SUMMARY: In the conclusion of the new Patterns of Evidence film series, Journey to Mount Sinai II will feature three new Mount Sinai candidates.
…But Moses fled from Pharaoh and stayed in the land of Midian. And he sat down by a well. – Exodus 2:15 (ESV)
Upcoming film – Journey to Mount Sinai II – Join the Investigation with Three New Mount Sinai Candidates
After the successful release of Journey to Mount Sinai, we are now finishing the script for Journey to Mount Sinai II and we couldn’t be more excited. Three new Mount Sinai candidates will be investigated in the new film, as each proponent dissatisfied with the traditional location argues for their alternate site being the place where God revealed himself to the children of Israel and gave them the Ten Commandments through Moses.
One of these new candidates is in the Negev of Israel, the other two are on the Arabian Peninsula. This is where many believe the ancient land of Midian is located, where Moses lived when he encountered the burning bush at the mountain of God.
Let’s find out more about the three remaining major Mount Sinai candidates.
Har Karkom
Har Karkom (“Mountain of Saffron”) was first proposed as a Mount Sinai candidate in the 1980s by Italian archaeologist Emmanuel Anati. Anati was an expert in ancient rock art. He had first encountered this mountain in Israel’s Negev in the 1950s and was impressed with the large amount of archaeological material there. He was able to return decades later and initiated an extensive survey of the site.
During the next several years, Anati became aware of just how much material was present, hundreds of archaeological sites and tens of thousands rock art specimens, much of it of a religious nature. Har Karkom was clearly one of the region’s most important centers of worship in ancient times.
The idea struck Anati that it was unthinkable that such a significant site went unmentioned in the Bible. His conclusion was that this must be Mount Sinai. Anati’s book detailing his proposal The Mountain of God was published in 1985.
Australian Deb Hurn was introduced to Har Karkom twenty years ago while on a family vacation to Israel. She would become gripped by the question of Mount Sinai’s true location, eventually returning to school to earn a PhD in biblical geography. Many will remember Deb from our film The Red Sea Miracle II. Deb believes she has solved one of the major objections to the Har Karkom theory by coming up with a unique and insightful way of defining the wildernesses of the Exodus journey, which she believes lead to the Har Karkom location. What other biblical connections and challenges does this candidate have?
Hala-’l Bedr
For more than a century, some scholars have proposed that the descriptions of Mount Sinai in the Bible are uncannily consistent with an active volcano. These conditions include smoke, fire, quaking, lightning and even the sound of the trumpet that might be explained by escaping gas through a volcanic vent.
Colin Humphreys is an award-winning British physicist. Impressed with the volcano connection to Mount Sinai, while noting that there are no volcanic mountains on the Sinai Peninsula, Humphreys set out to explain the entire Exodus route leading to his favored site of Hala-’l Bedr (or Hala-’l Badr, Mount Bedr – Mountain of the “full moon”) in northwest Saudi Arabia.
He published his findings in The Miracles of Exodus (2008), where he seeks to understand the natural forces involved in the biblical miracles of Exodus. Humphreys favors naturalistic explanations for all of these events from the pillar of cloud that the Israelites followed to the mountain, to the burning bush, which he believes was caused by gasses emitted from a volcanic vent that were ignited. While naturalistic explanations are usually confined to many people within the “Egyptian” approach, Humphreys favors a sea crossing far from Egypt (at the Gulf of Aqaba) and a Mount Sinai location in the vicinity of the land of Midian (in northwest Saudi Arabia), which is typical of the big Exodus view found within the “Hebrew” approach.
Journey to Mount Sinai II will seek to respond to Humphreys’ “Hybrid” view. Does it fit the Exodus account? Is a volcano really the best explanation of the conditions described at Mount Sinai, and how does Hala-’l Bedr fit the other biblical criteria?
Jabal al Lawz
The third leading Mount Sinai candidate set to be investigated in Journey to Mount Sinai II is Jabal al Lawz (Mountain of Almonds) in northwest Saudi Arabia. This site was made popular by a controversial figure, the late Ron Wyatt. Wyatt formulated his ideas in the late 1970s and in 1983 snuck into the country with his two sons to visit the mountain. After making some initial promising discoveries, they were arrested by Saudi authorities and held for 78 days before being released.
Many have rejected Wyatt’s proposals because of his amateur approach and the perception that he made a wide array of fantastic claims of artifact discoveries from many areas of biblical archaeology. However, the idea of an Arabian Mount Sinai location within the ancient land of Midian has a long history. The Bible says that it was during Moses’ 40-year stay in the land of Midian that he encountered the burning bush at Mount Sinai.
Jabal al Lawz is also the tallest mountain in the northwest Saudi Arabian region, which fits the first century claims by Jewish historians Philo and Josephus that Mount Sinai was the tallest mountain in the area.
Other Exodus explorers (independent investigators) have since reached Jabal al Lawz and reported attributes and artifacts that match the biblical account concentrated near the peak of the Jabal al Lawz range named Jabal Maqla. However, are these finds legitimate, and how well does this mountain (and the journey to reach it) fit all the biblical criteria?
And they set out from Alush and camped at Rephidim, where there was no water for the people to drink. (Num. 33:14)
Can we find a Pattern of Evidence?
The Israelites are recorded as stopping at seven campsites and traveling through three wildernesses between the miraculous crossing of the Red Sea and Mount Sinai. Several attributes of Mount Sinai itself can be derived from biblical descriptions of events that occurred there. Additionally, it is possible that archaeological remains related to these events may have been preserved during the 3,500 years since the exodus from Egypt.
The same interactive approach will be followed in Part 2 with the Mount Sinai Scorecard for grading each mountain location. What distinctives do each of these mountains have, and how strong is their pattern of evidence?
With the Scorecard you can review what the Bible says about the journey from the miraculous sea crossing to Mount Sinai, as well as features for the mountain itself. This will give you a better perspective when assessing the various claims made by scholars.
Stay tuned for more updates on Journey to Mount Sinai II in the future as we strive to finish the film and to Keep Thinking!
TOP PHOTO: Tim Mahoney interviewing Deb Hurn at Har Karkom. (© 2018 Patterns of Evidence, LLC.)
