Mount Sinai, Shin and Teeth

9:08 AM | BY ZeroDivide EDIT

The approach to Mount Sinai, painting by David Roberts

Mount Sinai (Ṭūr Sīnāʼ)
Mount Moses.jpg
Summit of Mount Sinai
Elevation2,285 m (7,497 ft)
Location
Mount Sinai (Ṭūr Sīnāʼ) is located in Sinai
Mount Sinai (Ṭūr Sīnāʼ)
Mount Sinai (Ṭūr Sīnāʼ)
Sinai Peninsula, showing location of Mount Sinai
LocationSinai, Egypt
Coordinates28°32′23″N 33°58′24″ECoordinates: 28°32′23″N 33°58′24″E
Mount Sinai (Arabic: طُور سِينَاء, translit.: Ṭūr Sīnāʼ ; Egyptian Arabic: جَبَل مُوسَى, translit.: Jabal Mūsā or Gabal Mūsā; literally "Moses' Mountain" or "Mount Moses"; Hebrew: הר סיני‎ translit. Har Sinai), also known as Mount Horeb, is a mountain in the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt that is a possible location of the biblical Mount Sinai. The latter is mentioned many times in the Book of Exodus in the Torah, the Bible,[1] and the Quran.[2] According to Jewish, Christian, and Islamic tradition, the biblical Mount Sinai was the place where Moses received the Ten Commandments.

Geography[edit]

Mount Sinai is a 2,285-metre (7,497 ft) moderately high mountain near the city of Saint Catherine in the Sinai region. It is next to Mount Catherine (at 2,629 m or 8,625 ft, the highest peak in Egypt).[3] It is surrounded on all sides by higher peaks of the mountain range.

Geology[edit]

Mount Sinai's rocks were formed in the late stage of the Arabian-Nubian Shield's (ANS) evolution. Mount Sinai displays a ring complex[4] that consists of alkaline granites intruded into diverse rock types, including volcanics. The granites range in composition from syenogranite to alkali feldspar granite. The volcanic rocks are alkaline to peralkaline and they are represented by subaerial flows and eruptions and subvolcanic porphyry. Generally, the nature of the exposed rocks in Mount Sinai indicates that they originated from different depths.

Religious significance[edit]


Mount Sinai depicted on Georgian manuscript.

A Greek Orthodox Chapel at the top of Mount Sinai at night

A Greek Orthodox Chapel at the top of Mount Sinai

A small Mosque at the top of Mount Sinai
Main articles: Biblical Mount Sinai and Saint Catherine's Monastery
The biblical Mount Sinai was one of the most important sacred places in the Abrahamic religions.
According to Bedouin tradition, it was the mountain where God gave laws to the Israelites. However, the earliest Christian traditions place this event at the nearby Mount Serbal, at the foot of which a monastery was founded in the 4th century; it was only in the 6th century that the monastery moved to the foot of Mount Catherine, following the guidance of Josephus's earlier claim that Sinai was the highest mountain in the area.
Orthodox Christians settled upon this mountain in the third century AD. Georgians from the Caucasus moved to the Sinai Peninsula in the Fifth Century, and a Georgian colony was formed there in the Ninth Century. Georgians erected their own churches in the area of the modern Mount Sinai. The construction of one such church was connected with the name of David The Builder, who contributed to the erecting of churches in Georgia and abroad as well. There were political, cultural, & religious motives for locating the church on Mount Sinai. Georgian monks living there were deeply connected with their motherland. The church had its own plots[clarification needed] in Kartli. Some of the Georgian manuscripts of Sinai remain there, but others are kept in Tbilisi, St. Petersburg, Prague, New York, Paris, or in private collections.

View down to the Saint Catherine's Monastery from the trail to the summit.
Some modern biblical scholars now believe that the Israelites would have crossed the Sinai peninsula in a direct route, rather than detouring to the southern tip (assuming that they did not cross the eastern branch of the Red Sea/Reed Sea in boats or on a sandbar), and therefore look for the biblical Mount Sinai elsewhere.
The Song of Deborah, which some textual scholars consider to be one of the oldest parts of the bible, suggests that Yahweh dwelt at Mount Seir, so many scholars favour a location in Nabatea (modern Arabia). Alternatively, the biblical descriptions of Sinai can be interpreted as describing a volcano, and so a small number of scholars have considered equating Sinai with locations in northwestern Saudi Arabia; there are no volcanoes in the Sinai Peninsula.
UNESCO World Heritage Site
Saint Catherine Area
Name as inscribed on the World Heritage List
Saint Catherine's Monastery
TypeCultural
Criteriai, iii, iv, vi
Reference954
UNESCO regionArab States
Inscription history
Inscription2002 (26th Session)

Saint Catherine's Monastery[edit]

Main article: Saint Catherine's Monastery
(Greek: Μονὴ τῆς Ἁγίας Αἰκατερίνης) lies on the Sinai Peninsula, at the mouth of an inaccessible gorge at the foot of modern Mount Sinai in Saint Catherine at an elevation of 1550 meters. The monastery is Greek Orthodox and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. According to the UNESCO report (60100 ha / Ref: 954) and website hereunder, this monastery has been called the oldest working Christian monastery in the world – although the Monastery of Saint Anthony, situated across the Red Sea in the desert south of Cairo, also lays claim to that title.

