Mount Sinai Candidates by Region

Summary: Deborah Hurn summarizes some of the primary Mount Sinai candidates by grouping them into three general regions while highlighting the main factors for each.

You came down on Mount Sinai and spoke with them from heaven and gave them right rules and true laws, good statutes and commandments, – Nehemiah 9:13 (ESV)

Candidates for Mount Sinai

For the first two stages of the wilderness itinerary (Goshen-to-Sinai; Sinai-to-Kadesh), proposed locations for the geographic regions depend largely upon scholars’ preferred candidates for Mount Sinai (Fig. 23). There are so many mountain candidates with varying credentials and, in many instances, inadequate literature that it is not possible to properly and fairly compare them. As Shanks observes:

More than twenty sites in the Sinai Peninsula have been identified as Mount Sinai, all based on Exodus routes referred to in the Bible or late traditions or early traveler accounts…. There is not even a single site that draws the majority of scholars. On the contrary, some (or many) of the sites identified as Mount Sinai are one-person proposals. None of the identifications has gained any traction.^[1]

In an investigation dedicated to the geographic regions of the exodus and wanderings, therefore, it is better to group and consider the candidates by region. Har-El takes such an approach in his 1968 investigation of exodus geography, representing and critiquing the views of representative scholars who variously locate Mount Sinai in:

1.      the southern Sinai Peninsula

2.      the northern Sinai Peninsula

3.      Midian (by which he means northwest Saudi Arabia)

4.      Edom (now southern Jordan).^[2]

Hoffmeier and Beitzel also classify the Mount Sinai candidates by region but combine into one group all candidates to the east of the Rift Valley (the Arabah and Aqaba Gulf).^[3]

Mount Sinai in the Southern Sinai Peninsula

The tradition that Mount Sinai lies in the southern Sinai Peninsula arose from biblical indications that a great distance lies between Mount Sinai-Horeb and Kadesh-barnea. The Deuteronomy foreword seems to situate Mount Horeb at eleven days’ walking distance from Kadesh-barnea (Deut. 1:1-2, cf. v. 19), while the Numbers itinerary lists some twenty stations between these terminals (Num. 33:16-36). The prophet Elijah, having traveled a day’s journey past Beersheba into the wilderness, then went a further forty days without food on his pilgrimage to Mount Horeb (1 Kings 19:3-8).

Kadesh-barnea, known to lie on the southern border of Judah (Num 34:4; Josh 15:1-4), was eventually identified at Ayn Qudayrat^[4] some three or four days’ walk southwest from Beersheba (78 linear km) on a trajectory towards the southern Sinai.

Explorers who support the traditional location of Mount Sinai at Jebel Musa or other peaks in southern Sinai include Burckhardt,^[5] Rüppell,^[6] Robinson,^[7] Palmer,^[8] Bartlett,^[9] and Petrie.^[10] Later scholars supporting a southern Mount Sinai include Aharoni,^[11] Finkelstein,^[12] Kitchen,^[13] Hoffmeier,^[14] Rainey,^[15] and Beitzel.^[16]

Mount Sinai in the Northern Sinai Peninsula

The proposal that Mount Sinai lies in the northern Sinai Peninsula also arose from biblical indicators. First, Moses’ request of Pharaoh to let the Hebrew slaves go three days’ journey into the wilderness to worship God (Exod 5:3; cf. 3:18; 8:27) together with the detail that their ultimate destination was Mount Sinai (19:1-4) may suggest that Mount Sinai lies three days’ journey from Goshen.

Second, flocks of quail arrived at the Israelite camp after the people left the Red Sea coast and again after leaving Mount Sinai for Kadesh (Exod 16:13; Num 11:31-32). Quail are commonly netted in northern Sinai during their annual migration between southern Europe and Arabia or West Africa.^[17]

Third, Amalekite encounters with Israel during the journey from Goshen to Mount Sinai (Deut 25:17-18; Exod 17:8-13; 19:1-2) favor a route through the central or northern peninsula where Amalekites were otherwise active (Num 13:29; 14:25; Judg 1:16; cf. 1 Sam 15:6).

Fourth, certain biblical poetic passages associate Sinai with Seir, Edom, Paran, Teman, and Midian (Deut 33:2; Judg 5:4; Hab 3:3, 7). According to other biblical and historical mentions in context, these regions lie on either side of the Arabah far from the southern Sinai Peninsula.

