 3-year public ministry is: 3,125! (5,029 km)
Grand total of miles Jesus walked in His 33 years on earth while traveling on trips:
*
400 miles: Jesus walked from Egypt to Nazareth.
*
18,000 miles: Jesus walked from Nazareth to Jerusalem And return by age 30.
*
3,125 miles: Jesus walked during His 3-year public Ministry.
* Grand Total Miles Jesus walked on trips! 21,525 Miles (34,640 km)
An average of 20 miles (32 km) a day on all His journeys would mean that Jesus spent at least 1,076 days and nights on the road in his life! This is a total of Two Years, 346 days on the road in his life! All these miles He walked by the age of 33.
The distance around the world at the equator is 24,901.55 miles (40074 km).
This means the Jesus ‘walked’ ‘Almost’ the distance around the world!
Please remember this! The above mileage concerning Jesus is the most conservative possible. Here is what John one of Jesus twelve disciples writes in the Book of John chapter 21 verse 25 “And there are also many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. Amen”
Looking at the above mileage Jesus walked and knowing that He traveled much more than listed. I personally believe He walked the distance around the world that He had made with the Father and the Holy Spirit. “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men! (John 1:1-4)
Without a doubt Jesus taught, preached, healed and ministered in more places and more often than listed in the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. I have chosen not to speculate or include any miles that cannot be reasonably backed up with scripture from the Holy Bible. I pray that this look at the walking miles of Mary the Mother of Jesus and Jesus will help you to see both of them in a more realistic and clear light. Most of the writings about both fail to consider how much time they spent walking and traveling in tuff conditions in the Middle East. Jesus walked the areas that now include the five nations of Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Israel and Lebanon.
Jesus walking and ministry stretched south to north from Egypt (Nile, to Sidon, Lebanon) a distance of 436 miles (701 km)! He walked from the Mediterranean Sea inland at least as far as 100 miles (160 km)!
May the Holy Spirit open our understanding to see Jesus truly as He Was and Is. God bless you in your ‘walk’ of ‘following Jesus’.
Again I welcome all helpful insights, or teaching on the walking and traveling lives of Jesus and Mary His Mother.
Should you not know, believe in and follow Jesus, I encourage you to pray now and invite Jesus to forgive your sins and be your Savior and Lord. Give your life to God now.
Let’s tell the world about Jesus! Go into all the World!
“The Glory of the Coming of the Lord is at Hand!”
Remember, the longest mile Jesus walked was the last one ‘to Calvary where He was crucified on the Cross for you and me! He walked the last mile ‘for you’! Jesus has ascended into Heaven and opened the way for you to ‘come on in’. It was your sins and mine that He carried to the cross so you may be forgiven and that you may know Him.
Notes and Research by Bible Teacher Michael Ooten
Dear Arthur: Here is what I have found so far. Jesus attended annually three great festivals the three most important Jewish feasts
* Passover: The Bible traces the origin of Passover to the exodus.
According to Exodus 12, on the evening of the 14th of the first month (Abib; later called Nisan). The Israelites gathered in family units to sacrifice a yearling sheep or goat. They used hyssop to apply blood from the lambs to the sides and tops of the doorframes of their homes and roasted the lambs. They also prepared bitter herbs and bread without yeast. They ate the food hastily and with their sandals on their feet as a sign of their readiness for a quick departure. That night, the Lord killed Egypt's firstborn but spared Israel. Of all of Israel's festivals, Passover is of the greatest importance to the New Testament because the Lord's Supper was a Passover meal (Matt 26:17-27; Mark 14:12-25; Luke 22:7-22; notwithstanding problems posed by the Johannine chronology, as in John 18:28; see the major commentaries on John. In passing the bread to the disciples and telling them that it was his body and that they should eat of it, Jesus was perhaps presenting himself as the Passover lamb. Christ is thus described as "our Passover lamb" in 1 Corinthians 5:7 and as "the Lamb who was slain" in Revelation 5:12. John's Gospel points out that none of Jesus' bones were broken in his crucifixion in allusion to the requirement that none of the Passover lamb's bones be broken (John 19:33-37; cf. Exodus 12:46).
* Pentecost: The Feast of Weeks (Pentecost). The Feast of Weeks occurred seven full weeks after the wave offering of the First fruits at Passover (Lev 23:15; Deut 16:9). It celebrated the end of the grain harvest. Because of the fifty-day interval (in the inclusive method of reckoning), it is also known by the Greek name "Pentecost." Like First fruits, it took place on the day after the Sabbath. Exodus 23:14-19 refers to the Feast of Weeks when it links the "Feast of the Harvest" to the Feast of Unleavened Bread and to the Feast of Ingathering (Booths) as the three major agricultural festivals of Israel (see Deut 16:16; 2 Chronicles 8:13).
* Feast of Tabernacles: Feast of Booths (Tabernacles or Ingathering). The Feast of Booths took place on Tishri 15, five days after the Day of Atonement, in what is now mid-October. The festival is described in Leviticus 23:33-43 and Deuteronomy 16:13-15, but the most elaborate presentation of the details of this week is found in Numbers 29:12-40. For seven days the Israelites presented offerings to the Lord, during which time they lived in huts made from palm fronds and leafy tree branches. The stated purpose for living in the booths was to recall the sojourn of the Israelites prior to their taking of the land of Canaan (Lev 23:43). The offering of the first day was thirteen bulls, two rams, and fourteen male lambs as burnt offerings, with one goat as a sin offering. Each day there after the number of bulls offered was decreased by one. The eighth day was exceptional: one bull, one ram, seven lambs, and one goat were offered (Num 29:12-38). These were all in addition to the grain offerings and freewill offerings (Num 29:39). The week was to be a time of joy as a final celebration and thanksgiving for that year's harvest (Deut 16:14-15).