Ascent[edit]


Sunrise on Mt. Sinai
There are two principal routes to the summit. The longer and shallower route, Siket El Bashait, takes about 2.5 hours on foot, though camels can be used. The steeper, more direct route (Siket Sayidna Musa) is up the 3,750 "steps of penitence" in the ravine behind the monastery.[5]

Summit[edit]


view from the summit of Mount Sinai

The last few meters of the climb up Mount Sinai.
The summit of the mountain has a mosque that is still used by Muslims. It also has a Greek Orthodox chapel, constructed in 1934 on the ruins of a 16th-century church, that is not open to the public. The chapel encloses the rock which is considered to be the source for the biblical Tablets of Stone.[6] At the summit also is "Moses' cave", where Moses was said to have waited to receive the Ten Commandments. There is no Jewish place of worship or memorial associated with Mount Sinai.
View from the summit of Mount Sinai

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. Jump up^ Joseph J. Hobbs, Mount Sinai (University of Texas Press) 1995, discusses Mount Sinai as geography, history, ethnology and religion.
  2. Jump up^ "Tafsir Ibn Kathir". qtafsir.com. 2002-10-26. Retrieved 2015-01-30.
  3. Jump up^ "Sinai Geology". AllSinai.info.
  4. Jump up^ Hanaa M. Salem and A. A. ElFouly, Minerals Reconnaissance at Saint Catherine Area, Southern Central Sinai, Egypt and their Environmental Impacts on Human Health,ICEHM2000, Cairo University, Egypt, September, 2000, page 586- 598
  5. Jump up^ "Mount Sinai". AllSinai.info.
  6. Jump up^ "Mount Sinai, Egypt". Places of Peace and Power.

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sinai.

According to the Book of Exodus, Mount Sinai (Hebrew: הר סיני, Har Sinai) is the mountain at which the Ten Commandments were given to Moses by God. In the Book of Deuteronomy, these events are described as having transpired atMount Horeb. The name "Sinai" is only used in the Torah by the Jahwist and Priestly source, whereas Horeb is only used by the Elohist and Deuteronomist.[1] "Sinai" and "Horeb" are generally considered to refer to the same place, although there is a small body of opinion that the two names may refer to different locations.
Hebrew Bible texts describe the theophany at Mount Sinai in terms which a minority of scholars, following Charles Beke (1873), have suggested may literally describe the mountain as a volcano and have led to a search for alternative locations.[2]

[Mount: Meeting places of heaven and earth.
Volcano is the heat/eruption - Ejuculation -Fertility (5th element).
Sin is the heat/Daak/Sexula Desire.]

Etymology[edit]


'Out of the Sinai desert', painting by Eugen Bracht, c. 1880
According to the Documentary hypothesis, the name "Sinai" is only used in the Torah by the Jahwist and Priestly source, whereas Horeb is only used by the Elohist and Deuteronomist.[1]
According to some biblical scholars[who?], Horeb is thought to mean "glowing/heat", which seems to be a reference to the sun, while Sinai may have derived from the name of Sin, the Sumerian deity of the moon,[3][4] and thus Sinai and Horeb would be the mountains of the moon and sun, respectively.
Regarding the Sumerian Sin deity assumption, William F. Albright, an American biblical scholar, had stated:[5]
...there is nothing that requires us to explain Him as a modified moon-god. It is improbable that the name Sinai is derived from that of the Sumerian Zen (older Zu-en), Akkadian Sin, the moon-god worshiped at Ur (in his form Nannar) and at Harran, since there is no indication that the name Sin was ever employed by the Canaanites or the Semitic nomads of Palestine.
It is much more likely that the name Sinai is connected with the place-name Sin, which belongs to a desert plain in Sinai as well as to a Canaanite city in Syria and perhaps to a city in the northeast Delta of Egypt. It has also been recognized that it may somehow be connected with seneh (Aram. sanya), the name of a kind of bush where Moses is said to have first witnessed the theophany of Yahweh.
According to Rabbinic tradition, the name "Sinai" derives from sin-ah (שִׂנְאָה), meaning hatred, in reference to the other nations hating the Jews out of jealousy, due to the Jews being the ones to receive the word of God.[6]

Other names[edit]