Explorers and scholars who propose locations in the northern Sinai Peninsula include Graetz,^[18] Kittel,^[19] Jarvis,^[20] Wiegand,^[21] and Har-El, the latter offering a mountain candidate in west-central Sinai near the ancient cross-Sinai road.^[22] Both Hebrew and English editions of Har-El’s investigation were published before Anati publicized his candidate, Har Karkom, so a review of Negev candidates does not appear.^[23]

Nonetheless, some of the arguments for and against candidates in the north of the peninsula are applicable. Jacobovici offers another candidate in the Negev, also near the ancient cross-Sinai road, by triangulating a fourteen-days’ distance from Elim on the Suez coast (Exod 16:1-2; cf. 19:1) with an eleven-days’ distance from Kadesh (Deut 1:2) and “grazing distance” from the homeground of the Kenite clan (Exod 3:1) which he locates at Timna in the Southern Arabah.^[24]

Mount Sinai in Arabia

The proposal that Mount Sinai lies in Arabia or southern Transjordan also rose from biblical indicators. First, when Moses fled from Pharaoh, he settled in the land of Midian and married a woman of the Kenite clan (Exod 2:15-16, 21; cf. Judg 1:16). His divine calling while leading sheep occurred at “the mount of God, Horeb” located “beyond the wilderness” in or near Midian (Exod 3:1-2).

Midian is commonly supposed to lie beyond the Aqaba Gulf because Abraham sent Midian and five other sons by Keturah “eastward to the east country” (Gen 25:1-6) and also because Classical and Arab historians locate Midian to the east of the Gulf of Aqaba.^[25]

Second, naturalistic explanations for biblical miracles suggest that the terrifying display on Mount Sinai at the giving of the Sinaitic Covenant describes volcanic activity (Exod 24:17; Deut 4:11-12; 5:22-26; 9:10, 15; 10:4; Judg 5:5; Psa 68:8; Hag 2:6)^[26] in a region where the only volcanoes lie to the east of the Rift Valley.^[27] Third, the apostle Paul explicitly locates Mount Sinai in Arabia (Gal 4:25), a region suggested by some to be limited to the country east of the Jordan.^[28]

Explorers who propose locations in Arabia and Transjordan include Beke,^[29] Musil,^[30] and Philby.^[31] Later scholars who support Mount Sinai candidates in Arabia include Nielsen,^[32] Lucas,^[33] Moore Cross,^[34] Kerkeslager,^[35] Humphreys (physicist),^[36] and Fritz (geographer).^[37] Other proponents and defenders of the popular Jebel al-Lawz option are Williams^[38] and Cornuke,^[39] Wyatt,^[40] Blum,^[41] Möller,^[42] and Richardson.^[43]

The debate on the identity of the mountain seems to have largely settled on a representative mountain for each region—Jebel Musa in Southern Sinai, Har Karkom in Northern Sinai, and Jabal al-Lawz in Arabia. The arguments for these three front-runners are by now so polarized and the parties so entrenched that the issue can no longer be addressed head-on with a pros-and-cons style approach. There is another way to determine the best Mount Sinai candidate—not by its features or traditions but by its location relative to the regions of the wilderness journeys. The one that makes the best geographical sense should claim first place.

Mount Sinai and the Exodus Journey

The three general regions for locating Mount Sinai candidates—southern Sinai Peninsula, northern Sinai Peninsula, and Arabia (territories east of the Rift Valley)—have implications for the site of the Red Sea crossing, the direction and extent of the exodus route, and the locations of the wildernesses, as follows:

• Southern Sinai candidates (including Jebel Musa) limit the Red Sea crossing to somewhere in the Suez Isthmus,^[44] require a journey southeast towards the granite interior of southern Sinai, and confine the wildernesses of the exodus journey to the western side of the Sinai Peninsula.

• Northern Sinai–Southern Negev candidates (including Har Karkom) limit the Red Sea crossing to somewhere in the Suez Isthmus or along the Mediterranean coast, require a journey eastward across central or northern Sinai, and confine the wildernesses of the exodus journey to the central and northern Sinai Peninsula.

• Arabia-Transjordan candidates for Mount Sinai (including Jabal al-Lawz) require a journey eastward across the central Sinai, locate the Red Sea crossing somewhere in the Aqaba Gulf (with few exceptions), and confine the wildernesses of the exodus journey to the area around the Aqaba Gulf and the eastern side of the Rift Valley.

