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Bible Encyclopedias
Mile
Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
or This word is only mentioned in , where Christ says, 'If anyone compel thee to go with him one mile, go with him two.' The mile was originally (as its derivation from mille, 'a thousand,' implies) a Roman measure of 1000 geometrical paces (passus) of 5 feet each, and was therefore equal to 5000 Roman feet. Taking the Roman foot at 11.6496 English inches, the Roman mile would be 1618 English yards, or 142 yards less than the English statute mile. By another calculation, in which the foot is taken at 11.62 inches, the mile would be little more than 1614 yards. The number of Roman miles in a degree of a large circle of the earth is very little more than 75. The Roman mile contained 8 Greek stadia. The Greek stade hence bore the same relation to the Roman mile which the English furlong does to the English mile.
Public Domain.
Kitto, John, ed. Entry for 'Mile'. "Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature". https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/kbe/m/mile.html.