Classical rabbinic literature mentions the mountain having other names:
  • Har HaElohim (הר האלהים), meaning "the mountain of God" or "the mountain of the gods"[7]
  • Har Bashan (הר בשן), meaning "the mountain of Bashan"; however, Bashan is interpreted in rabbinical literature as here being a corruption of beshen, meaning "with the teeth", and argued to refer to the sustenance of mankind through the virtue of the mountain[7]
  • Har Gebnunim (הר גבנונים), meaning "the mountain as pure as cheese"[7]
  • Har Horeb (הר חורב), see Mount Horeb
Also:
  • Tūr Sīnāʾ /(Sheena --In bengali-Courage, Teeth like perseverance)  Tūr Sīnīn (طور سيناء / سينين), is the term that appears in most Islamic sources, including the Quran, and it means, "The mount of Sinai".[8][9][10]
  • Jabal Mūsa (جبل موسى), is another term that appears in Islamic sources, and it means, "The Mountain of Moses".[7]

Biblical description[edit]

Mass-revelation at the Mount Horeb in an illustration from a Bible card published by the Providence Lithograph Company, 1907
According to the biblical account of the giving of the instructions and teachings of both the Written and the Oral Torah, Sinai was enveloped in a cloud,[11] it quaked and was filled with smoke,[12] while lightning-flashes shot forth, and the roar of thunder mingled with the blasts of a trumpet;[11] the account later adds that fire was seen burning at the summit of the mountain.[13] In the biblical account, the fire and clouds are a direct consequence of the arrival of God upon the mountain.[14] According to the biblical story, Moses departed to the mountain and stayed there for 40 days and nights in order to receive the Ten Commandments, the Written and the Oral Torah, and he did so twice because he broke the first set of the tablets of stone after returning from the mountain for the first time.
The biblical description of God's descent[14] seems to be in conflict with the statement shortly after that God spoke to the Israelites from Heaven.[15] While biblical scholars argue that these passages are from different sources, the Mekhilta argues that God had lowered the heavens and spread them over Sinai,[16] and the Pirke De-Rabbi Eliezer argues that a hole was torn in the heavens, and Sinai was torn away from the earth and the summit pushed through the hole. 'The heavens' could be a metaphor for clouds and the 'lake of fire' could be a metaphor for the lava-filled crater.[17] Several bible criticsWho? have indicated that the smoke and fire reference from the Bible suggests that Mt Sinai was a volcano;[18] despite the absence of ash.[19] Other bible scholars have suggested that the description fits a storm[19] especially as the Song of Deborah seems to allude to rain having occurred at the time.[20] The biblical record notes the uniqueness of the event by stating that God spoke directly to the Israelite nation as a whole.[21][22]

Critical views[edit]

Some modern biblical scholars explain Mount Sinai as having been a sacred place dedicated to one of the Semitic deities, even before the Israelites encountered it.[7] Others regard the set of laws given on the mountain to have originated in different time periods from one another, with the later ones mainly being the result of natural evolution over the centuries of the earlier ones, rather than all originating from a single moment in time.[23]

Suggested locations[edit]

Modern scholars differ as to the exact geographical position of Mount Sinai,[7] and the same has long been true of scholars of Judaism. The Elijah narrative appears to suggest that when it was written, the location of Horeb was still known with some certainty, as Elijah is described as travelling to Horeb on one occasion,[24] but there are no later biblical references to it that suggest the location remained known; Josephus only specifies that it was within Arabia Petraea (a Roman Province encompassing modern Jordan, southern modern Syria, the Sinai Peninsula and northwestern Saudi Arabia with its capital in Petra), and the Pauline Epistles are even more vague, specifying only that it was in Arabia, which covers most of the south-western Middle east.

The Sinai Peninsula[edit]