John 7:2-10 describes a visit of Jesus to Jerusalem during the Feast of Booths. On the last day of the feast Jesus promised that any who came to him would experience streams of living water flowing from within (i.e., the Holy Spirit; vv. 37-39). By New Testament times, the tradition had developed that during the feast a priest would draw water from the pool of Siloam and carry it in a sacred procession to the altar. This apparently was behind Jesus' metaphor. The New Testament also reflects the theology and symbolism of the Feast of Booths in its use of the term "tent" as a metaphor for the mortal body awaiting the glory of the resurrection (2 Corinthians 5:1-4; 2 Peter 1:13-14).
The Postexilic Feasts:
* The Ninth of Ab. Ab is the fifth month of the Jewish calendar. Zechariah 7:3-5 alludes to ritual fasting and mourning carried out in the fifth and seventh months in commemoration of the destruction of the temple. Eventually, the Jews settled on the Ninth of Ab as a day to commemorate both the first destruction of the temple by Nebuchadnezzar and the subsequent destruction of Herod's temple by the Romans in a.d. 70.
* Purim: Purim was established to celebrate the failure of Haman's plot against the Jews as described in the Book of Esther. The festival originally took place on the fourteenth and fifteenth of Adar, the twelfth month. The word "Purim" means "lots" and refers to the lots Haman cast in order to find an auspicious day for the destruction of the Jewish race (Esther 9:18-28).
* Feast of Dedication (Hanukkah or Lights): Judas Maccabeus established Hanukkah to commemorate the recapture and cleansing of the temple from the Greek forces of Antiochus IV in about 164 b.c. The ceremony took place on the twenty-fifth of the ninth month (Chislev). First Maccabbees 4:52-59 describes the initiation of the festival; John 10:22-23 mentions the holiday as an occasion on which Jesus was in Jerusalem.
Baker's Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology --' Feasts and Festivals of Israel'.
Quotations from prominent Biblical Scholars:
"There were three big occasions each year when all the 'men of Israel' were required to attend the national celebrations: Passover, Harvest, and 'Tabernacles'. "
Zondervan Handbook to the Bible, 'The Great Festivals', Leviticus, P.190, Zondervan Pub. House-1999
"In the New Testament times all Israelite males were expected to appear in Jerusalem thrice annually, for the Feasts of Passover, of Weeks, or Pentecost and of Tabernacles."
The Illustrated Bible Dictionary” Volume 3, 'Passover in the New Testament', P.1158, Tyndale House, Pub.1980
"The feasts or sacred festivals, held an important place in Jewish religion. They were religious services accompanied by demonstrations of joy and gladness. The Passover was the first of all the annual feasts, and historically and religiously it was the most important of all. It was called both the Feast of the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the two really forming a double festival. This combined feast was one of the three feasts that all male Jews who were physically able and ceremonially clean were required by Mosaic Law to attend (Ex.23: 17; Deut.16: 16). The other two were the Feast of Weeks, or Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles."
New International Bible Dictionary based on the NIV, General Ed., Merrill C. Tenney, 'Feasts', Zondervan Pub. House-1987
" The Passover He kept at Jerusalem. It is the first after His baptism. Christ being made under the law, observed the Passover at Jerusalem. He went up to Jerusalem when the Passover was at hand, that He might be there with the first. Christ kept the Passover at Jerusalem yearly, ever since he was twelve years old”.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on John 2:12-22.
Dr. Alfred Edersheim, the great Biblical Scholar of the nineteenth century bares witness that Jesus would have attended all three feasts every year until His death, " In strict law, personal observance of the ordinances, and hence attendance on the feasts at Jerusalem, devolved on a youth only when he was of age, that is, at thirteen years. Then he became what was called 'a son of the Commandment,' or 'of the Torah.' But, as a matter of fact, the legal age was in this respect anticipated by two years, or at least by one. It was in accordance with this custom, that on the first Paschal after Jesus had passed His twelfth year, His parents took Him with them in the 'company' of the Nazarenes to Jerusalem.”
The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, Volume I, Book II, Chapter X, Pp.235-236-Macdonald Pub. Company, McLean, Virginia
Dr. J.W. Shepard in his excellent exegetical study, 'The Christ of the Gospels' bares the same testimony. "Once only was the curtain lifted on the twenty-six silent years in Nazareth. Luke gives us one wonderful glimpse of the splendid boy Jesus, at the age of twelve, on a visit with His parents in Jerusalem at the time of the Passover. That was a critical age in the life of the boy, just turning to adolescence with the quickened growth physical and intellectual, and the expanding vision and idealism. It was exactly at this age that the Jewish boy became "the son of the law," and entered on the privileges and responsibilities of an Israelite, including attendance annually on the three most important Feasts (Ex.34: 22, 23). Page 51
The Mention of Feasts as Related to the Life of Jesus
1. Christ Always Observed the Feast of Passover Matt. 26:17-20; Luke 2:41; John 2:13, 23
2. At age twelve we find Jesus at the Passover Luke 2:42
3. At the beginning of Christ's Ministry we find Him in Jerusalem at the Passover John 2:12-17
4. John and Luke mention three appearances of Christ in Jerusalem during different Feasts Luke 9:51; 13: 22; 18:31; John 2:13; 5:1; 7:2, 10; 13:1.
5. Jesus was present at one Feast of Tabernacles of Feast of Dedication John 7:2; 10:22 At the Feast of the Dedication (which would be our Hanukkah ) this would be about 2 or 3 months after He had attended the Feast of Tabernacles ( John 7:2 ) Now why would Jesus attend two Feasts ( one was not required ) so close together, if He was not committed to keeping the other required Festivals?
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