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Mountain at which the Ten Commandments were given to Moses by God

Mount Sinai (, Har Sīnay) is the mountain at which the Ten Commandments were given to Moses by God, according to the Book of Exodus in the Hebrew Bible. In the Book of Deuteronomy, these events are described as having transpired at Mount Horeb. "Sinai" and "Horeb" are generally considered by scholars to refer to the same place. The location of the Mount Sinai described in the Bible remains disputed. The high point of the dispute was in the mid nineteenth century. 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. efn|
"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. 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." Hoffmeier (2005)

The biblical account of the giving of the instructions and teachings of the Ten Commandments was given in the Book of Exodus, primarily between chapters 19–24, during which Sinai is mentioned by name twice, in In the story Sinai was enveloped in a cloud, it quaked and was filled with smoke, while lightning flashes shot forth, and the roar of thunder mingled with the blasts of a trumpet; In the biblical account, the fire and clouds are a direct consequence of the arrival of God upon the mountain. 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 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 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, 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. Several bible critics have indicated that the smoke and fire reference from the Bible suggests that Mount Sinai was a volcano; despite the absence of ash. According to the biblical account, God spoke directly to the Israelite nation as a whole. Sinai is mentioned by name in ten other locations in the Torah: , , and Sinai was also mentioned once by name in the rest of the Hebrew Bible in In the New Testament, Paul the Apostle referred directly to Sinai in ; 4:25.

The peninsula is associated with Aaron and Moses, who are also regarded as Prophets. Ṭūr Sīnīn, and aṭ Ṭūr and al Jabal (both meaning "the Mount"). As for the adjacent Wād Ṭuwā (Valley of Tuwa), it is considered as being muqaddas (sacred), and a part of it is called Al Buqʿah Al Mubārakah (ٱلْبُقْعَة ٱلْمُبَارَكَة, "The Blessed Place").

The earliest references to Jabal 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 equated Jabal Musa with Mount Sinai. Graham Davies of Cambridge University argues that early Jewish pilgrimages identified Jabal Musa as Mount Sinai and this identification was later adopted by the Christian pilgrims. In the 6th century, Saint Catherine's Monastery was constructed at the base of this mountain at a site which is claimed to be the site of the biblical burning bush. 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". 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, which consist of Jabal Musa, Mount Catherine and Ras Sufsafeh. 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." The highest mountain peak is Mount Catherine, rising 8550 feet (2606 m) above the sea and its sister peak, Jabal Musa (7497 feet (2285 m)), is not much further behind in height, but is more conspicuous because of the open plain called er Rachah ("the wide"). Mount Catherine and Jabal 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 4000 feet (1219 m). Those in Midian, East of Elath, rise only to 4200 feet (1280 m). Even Jabal Serbal, 20 mile (32 km) west of Sinai, is at its highest only 6730 feet (2051 m) above the sea. Some scholars Scholars have theorized that Sinai in part derived its name from the word for Moon which was "sin" (meaning "the moon" or "to shine"). Antoninus Martyr provides some support for the ancient sanctity of Jabal Musa by writing that Arabian heathens were still celebrating moon feasts there in the 6th century. 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. This oddity may suggest religious cleansing. Groups of nawamis have been discovered in southern Sinai, creating a kind of ring around Jabal Musa. The nawamis were used over and over throughout the centuries for various purposes. Etheria, c. the 4th/5th century CE, 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. 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 widely. The Exodus has been dated from the early Bronze Age to the late Iron Age II. Egyptian pottery in the southern Sinai during the late Bronze Age and early Iron Age 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. These encampments provide evidence of miners from southern Canaan. 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. 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. Edward Robinson insisted that the Plain of ar Raaha adjacent to Jabal 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. "With regard to water supply there is no other spot in the whole Peninsula which is nearly so well supplied as the neighborhood of Jabal Musa. There is also no other district in the Peninsula which affords such excellent pasturage." 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." Egyptologist Julien Cooper has suggested that the name Sinai corresponds with a toponym Ṯnht, attested in the itinerary of an Egyptian official of the 11th Dynasty (c. 2150–1990 BCE). He notes that this toponymn was located in the southern parts of the Sinai Peninsula, corresponding with the geographical location of Jabal Musa. Bedouin tradition considered Jabal Musa, which lies adjacent to Mount Catherine, to be the biblical mountain, Nevertheless, Josephus had stated that Mount Sinai was "the highest of all the mountains thereabout", which would imply that Mount Catherine was actually the mountain in question, if Sinai was to be sited on the Sinai peninsula at all. 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. Mount Helal, in the north of the peninsula has also been proposed. Another northern Sinai suggestion is Hashem el Tarif, some 30 km west of Eilat, Israel.

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; 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 is the Ain Musa, meaning spring of Moses; the 13th century Arab chronicler Numari stated that 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; 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. 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.

Some have suggested a site in Saudi Arabia, also noting the Apostle Paul's assertion in the first century CE that Mount Sinai was in Arabia, although in Paul's time, the Roman administrative region of Arabia Petraea would have included both the modern Sinai peninsula and northwestern 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, Sigmund Freud, 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, C. Beke proposed Jebel Baggir which he called the Jabal al Nour (meaning mountain of light), a volcanic mountain at the northern end of the Gulf of Aqaba, with Horeb being argued to be a different mountain – the nearby Jebel Ertowa. Beke's suggestion has not found as much scholarly support as the suggestion that Mount Sinai is the el Jaww basin volcano Hala 'l Badr, as advocated by Alois Musil in the early 20th century, J. Koenig, and Colin Humphreys in 2003.

A possible candidate within the Arabia theory has been that of Jabal al Lawz (meaning 'mountain of almonds'). Advocates for Jabal al Lawz include L. Möller as well as R. Wyatt, R. Cornuke, and L. Williams. A. Kerkeslager 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. One of the most recent developments has been the release of a documentary the film includes video and photographic evidence in the project. Jabal al Lawz has been rejected by scholars such as J. K. Hoffmeier who details what he calls Cornuke's "monumental blunders" and others. G. Franz published a refutation of this hypothesis.

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. Halfway between Kadesh Barnea and Petra, in the southwest Negev desert in Israel, 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), and the mountain appears to have been abandoned between 1950 and 1000 BCE, Anati proposed that Jabal Ideid was equatable with biblical Sinai. 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.

According to contested research by I. Knohl (2012) Mount Hermon is actually the Mount Sinai mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, with the biblical story reminiscent of an ancient battle of the northern tribes with the Egyptians somewhere in the Jordan valley or Golan heights.