The earliest references to Jebel Musa as Mount Sinai or Mount Sinai being located in the present day Sinai Peninsula are inconclusive. There is evidence that prior to 100 CE, well before the Christian monastic period, Jewish sages had already identified Jebel Musa as Mount Sinai. Graham Davies of Cambridge University offers evidence that early Jewish pilgrimages had already identified Jebel Musa as Mount Sinai and this identification was later adopted by the Christian pilgrims.[25][26] R. K. Harrison states that, “Jebel Musa . . . seems to have enjoyed special sanctity long before Christian times, culminating in its identification with Mt. Sinai."[27] In the second and third centuries BCE Nabataeans were making pilgrimages there, which is indicated in part by inscriptions discovered in the area.[28]
Josephus wrote that "Moses went up to a mountain that lay between Egypt and Arabia, which was called Sinai." Josephus says that Sinai is "the highest of all the mountains thereabout," and is "the highest of all the mountains that are in that country, and is not only very difficult to be ascended by men, on account of its vast altitude but because of the sharpness of its precipices".[29] The traditional Mount Sinai, located in the Sinai Peninsula, is actually the name of a collection of peaks, sometimes referred to as the Holy Mountain peaks [30][31] which consist of Jebel Musa, Mount Catherine and Ras Sufsafeh. Etheria (circa 4th century AD) wrote, "The whole mountain group looks as if it were a single peak, but, as you enter the group, [you see that] there are more than one."[32] The highest mountain peak is Mount Catherine, rising 8,550 ft. above the sea and its sister peak, Jebel Musa (7, 370 ft.), is not much further behind in height, but is more conspicuous because of the open plain called er Rachah ("the wide"). Mount Catherine and Jebel Musa are both much higher than any mountains in the Sinaitic desert, or in all of Midian. The highest tops in the Tih desert to the North are not much over 4,000 ft. Those in Midian, East of Elath, rise only to 4,200 ft. Even Jebel Serbal, 20 miles West of Sinai, is at its highest only 6,730 ft. above the sea.[33]
Some scholars[34] believe that Mount Sinai was of ancient sanctity prior to the ascent of Moses described in the Bible.[35] Scholars have theorized that Sinai in part derived its name from the word for moon which was "sin" (meaning "the moon" or "to shine").[36] Antoninus Martyr provides some support for the ancient sanctity of Jebel Musa by writing that Arabian heathens were still celebrating moon feasts there in the 6th century.[36] Lina Eckenstien states that some of the artifacts discovered indicate that "the establishment of the moon-cult in the peninsula dates back to the pre-dynastic days of Egypt."[37] She says the main center of moon worship seems to have been concentrated in the southern Sinai peninsula which the Egyptians seized from the Semitic people who had built shrines and mining camps there.[37] Robinson says that inscriptions with pictures of moon worship objects are found all over the southern peninsula but are missing on Jebel Musa and Mount Catherine [38] which oddity may suggest religious cleansing.[39][40]
Groups of nawamis have been discovered in southern Sinai, creating a kind of ring around Jebel Musa.[41] The nawamis were used over and over throughout the centuries for various purposes. Etheria, circa the 4th/5th century AD, noted that her guides, who were the local "holy men", pointed out these round or circular stone foundations of temporary huts, claiming the children of Israel used them during their stay there.[42]
The southern Sinai Peninsula contains archaeological discoveries but to place them with the exodus from Egypt is a daunting task inasmuch as the proposed dates of the Exodus vary so widely. The Exodus has been dated from the Early Bronze Age to the Late Iron Age II [43][44] with most fundamentalists pointing toward the late Bronze Age.
Egyptian pottery in the southern Sinai during the Late Bronze and Early Iron I (Ramesside) periods has been discovered at the mining camps of Serabit el-Khadim and Timna. Objects which bore Proto-Sinaitic inscriptions, the same as those found in Canaan, were discovered at Serabit el Khadim in the Southern Sinai. Several of these were dated in the later Bronze Age.[45] These encampments provide evidence of miners from southern Canaan.[46] The remote site of Serabit el-Khadem was used for a few months at a time, every couple of years at best, more often once in a generation. The journey to the mines was long, difficult and dangerous.[47] Expeditions headed by Professor Mazar examined the tell of Feiran, the principal oasis, of southern Sinai and discovered the site abounded not only in Nabatean sherds but in wheel-burnished sherds typical of the Kingdom of Judah, belonging to Iron Age II.[48]
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 Edward Robinson insisted that the Plain of ar-Raaha adjacent to Jebel Musa could have accommodated the Israelites. Edward Hull stated that, "this traditional Sinai in every way meets the requirements of the narrative of the Exodus." Hull agreed with Robinson and stated he had no further doubts after studying the great amphitheater leading to the base of the granite cliff of Ras Sufsafeh, that here indeed was the location of the camp and the mount from which the laws of God was delivered to the encampment of Israelites below.[26]
F. W. Holland stated (Recovery of Jerusalem, 524): "With regard to water-supply there is no other spot in the whole Peninsula which is nearly so well supplied as the neighborhood of Jebel Musa . . . There is also no other district in the Peninsula which affords such excellent pasturage." [33]
Calculating the travels of the Israelites, the Bible Atlas states, "These distances will not, however, allow of our placing Sinai farther East than Jebel Musa."[33]
Some point to the absence of material evidence left behind in the journey of the Insraelites but Dr. Beit-Arieh wrote, "Perhaps it will be argued, by those who subscribe to the traditional account in the Bible, that the Israelite material culture was only of the flimsiest kind and left no trace. Presumably the Israelite dwellings and artifacts consisted only of perishable materials." [49] Hoffmeier wrote, "None of the encampments of the wilderness wanderings can be meaningful if the Israelites went directly to either Kadesh or Midian . . . a journey of eleven days from Kadesh to Horeb can be properly understood only in relationship to the southern portion of the Sinai Peninsula."[27]
Local Bedouins who have long inhabited the area have identified Jebel Musa as Mount Sinai. In the fourth century AD small settlements of monks set up places of worship around Jebel Musa. An Egyptian pilgrim named Ammonius, who had in past times made various visits to the area, identified Jebel Musa as the Holy Mount in the 4th century. Empress Helena, ca. 330 AD, built a church to protect monks against raids from nomads. She chose the site for the church from the identification which had been handed down through generations through the Bedouins. She also reported the site was confirmed to her in a dream.[50]

Map of Sinai Peninsula with country borders shown.