Dr. Deborah Hurn

Adjunct: Avondale University

Research Fellow: Australian Institute of Archaeology

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References:

• [1] Hershel Shanks, “Respondent’s Remarks,” in Session III: (Re)Locating Mount Sinai: A Survey of Alternative Theories (Mount Sinai–Mount Karkom?, Mizpe Ramon, 2013).
• [2] Menashe Har-El, The Sinai Journeys: The Route of the Exodus, New (English) and Revised Edition (San Diego, CA: Ridgefield, 1983), 175–284.
• [3] James K. Hoffmeier, Ancient Israel in Sinai: The Evidence for the Authenticity of the Wilderness Tradition (Oxford: Oxford University, 2005), 125–48; Barry J. Beitzel, The New Moody Atlas of the Bible, New Ed. (Chicago, IL: Moody, 2009), 109–13.
• [4] C. Leonard Woolley and T. E. Lawrence, The Wilderness of Zin (Archaeological Report), vol. 1914–1915, Annual (London: Palestine Exploration Fund, 1914), 6.
• [5] Jebel Serbal. John Lewis Burckhardt, Travels in Syria and the Holy Land (London: John Murray, 1822).
• [6] Jebel Serbal. Eduard Rüppell, Reisen in Nubien, Kordofan, Und Dem Petraischen Arabien (Frankfurt am Main: Friedrich Wilmans, 1829).
• [7] Jebel Musa. Edward Robinson, Biblical Researches in Palestine, Mount Sinai, and Arabia Petraea: A Journal of Travels in the Year 1838, vol. I (London: John Murray, 1841), 87–213.
• [8] Ras Safsafa. Edward H. Palmer, The Desert of the Exodus [Vol 1]: Journeys on Foot in the Wilderness of the Forty Years’ Wanderings: Undertaken in Connexion with the Ordnance Survey of Sinai, and the Palestine Exploration Fund, vol. Part I (Cambridge: Deighton, Bell, and Co., 1871), 1–145.
• [9] Jebel Serbal. Samuel Colcord Bartlett, From Egypt to Palestine Through Sinai, the Wilderness and the South Country (New York, NY: Harper, 1879), 238–84.
• [10] Jebel Serbal. W. M. Flinders Petrie, Researches in Sinai (New York: Dutton, 1906), 206, 247–54 Petrie’s assistant, Charles T. Currelly, wrote the last four chapters about Mount Sinai and the southern regions.
• [11] Unspecified peak. Yohanan Aharoni, The Land of Israel in Bible Times (Hbw), First published 1949 (Jerusalem: Bialik Institute, 1962), 169–73.
• [12] Unspecified peak. Israel Finkelstein and Aviram Perevolotsky, “The Southern Sinai Exodus Route in Ecological Perspective,” Biblical Archaeology Review 11, no. 4 (August 1985): 26–35, 38–41.
• [13] Jebel Musa. Kenneth A. Kitchen, On the Reliability of the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, MI / Cambridge, U.K.: Eerdmans, 2003), 170.
• [14] Ras Safsafa or Jebel Serbal. Hoffmeier, Ancient Israel in Sinai, 140–48.
• [15] Unspecified peak. Anson F. Rainey and R. Steven Notley, eds., The Sacred Bridge: Carta’s Atlas of the Biblical World (Jerusalem: Carta, 2006), 120.
• [16] Prefers Jebel Musa. Beitzel, New Moody Bible Atlas, 112–13.
• [17] G. Wyper, “Quail,” in The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, ed. Geoffrey W. Bromiley (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1988), 4.
• [18] Jebel Araif en-Naqa. Heinrich Graetz, “Die Lage des Sinai oder Horeb,” Monatsschrift für die Geschichte und Wissenschaft des Judenthums 27 (1878): 337–60.
• [19] Jebel Araif en-Naqa. Rudolf Kittel, Geschichte Des Volkes Israel, (not in Eng. trans), vol. 1, 2 vols. (Stuttgart: Gotha, 1916).
• [20] Jebel Hallal. Claude S. Jarvis, Yesterday and Today in Sinai (London: W. Blackwood and Sons, 1938), 165–84.
• [21] Jebel Yelleq. Theodor Wiegand, Sinai, vol. 1, Wissenschaftliche Veröffentlichungen Des Deutsch-Türkischen Denkmalschutz-Kommandos (Berlin / Leipzig: De Gruyter, 1920), 53.
• [22] Jebel Sinn Bishr. Har-El, Sinai Journeys, 415–30.
