Mount Sinai

:For other places named Mount Sinai, see Mount Sinai (disambiguation)

Biblical Mount Sinai

Mt. Sinai is most famous for its importance in the Biblical book of Exodus. Whether modern-day Gebel Musa is the same as the biblical Mount Sinai, however, is the subject of much religious and scholarly contention.

Related Topics:
Biblical - Exodus

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In the Bible, Mt. Sinai is also called Mt. Horeb and the Mount of God.

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Jewish scholars have long asserted that the exact location of Mount Sinai was unknown, the reason being that its location was purposefully terra incognita. This is unsurprising since it is one of the holiest places in their religion, most famous for being the place where Moses was said in the Bible to have received the Ten Commandments from God.

Related Topics:
Moses - Bible - Ten Commandments - God

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In Biblical times, the location of the mountain was apparently well-known, as seen in the description of Josephus: ?taking his station at the mountain called Sinai, he drove his flocks thither to feed them. Now this is the highest of all the mountains thereabout, and the best for pasturage, the herbage being there good; and it had not been before fed upon, because of the opinion men had that God dwelt there, the shepherds not daring to ascend up to it?. Josephus Flavius, Antiquities of the Jews, Book II, CHAPTER 12.

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it was known in the days of Ahab, king of Israel, as is recounted in the story of Elijah's journey: "And he arose, and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights unto Horeb the mount of God." 1Ki:19:8:

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The last Biblical mention of the place is in the New Testament, in Galatians 4:25: "For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia."

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The location of the mountain was evidently later forgotten. The present location in Jebel Musa was made by two monks who claimed they found the Burning Bush of Moses, circa 300 CE. This bush is today located in the monastery of Santa Catarina, Egypt. The belief of Mount Sinai's location here has survived almost 1700 years and has become part of tradition. The real Biblical location, though, is still uncertain.

Related Topics:
Burning Bush - Moses - Santa Catarina, Egypt

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The name Sinai comes probably from "Moon God Sin," same as the Desert of Sin. Judaism teaches that as soon as the Jewish people received the Bible at Mt. Sinai they would be hated by the rest of the world for having been the ones to receive divine word (a state of affairs presented as a pun: Sinai as Seen-ah, which means hatred). The area was reached by the Hebrews in the third month after the Exodus. Here they remained encamped for about a whole year. The last twenty-two chapters of Exodus, together with the whole of Leviticus and Numbers ch. 1-11, contain a record of all the transactions which occurred while they were at Mount Sinai. From Rephidim (Ex. 17:8-13) the Israelites journeyed to "the desert of Sinai," and encamped there "before the mountain."

Related Topics:
Sin - Hebrews - Exodus - Encamped - Leviticus - Numbers - Rephidim

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