Saint Catherine's Monastery.
The Sinai peninsula has traditionally been considered Sinai's location by Christians, although it should also be noted that the peninsula gained its name from this tradition, and was not called that in Josephus' time or earlier.[7] (The Sinai was earlier inhabited by the Monitu and was called Mafkat or Country of Turquoise.) In early Christian times, a number of Anchorites settled on Mount Serbal, considering it to be the biblical mountain, and in the 4th century a monastery was constructed at its base.[51] Nevertheless, Josephus had stated that Mount Sinai was "the highest of all the mountains thereabout",[52] which would imply that Mount Catherine was actually the mountain in question, if Sinai was to be sited on the Sinai peninsula at all.[7] In the 6th century, Saint Catherine's Monastery was constructed at the base of this mountain, leading to the abandonment of the monastery at Serbal, and two monks, allegedly in 300 CE[citation needed], claimed that one of the bushes in the monastic grounds was the biblical burning bush, and according to monastic tradition this bush still survives (rather than another having grown in its place).
Unlike these Christian traditions, Bedouin tradition considered Jabal Musa, which lies adjacent to Mount Catherine, to be the biblical mountain,[7] and it is this mountain that local tour groups and religious groups presently advertise as the biblical Mount Sinai. Evidently this view was eventually taken up by Christian groups as well, as in the 16th century a church was constructed at the peak of this mountain, which was replaced by a Greek Orthodox chapel in 1954.
According to textual scholars, in the JE version of the Exodus narrative, the Israelites travel in a roughly straight line to Kadesh Barnea from the Yam Suph (literally meaning "the Reed Sea", but considered traditionally to refer to the Red sea), and the detour via the south of the Sinai peninsula is only present in the Priestly Source.[18][53] A number of scholars and commentators have therefore looked towards the more central and northern parts of the Sinai peninsula for the mountain. Mount Sin Bishar, in the west-central part of the peninsula, was proposed to be the biblical Mount Sinai by Menashe Har-El, a biblical geographer at Tel Aviv University.[54] Mount Helal, in the north of the peninsula has also been proposed.[55][56] Another northern Sinai suggestion is Hashem el-Tarif, some 30 km west of Eilat, Israel.[57][58]

Edom/Nabatea[edit]


The Siq, facing the Treasury, at the foot of Jebel al-Madhbah
Since Moses is described by the Bible as encountering Jethro, a Kenite who was a Midianite priest, shortly before encountering Sinai, this suggests that Sinai would be somewhere near their territory in Saudi Arabia;[18][23] the Kenites and Midianites appear to have resided east of the Gulf of Aqaba.[18][23] Additionally, the Song of Deborah, which some textual scholars consider one of the oldest parts of the Bible,[18] portrays God as having dwelt at Mount Seir, and seems to suggest that this equates with Mount Sinai;[7][20] Mount Seir designates the mountain range in the centre of Edom.
Based on a number of local names and features, in 1927 Ditlef Nielsen identified the Jebel al-Madhbah (meaning mountain of the Altar) at Petra as being identical to the biblical Mount Sinai;[59] since then other scholars[18] have also made the identification.
The valley in which Petra resides is known as the Wadi Musa, meaning valley of Moses, and at the entrance to the Siq is the Ain Musa, meaning spring of Moses; the 13th century Arab chronicler Numari stated was Ain Musa was the location where Moses had brought water from the ground, by striking it with his rod. The Jebel al-Madhbah was evidently considered particularly sacred, as the well known ritual building known as The Treasury is carved into its base, the mountain top is covered with a number of different altars, and over 8 metres of the original peak were carved away to leave a flat surface with two 8 metre tall obelisks sticking out of it; these obelisks, which frame the end of the path leading up to them, and are now only 6 metres tall, have led to the mountain being colloquially known as Zibb 'Atuf, meaning penis of love in Arabic. Archaeological artifacts discovered at the top of the mountain indicate that it was once covered by polished shiny blue slate, fitting with the biblical description of paved work of sapphire stone;[60] biblical references to sapphire are considered by scholars to be unlikely to refer to the stone called sapphire in modern times, as sapphire had a different meaning, and wasn't even mined, before the Roman era.[61] Unfortunately, the removal of the original peak has destroyed most other archaeological remains from the late Bronze Age (the standard dating of the Exodus) that might previously have been present.

