SIN, 'Wll.DKIiN'KSS OF (fP'"'17':; LXX J) (pTjMOS ^{()lf ; Vulg. desertum Sin). — This ' wilderness ' is
described in Ex IG^ as between Elim and Sinai ; in 17' an encanipment in Hephidira is mentioned between .Sin and the wilderness of Sinai ; and in the itinerary of Nu ;)8 an encampment by the Red Sea is inserted between Elim and tlie wilderness of Sill, and two other eam])i!ig-places besides Rcjihidim between the wilderness of Sin and the wilderness of .Sinai. On the supposition tliat the traditional site of Sinai is the correct one, the encamimient by the sea is generally placed at the end of Wililij Tayibrh, near Ras Ahu Sclimeh, and the wilderness of Sin may be the open plain a little to the south of this headland. Others put it in Wddij ScheUal or Wddij Budrrih. Tliis wilder- ness appears to be different from the wilderness of Zl.N- (Nu i:3-i 20' 27" ;!8*i U^*, Dt 32''>. Jos \5<"), in which the Lsraclites encamjied after leaving Mt. Sinai, but the student cannot fail to notice the close similarity of the three names Sinai, Sin, Zin. A. T. Chap.man.
SINAI, MOUNT (•:•?, 2(e)ini).— The impressions derived from a study of the wanderings of the children of Israel <as they are recorded in the Scriptures, are found to undergo important modi- fications as soon as the biblical tradition is supple- mented by an actual topographical survey of the peninsula at the bead of the Red .Sea, which takes its name from Mt. Sinai, and is supposed to contain the famous mountain where the Law was said to have been given to Israel. For w hile the student of the Scriptures without their toiiographical supplement would conclude th.at the route of the Exodus lay entirely outside the pale of civilization, the student of the country is able to affirm witli certainty that there was an actual civilization in the peninsula itself ; that there were important mines, with at least one port of debarkation for ships coming from Egj-pt ; and that the country was intersected by trade routes which connected the upper end of the Red Sea with regions lying farther nortli and e.a.st ; the mines alluded to being contemporary with the earliest Egyptian dynasties, and the tnade routes behig also, in all probability, of extreme antiquity. And not only are there within the limits of the so-called Sinaitic peninsula the marks of an astonishingly early stage of civilization, but there is al-so the indication of the existence of early forms of religion, far removed from the semi-fetishism of wandering Arab tribes.
One of these forms of religion was the Egyptian, represented by the temples at Sarbut el-Kadeem on the northern route to Mt. Sinai ; it was the natural concomitant of the imported Egyptian influence which came in with the officials who had charge of the mining operations in the west of the peninsula. But besides this form of religion there is reason to siLspect th.at Babylonian religion was also represented, for there are traces in the Babylonian literature of mining and quarrying operations in the ea.stern part of the i)eniiisula and in the adjacent country of Mitlian. and these traces are very suggestive of religious concomi- tants, especially wlien we find a reflexion of the Babylonian theology in the very name of the sacred mountain. Mount Sinai, in fact, is named after the moon-god Sin (cf. the formation of ilordccai from the name of Marduk) ; and if this be so, it was from the earliest times a place of .sanctity, ami the routes that converge upon it would easil.v acipiire the character of haj routes or pilgrim ro;ids. There is therefore no a priori difficulty in tlie account of the wandering of tlie children of Israel to a s,acred mount, nor any need to regard the sanctity of the pl.ace as acquired in the time of the Exodus, or projected back upon the story by later chroniclers.
The real problem lies in the identification of the
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mountain described in the Pent., especially in view of tlie fact that the whole of the penin>ula is a mass of mountains, manj- of which are conspicuous objects in the landscape, and certain to have early attracted attention and invited nomenclature. \\ e are a.<.-^iiriunr; that Mt. Sinai is somewhere in the tongue of laud at tlie head of the Ked Sea, between the two arms of that .sea which constitute respec- tively the Gulf of'Akaba and the Gulf of Suez. It should, however, be remembered that Sayce thinks he has grounds for locating Mt. Sinai outside the peninsula and in the land of Midian itself. In this he is following in some points an earlier and more fantastic suggestion of IJcke. The advantage of such a theorj' lies in the fact (1) tliat Mt. Sinai is closely connected with the land of Midian in the biblical account. Thither Moses escapes from the wrath of Pharaoh, and while engaged in pastoral occupations in that land he sees the theopliany of the ouniing bush. Moreover, his wile and her relations are Midianite. The general opinion is that Midian is on the farther side of 'Akaba to the ea.st and north, and that si)ecial evidence is needed if we would include in it the surroundings of the traditional Mt. Sinai. (2) The theory furnishes a new explanation of the encampment of the Israelites by the sea, which on this theory is the Gulf of Akaba ; (3) it finds a site for the much-disputed Eliiii in the modem Aileh (ancient Elotli) ; (4) it explains why nothing is .said about the exquisite valley of Feiran by a writer who is so careful to record the palm-trees and springs (certainly of a much inferior c|ualitv) at Klim ; the identification of I{epl)idim witli Feiran is, on this hypothesis, incorrect 1}' made.