MOUNT SINAI

Jebel Musa, possible location of Mount Sinai with
Saint Catherine's Monastery in foreground, courtesy,
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Mount Sinai is probably most important for Jews, as opposed to the other monotheistic faiths, as the place where god spoke to Moses and where Moses received the Ten Commandments and the Torah. In the Biblical account, there are two names for Mount Sinai – Mount Sinai and Mount Horeb. Whichever name one chooses, what is certain is that the location of the mountain today is uncertain. Since the time of the Exodus, Mount Sinai has played a dwindling, but mysterious role in Jewish history. During the period of the divided Israelite Kingdom, the Prophet Elijah made his way to Mount Sinai to escape the wrath of Queen Jezebel of the northern kingdom of Israel. Since the Babylonian Captivity and until the beginning of modern archaeology however, many have wondered where Mount Sinai was located. It was commonly believed that it was in, what is presently known as, Jebel Musa in the southernmost region of the Arab-occupied Sinai Peninsula. Many people support this view today but clearly, the Bible states that Mount Sinai is located in the Land of Midian which historians and scholars agree is in what is today, northwestern Saudi Arabia, not the Sinai Peninsula, and that therefore either Jebel el Lawz or Jebel Maqla adjacent to it, would be the real Mount Sinai. However, according to filmmaker/journalist Simcha Jacobovici, the real Mount Sinai is actually the Hashem el Tarif, located in an ancient Midianite enclave to the north of Saudi Arabia, in the eastern region of the Sinai Peninsula.

In the period before the Israelites and before the start of the Egyptian Pharaonic Dynasties, the area around Jebel Musa was an area inhabited by a Semitic people who had built shrines and mining camps, but the region was later seized by the Egyptians. Could Jebel Musa also have been a Midianite enclave? Whether it was or it wasn’t, there were those who still believed that that was the mountain where Moses ascended. There is evidence that prior to 100 CE, well before the Christian monastic period, Jewish sages had already identified Jebel Musa as Mount Sinai as did the early Jewish pilgrims and the local bedouin tribes, and this identification was later adopted by many Christian pilgrims. But in early Christian times, a number of Anchorites settled on Mount Serbal, approximately 20 miles west northwest of Jebel Musa, considering it to be the biblical mountain, and in the 4th century a monastery was constructed at its base. But Antoninus Martyr provides some support for the ancient sanctity of Jebel Musa by writing that Arabian heathens were still celebrating moon feasts there. In c. 300 CE, two monks claimed that one of the bushes at the foot of the mountain was the biblical burning bush, and according to monastic tradition this bush still survives. Etheria (circa 4th century CE) 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." She noted that her guides, who were the local "holy men", pointed out the round or circular stone foundations of temporary huts encircling Jebel Musa, claiming the children of Israel used them during their stay there.

Already, small settlements of monks had set up places of worship around Jebel Musa and an Egyptian pilgrim named Ammonius, who had in past times made various visits to the area, identified Jebel Musa as the Holy Mount. Empress Helena, c. 330 CE, 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. By 550 CE, Saint Catherine's Monastery was constructed at the base of this mountain, leading to the abandonment of the monastery at Serbal. In the 16th century a church was constructed at its peak only to be replaced by a Greek Orthodox chapel in 1954.

By the 19^th century, the theory of Jebel Musa as Mount Sinai was supported by many reputable archaeologists and explorers. Among them was American archaeologist Edward Robinson who explored the area in the 1830s and insisted that the Plain of ar-Raaha adjacent to Jebel Musa could have accommodated the Israelites. Robinson says that inscriptions with pictures of moon worship objects are found all over the southern peninsula but are missing on Jebel Musa. Another archaeologist who believed that this was the true Mount Sinai was F. W. Holland who stated: "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." 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 Israelite camp and the mount from which the laws of God were delivered. 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." Some point to the absence of material evidence left behind in the journey of the Israelites but Dr. Yitzhak 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."

Those who reject Jebel Musa as Mount Sinai point to the Biblical description of the “devouring fire” on the mountain. A suggested possible naturalistic explanation of this is that Sinai could have been an erupting volcano while others have suggested that the description fits a storm especially as the Song of Deborah seems to allude to rain having occurred at the time. The volcano theory has been suggested by Charles Beke, Sigmund Freud, and Immanuel Velikovsky, among others. This possibility would exclude all the peaks on the Sinai Peninsula, but would make a number of locations in the western half of Saudi Arabia reasonable candidates. In the 1^st century, the Jewish historian Josephus specified that Mount Sinai was within Arabia Petraea (a Roman Province encompassing modern Jordan, southern Syria, the Sinai Peninsula and northwestern Saudi Arabia). He wrote "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". 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. In recent years, many scholars have favored Jebel al Lawz as the real Mount Sinai. Advocates for Jabal al-Lawz include Lennart Moller (a Swedish professor in environmental medicine) and also Ron Wyatt and Bob Cornuke. Allen Kerkeslager, associate professor of Theology at St. Joseph's University believes that the archaeological evidence is too tenuous to draw conclusions but 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. A number of researchers support this hypothesis while others dispute it. Of those who reject it, James K. Hoffmeier (Professor of Old Testament and Ancient Near Eastern History and Archaeology) details what he calls Cornuke's "monumental blunders". Gordon Franz, a professional researcher, has studied this topic in depth and has published a refutation.

In the 1870s, Charles Beke proposed that Sinai was the Jabal al-Nour (meaning mountain of light), a volcanic mountain in western Saudi Arabia and which has great significance in Islam for other reasons. Beke died the following year, but his writings (published posthumously) retracted this identification four years later in favor of Jebel Ahmad al Baqir, with Horeb a different mountain - the nearby Jebel Ertowa. Beke's suggestions have not found as much scholarly support as another mountain in western Saudi Arabia, Hala-'l Badr. The equation of Sinai with Hala-'l Badr has been advocated by Alois Musil in the early 20th century, and in more contemporary times, Jean Koenig and Colin Humphreys among others. However, 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. Since then other scholars 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, the narrow gorge leading to Petra, is the Ain Musa, meaning spring of Moses.

And the debate continues.