Saudi Arabia[edit]


Map of Saudi Arabia
A suggested possible naturalistic explanation of the biblical devouring fire is that Sinai could have been an erupting volcano; this has been suggested by Charles Beke,[62] Sigmund Freud,[63] and Immanuel Velikovsky, among others. This possibility would exclude all the peaks on the Sinai peninsula and Seir, but would make a number of locations in north western Saudi Arabia reasonable candidates. In 1873, Charles Beke proposed that Sinai was the Jabal al-Nour (meaning mountain of light), a volcanic mountain at the northern end of the Gulf of Aqaba, and which has great significance in Islam for other reasons;[62] Beke died during the following year, but his writings (published posthumously) retracted this identification four years later in favour of Jebel Baggir, with Horeb being argued to be a different mountain - the nearby Jebel Ertowa.[64] Beke's suggestions have not found as much scholarly support as the candidature of Hala-'l Badr; the equation of Sinai with Hala-'l Badr has been advocated by Alois Musilin the early 20th century, Jean Koenig in 1971,[65] and Colin Humphreys in 2003,[66] among others.
The possibility of an alternate site located in Saudi Arabia has also drawn attention due to the Apostle Paul's assertion in the first century that Mount Sinai was located in Arabia, although in Paul's time, the region of Arabia Petraea would have included both the modern Sinai peninsula and northwestern Saudi Arabia. A possible candidate within the Arabia theory has been that of Jabal al-Lawz. Advocates for Jabal al-Lawz include Lennart Möller[67] (a Swedish professor in environmental medicine) and also Ron Wyattand Bob Cornuke.[68][69][70] Allen Kerkselager, associate professor of Theology at St. Joseph's University has stated that "Jabal al Lawz may also be the most convincing option for identifying the Mt. Sinai of biblical tradition" and should be researched.[71] A number of researchers support this hypothesis while others dispute it.[72]
Jabal al-Lawz has been rejected by scholars such as James Karl Hoffmeier (Professor of Old Testament and Ancient Near Eastern History and Archaeology) who details what he calls Cornuke's "monumental blunders" and others.[73][74] Gordon Franz, a professional researcher, has studied this topic in depth and has published a refutation of this hypothesis.[75][76]
Although Jabal al-Lawz has drawn considerable debate as a possible candidate, the broader Arabia hypothesis as a region in which Mount Sinai is located continues to draw attention.

The Negev[edit]

While equating Sinai with Petra would indicate that the Israelites journeyed in roughly a straight line from Egypt via Kadesh Barnea, and locating Sinai in Saudi Arabia would suggest Kadesh Barnea was skirted to the south, some scholars have wondered whether Sinai was much closer to the vicinity of Kadesh Barnea itself. Half way between Kadesh Barnea and Petra is Har Karkom, which Emmanuel Anati excavated, and discovered to have been a major Paleolithic cult centre, with the surrounding plateau covered with shrines, altars, stone circles, stone pillars, and over 40,000 rock engravings; although the peak of religious activity at the site dates to 2350-2000 BCE, the exodus is dated 15 Nisan 2448 (Hebrew calendar; 1313 BCE),[77] and the mountain appears to have been abandoned between 1950-1000 BCE, Anati proposed that Jabal Idead was equatable with biblical Sinai.[78][79] Other scholars have criticised this identification, as, in addition to being almost 1000 years too early, it also appears to require the wholesale relocation of the Midianites, Amalekites, and other ancient peoples, from the locations where the majority of scholars currently place them.[80]

See also[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mount Sinai.

References[edit]

