# biblical distance

## Definition

The following terms are the most common Biblical units that were used to measure distance or the length of something.

* The  <b> cubit  </b> referred to the length of a man's forearm, from the elbow to the tip of the longest finger.
* A  <b> stadium  </b> (plural,  <b> stadia  </b> ) referred to a certain footrace that was about 185 meters in length. Some older English versions translated this word as "furlong", which referred to the average length of a plowed field.
* The  <b> span  </b> or handspan was the width of a man's hand with fingers spread out.
* The  <b> "long" cubit  </b> is used only in Ezekiel 40-48. It is the length of a normal cubit plus a span.
^  Distance ^  Value ^  Units ||  cubit  |  46 |  centimeters ||  stadia  |  185 |  meters ||  span  |  23 |  centimeters ||  "long" cubit  |  54 |  centimeters |How to translate units of measure for distance or length in the Bible:  - Keep the Bible term, spelling it in a way that is similar to the way it sounds or is spelled in the Bible. [See Transliterate]  - An important reason for keeping the Bible terms is to show that the Bible is true and that people actually used these units of measure during that time period.  - If it doesn't work to use the Bible term, then instead, state the same distance or length in terms of a unit of measure that is known.  - These methods could be combined, using the Bible term but then also giving the equivalent amount in the text or a note.