• [23] Emmanuel Anati, Har Karkom: Montagna Sacra Nel Deserto Dell’Esodo (Milan: Jaca Book, 1984); Emmanuel Anati, “Has Mt. Sinai Been Found?,” Biblical Archaeology Review 11, no. 4 (August 1985): 42–57.
• [24] Hashem al-Tarif. Simcha Jacobovici, “The Real Mount Sinai,” in Session III: (Re)Locating Mount Sinai: A Survey of Alternative Theories (Mount Sinai–Mount Karkom?, Mizpe Ramon, 2013); Simcha Jacobovici, “Mount Sinai Has Been Located,” The Jerusalem Post, September 25, 2013.
• [25] Graham I. Davies, The Way of the Wilderness: A Geographical Study of the Wilderness Itineraries in the Old Testament, SOTS: Monograph Series 5 (Cambridge: Cambridge University, 2009), 52, 64 citing Yakut 3.557 and Maraṣid 2.214 and citing von Wissman’s discussion of Ptolemy’s Geography and Josephus’ Antiquities (2.257) in; August Pauly, Georg Wissowa, and Wilhelm Kroll, Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft (Stuttgart: Metzler, 2013), 525–52, 544–45.
• [26] Charles T. Beke, Mount Sinai a Volcano (London: Tinsley Bros., 1873).
• [27] Hoffmeier, Ancient Israel in Sinai, 131.
• [28] Charles T. Beke, Sinai in Arabia and of Midian (London: Trübner, 1878), 4; Robert Cornuke and David Halbrook, In Search of the Mountain of God: The Discovery of the Real Mount Sinai (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman, 2000), 170–71.
• [29] Jebel Baghir/Ithm. Beke, Sinai in Arabia.
• [30] Seib al-Hrob (Jebel Harb). Aloïs Musil, The Northern Hejaz (New York: American Geographic Society, 1926), 263–64.
• [31] Jebel Manifa. Harry St. John B. Philby, The Land of Midian (London: Ernest Benn, 1957).
• [32] Jebel al-Madhbah. Ditlef Nielsen, The Site of the Biblical Mount Sinai: A Claim for Petra (Paris: Paul Geuthner, 1928).
• [33] Jebel Baghir. Alfred Lucas, The Route of the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt (London: E. Arnold, 1938).
• [34] Jebel al-Lawz. Hershel Shanks, Frank Moore Cross: Conversations With a Bible Scholar (Washington, D.C.: Biblical Archaeology Society, 1994).
• [35] Jebel al-Lawz. Allen Kerkeslager, “Mt. Sinai—in Arabia?,” Biblical Review 16, no. 2 (April 2000): 23–39, 52.
• [36] Hala al-Badr. Colin J. Humphreys, The Miracles of the Exodus: A Scientist’s Discovery of the Extraordinary Natural Causes of the Biblical Stories (London / New York, NY: Continuum, 2003).
• [37] Jebel al-Lawz. Glen A. Fritz, The Exodus Mysteries of Midian, Sinai, & Jabal al-Lawz (Vero Beach, FA: GeoTech, 2019).
• [38] Larry R. Williams, The Mountain of Moses: The Discovery of Mount Sinai (New York, NY: Wynwood, 1990).
• [39] Cornuke and Halbrook, In Search of the Mountain of God.
• [40] Mary Nell Wyatt, “Mt. Sinai: Part 1,” The Discoveries of Ron Wyatt, 1994, https://www.ronwyatt.com/mount_sinia.
• [41] Howard Blum, The Gold of the Exodus: The Discovery of the True Mount Sinai (New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 1998).
• [42] In company with Jim and Penny Caldwell. Lennart Möller, The Exodus Case: New Discoveries Confirm the Historical Exodus, 3rd ext. ed. (Copenhagen, Denmark: Casscom Media / Scandinavia Publishing, 2008).
• [43] Joel Richardson, Mount Sinai in Arabia: The True Location Revealed (WinePress Media, 2018).
• [44] The shallow valley between Egypt and the Sinai Peninsula running some 100 km between the Mediterranean Sea in the north and the Red Sea in south.

TOP IMAGE: Some of the primary mountains proposed by scholars for the real location of Mount Sinai. (credit: Deborah Hurn)

NOTE: Not every view expressed by scholars contributing Thinker articles necessarily reflects the views of Patterns of Evidence. We include perspectives from various sides of debates on biblical matters so that readers can become familiar with the different arguments involved. – Keep Thinking!