  1. ^ Jump up to:a b Harris, J. Rendel (1902). "Sinai, Mount". In James Hastings. A Dictionary of the Bible.
  2. Jump up^ James K. Hoffmeier Professor of Old Testament and Near Eastern Archaeology Trinity International University Ancient Israel in Sinai2005 0198035403 Page 131 "Now that Rameses is known to be located at Qantir in the Sharkiya province of the east Delta, this means that Beke's proposed site of ... Hermann Gunkel, Hugo Gressman, Martin Noth and Jean Koenig.115 They all thought that the biblical descriptions of the theophany at Mt. Sinai described volcanic activity, and since there was no evidence of volcanoes in Sinai, that northern Arabia was the more likely ."
  3. Jump up^ Joseph Jacobs; M. Seligsohn and Wilhelm Bacher. "Mount Horeb". Jewish Encyclopedia.
  4. Jump up^ D. M. G. Stalker (1963). "Exodus". In Matthew Black and H. H. Rowley. Peake's Commentary on the Bible (second edition ed.). Thomas Nelson. pp. section 178c.
  5. Jump up^ William Foxwell Albright (1957). From Stone Age to Christianity. Doubleday Anchor Book.
  6. Jump up^ Breslov—Judaism with Heart
  7. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e f g h i j Jewish Encyclopedia
  8. Jump up^ where the authors, Jaʻfar Sharīf and Gerhard Andreas Herklots (Oxford University) discuss in the glossary "Koh-e-Toor" and indicates it as an alternative name for Mount Sinai, written 1832.
  9. Jump up^ From the "World is my Village," by Khwaja Ahmad Abbas, where he relates the story of Moses using Koh-e-Toor not Mount Sinai. Same story, different name.
  10. Jump up^ From the Pakistani Daily Times, November 30, 2008, where the author indicates a translation of Koh-e-Toor to be Mount Sinai.
  11. ^ Jump up to:a b Exodus 19:16
  12. Jump up^ Exodus 19:18
  13. Jump up^ Exodus 24:17
  14. ^ Jump up to:a b Exodus 19:20
  15. Jump up^ Exodus 20:22
  16. Jump up^ Mekhilta on Exodus 20:22, 4
  17. Jump up^ Pirke De-Rabbi Eliezer, 41
  18. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e f Peake's commentary on the Bible
  19. ^ Jump up to:a b Peake's commentary on the Bible
  20. ^ Jump up to:a b Judges 5:4-5
  21. Jump up^ Exodus 20:15
  22. Jump up^ Deutronomy 4:10-12
  23. ^ Jump up to:a b c Cheyne and Black, Encyclopedia Biblica
  24. Jump up^ 1 Kings 19:8
  25. Jump up^ Davies, Wilderness (1979) pp. 23-24
  26. ^ Jump up to:a b Mount Sinai, Joseph J. Hobbs, University of Texas Press, Feb 19, 2014 - Social Science
  27. ^ Jump up to:a b Bible Encyclopedia, R. K. HARRISON J. K. HOFFMEIER
  28. Jump up^ Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament, Volume 10, edited by G. Johannes Botterweck, Helmer Ringgren, Heinz-Josef Fabry , Page 235
  29. Jump up^ Josephus, Flavius, The Antiquities of the Jews II, xii, 1; III, v, 1
  30. Jump up^ "Mount Sinai (and the Peak of Mount Musa or Mousa)". Touregypt.net. Retrieved 2014-12-01.
  31. Jump up^ Landscapes of Interesting Localities Mentioned in the Holy Scriptures, By John Marius Wilson, Edward Francis Finden, William Finden, Pg.36
  32. Jump up^ THE PILGRIMAGE OF ETHERIA, M.L. McClure and C. L. Feltoe, ed. and trans. London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1919, pg.2
  33. ^ Jump up to:a b c "Bible Map: Mount Sion (Mount Sinai)". Bibleatlas.org. Retrieved 2014-12-01.
  34. Jump up^ Ewald, W. R. Smith, Sayce, Burney,see next reference for detail.
  35. Jump up^ Ewald, Hist. ii. 43, 45, 103; Di.; W. R. Smith, Rel. Sem.2 p. 117 f.; Sayce, EHH.188; DB. iv. 536b; Burney, Journ. of Theol. Studies, ix. (1908), p. 343 f.
  36. ^ Jump up to:a b The Encyclopaedia Britannica: A Dictionary of Arts & Sciences, edited by Hugh Chisholm Volume 25, pg. 139
  37. ^ Jump up to:a b A History of Sinai, Eckenstien, Lina, London S.P.C.K., pg 13, 1921
  38. Jump up^ Dr. Robinson’s Biblical Researches, vol. i., p. 188
  39. Jump up^ The Jewish Nation; Containing an Account of Their Manners and Customs and Rites, Ulan Press, Pg 352
  40. Jump up^ See also Deut. 12: 2-3, II Chron. 34:3-7 and Exodus 32:20
  41. Jump up^ "Centre 4 Sinai". Centre 4 Sinai. Retrieved 2014-12-01.
  42. Jump up^ p. 57. George E. Gingas [Translator]. Egeria: Diary of a Pilgrimage.New York, N.Y. & Mahwah, New Jersey. The Newman Press. 1970
  43. Jump up^ Bimson, John J., Livingston, David. “Redating the Exodus.” Biblical Archaeology Review, Sep/Oct 1987, 40-48, 51-53, 66-68.
  44. Jump up^ Rendsburg, Gary A., The Bible and the Ancient Near East, pg 171
  45. Jump up^ pp.63-5. Itzhaq Beit-Arieh. "Canaanites and Egyptians At Serabit el-Khadim." Anson F. Rainey, editor. Egypt, Israel Sinai; Archaeological and Historical Relationships In The Biblical Period. Tel Aviv, Israel. Tel Aviv University. 1987
  46. Jump up^ Vol.3, p.288. Gregory D. Mumford, "Sinai." Donald B. Redford, Editor. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt.2001
  47. Jump up^ "Serabit el-Khadem". Archaeology.tau.ac.il. 2012-08-05. Retrieved 2014-12-01.
  48. Jump up^ p.166, Yohanan Aharoni, "Kadesh-Barnea and Mount Sinai." Beno Rothenberg. God's Wilderness, Discoveries in Sinai. New York. Thomas Nelson & Sons.1961, 1962
  49. Jump up^ Beit-Arieh 1988: 37
  50. Jump up^ Lina Eckenstein, A History of Sinai (London & New York, 1921 [AMS Press, New York, 1980 reprint]) pp. 99 fn. 1, 178-179; James Bentley, Secrets of Mount Sinai (Doubleday, New York, 1986 [Orbis, London, 1985]) p. 58; Edith Deen,Great Women of the Christian Faith (Harper & Row, New York, 1959 [Barbour & Co., Westwood, N.J., reprint]) pp. 7-10
  51. Jump up^ "Sinai". New Advent, The Catholic Encyclopedia.
  52. Jump up^ Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, 2:12
  53. Jump up^ Richard Elliott Friedman, Who wrote the Bible?
  54. Jump up^ Menashe Har-El, The Sinai Journeys: The Route of the Exodus
  55. Jump up^ Jarvis, C.S. (1938), "The forty years' wandering of the Israelites", Palestine Exploration Quarterly: 25–40
  56. Jump up^ de Geus, C.H.J. (1977), "Kadesh Barnea: Some geographical and historical remarks", in Brongers, Hendrik Antonie, Instruction and Interpretation: Studies in Hebrew Language, Palestinian archaeology and biblical exegesis, Leiden: Brill Archive, ISBN 90-04-05433-2
  57. Jump up^ The Megalithic Portal and Megalith Map. "Gebel Khashm el Tarif [Jebel Hashem al Taref, Hashem el-Tarif, Mount Sinai (?)] Ancient Temple : The Megalithic Portal and Megalith Map:". Megalithic.co.uk. Retrieved 2014-12-01.
  58. Jump up^ http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:TiJHhNg1FjcJ:www.simchajtv.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Jacobovici-The-Real-Mount-Sinaiwith-pictures.doc+%22This+paper+examines+a+number+of+candidates+for+Mount+Sinai+in+light+of+the+Biblical%22&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=il
  59. Jump up^ Ditlef Nielsen, The Site of the Biblical Mount Sinai – A Claim for Petra (1927)
  60. Jump up^ Exodus 24:10
  61. Jump up^ Cheyne and Black, Encyclopedia Biblica, Hoshen
  62. ^ Jump up to:a b Charles Beke, Mount Sinai, a Volcano (1873)
  63. Jump up^ Sigmund Freud, Moses and Monotheism (1939)
  64. Jump up^ Charles Beke (deceased), Sinai in Arabia and of Median (1878)
  65. Jump up^ Jean Koenig, Le site de Al-Jaw dans l'ancien pays de Madian
  66. Jump up^ Colin Humphreys, The Miracles of Exodus: A Scientist's Discovery of the Extraordinary Natural Causes of the Biblical Stories
  67. Jump up^ Lennart Möller, The Exodus Case: New Discoveries of the Historical Exodus
  68. Jump up^ Kelly, Mark (June 17, 2005). "IN SEARCH OF NOAH'S ARK: Wyatt's quest: Part 8". Baptist Press. Retrieved 3 December 2010.
  69. Jump up^ The Mountain of Moses: The Discovery of Mount Sinai, by Larry Williams, (Wynwood Press, New York, 1990; reprinted as The Discovery of Mount Sinai, 1997) p. 182.
  70. Jump up^ Wilson, Jennifer. "Is Noah's Ark on mount in Iran? Man scours the world looking for religious artifacts", Deseret Morning News, August 11, 2006. Accessed December 19, 2007. "Bob Cornuke doesn't have a degree in archaeology; he holds a doctorate in Bible and theology from Louisiana Baptist University."
  71. Jump up^ Where is Mount Sinai? St Catherine's or Jabal al Lawz?
  72. Jump up^ Mount Sinai is NOT Jebel al-Lawz in Saudi Arabia, by Gordon Franz, Associates for Biblical Research. Quote, from subsection "PROBLEMS WITH THE GULF OF AKABA / EILAT CROSSINGS": "The proponents of Jebel al-Lawz do not agree on the crossing site of the Red Sea in the Gulf of Akaba / Eilat. One group, consisting of R. Wyatt, J. Pinkoski and L. Moller suggests that the Israelites crossed at Nuweiba. The other group, consisting of J. Irwin, R. Cornuke, L. Williams, R. Knuteson, K. Kluetz, and K. Durham argues for the Strait of Tiran."
  73. Jump up^ Hoffmeier, James Karl Ancient Israel in Sinai Oxford University Press USA 2005 ISBN 978-0-19-515546-4 p133 [1]
  74. Jump up^ Jameson, John H. John E. Ehrenhard, Christine Finn Ancient muses: archaeology and the arts University of Alabama Press (30 Jun 2003)ISBN 978-0-8173-1274-9 p.179 [2]
  75. Jump up^ Mount Sinai is NOT Jebel al-Lawz, Oct 03, 2007, by Gordon Franz MA, Associates for Biblical Research website.
  76. Jump up^ Is Mount Sinai in Saudi Arabia?, Jun 10, 2008, by Gordon Franz MA, Associates for Biblical Research website. (alternate cite: Is Mount Sinai in Saudi Arabia? July 1, 2006.)
  77. Jump up^ Ex.16:1,7,13;Tal. Kid.38a
  78. Jump up^ Emmanuel Anati, The riddle of Mount Sinai: archaeological discoveries at Har Karkom (2001)
  79. Jump up^ Mount Sinai has been found: Archaeological discoveries at Har Karkom
  80. Jump up^ Shanks, Hershel (March–April 2014). "Where Is Mount Sinai? The Case for Har Karkom and the Case for Saudia Arabia". Biblical Archaeology Review. Retrieved 28 March 2015.
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