RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Sin Sinai
golden calf (Ex. xxxii.). The plain of Wadi al- Raha, northwest of the junction of the three wadis just mentioned, is held by many to be the campingplace of the Children of Israel (Ex. xix. 2, 17).
According to tradition, Jabal Musa is the mountain where Yahweh first revealed himself to Moses (Ex. iii.), where he descended with fire and cloud and gave the Decalogue (Ex. xix., xx.; Deut. v.), and where Moses abode forty days and forty nights (Ex. xxiv. 18; Deut. ix. 9). If the arid Wadi al- Raha be taken as the camping-place of the Israelites, Ras al-Zafzaf would be Sinai, since Attempted the peaks of Jabal Musa are invisible Identifica- from Wadi al-Raha (cf. Ex. xix. 17, tions in the xxiv. 17). Since, however, the craggy Sinaitic and perilous summit of Ras al-Zafzaf Peninsula, would be ill-adapted for the sojourn of Moses with Yahweh, it was assumed that Jabal Musa was Sinai. This theory led to the supposition that the place of assembly of Ex. xix. 17 was the Wadi al-Saba'iyah, which bounds Jabal Musa on the east; but this stony, arid, and narrow valley does not fit the topography required by the Bible. Sinai has also been identified with Jabal Sarbal (6,730 ft.), south of the Wadi Firan. This portion of the peninsula was evidently once densely populated; the city of Pharan is mentioned by Ptolemy (V., xvii. 3); and it was the seat of a bishop in the fourth century and of an archbishop in the fifth century, until, in the time of Justinian, the orthodox monks removed from Jabal Sarbal to Jabal Musa. This identification is, however, rendered impossible by the statement of the " Pilgrimage " of Silvia of Aquitaine that Faran was thirtyfive (Roman) miles from the " mount of God," a distance which agrees with that between the oasis of Firan and the Sinaitic monastery, but is several times too large for that between the oasis and Jabal Sarbal. It would appear, therefore, that in the days of Silvia (about 385) Sinai was identified with Jabal Musa, and it is equally obvious that Ras al- Zafzaf was held to represent Horeb.
The Old Testament gives two different names to the " mount of God," Sinai and Horeb; and, while it was formerly held that Horeb was the general name of the region, and that Sinai was the name of the specific mountain, it is now maintained that Horeb is peculiar to E and D, and Sinai Critical to J and P. Two possibilities thus arise, View. either that, like Hermon (q.v.), the same mountain had two names, or that the sources really designate two different places. The location of Horeb seems to be best indicated by Deuteronomy, which indicates (i. 2) that the mountain was west of Kadesh-barnea, and also states (i. 6-7, 19-20) that the Israelites went from Horeb to Kadesh-barnea " through all that great and terrible wilderness, which ye saw by the way of the mountain of the Amorites." In Ex. iv. 27, Aaron goes from Egypt into the wilderness to meet Moses, whom he finds at " the mount of God," or Horeb (cf. Ex. iii. 1), which would thus again seem to be located on the road running from Egypt eastward to Kadesh-barnea. J gives the name Sinai to the mountain on which Yahweh spoke with Moses (Ex. xix. 11, 18, 20, 23, xxxiv. 4), while P (Num. x. 12)
locates the wilderness of Paran (q.v.) near the wilderness of Sinai, which obviously derived its name from Mount Sinai and is often mentioned (Ex. xix. 1; Num. i. 1, 19, iii. 4, etc.). This would apparently locate Sinai not far from Kadesh-barnea, in the desert lying north of the peninsula proper. The Song of Deborah (Judges v. 4-5) states that Yahweh rose up from Sinai to help the Israelites against the Canaanites, and that he came from Seir and the " field of Edom." Since, however, Sinai can not be sought in Edom, Seir and the " field of Edom " must designate the southern boundary of Canaan or of the mountain districts of the Amorites. This is borne out by Deut. xxxiii. 2-3, where Sinai is paralleled by Seir and Paran, while the goal was Kadesh-barnea (reading Kadhesh for kodhesh) , these places all pointing to the southern boundary of Canaan toward Edom. These passages, therefore, like Hab. iii. 3, locate Sinai in the southern (or rather southeastern) vicinity of Kadesh-barnea; but while this may easily be reconciled with P, J and, still more clearly, E and D refer to the western neighborhood of Kadesh-barnea. If the Sinai of J be identified with the Sinai of Judges v. 4-5, and if the " three days' journey into the wilderness " of Ex. iii. 18, v. 3, viii. 27, be taken as having Sinai as the goal, the real distance must have been much minimized (cf . the daily marches recorded in Num. xxi. 12-20); but if these days' journeys be taken strictly, the statements of J, E, and D practically coincide and indicate that Sinai and Horeb were two names of the same mountain, or at least designated two mountains close together. Judges iv. 4-5 indubitably locates Sinai further east than is implied by any combination of the statements of the Pentateuch. The Old Testament thus gives divergent data regarding the location of the mountain on which the Law was given; but while it would seem that Judges v. 4-5 best represents actual tradition, the region is still too imperfectly explored to permit of identification of Sinai. The attempt has also been made to identify Sinai with Jabal Barghir, or Jabal al-Nur, four or five hours northeast of 'Akaba; and others, on account of the association of Moses with Midian (Ex. ii. 15, 22, iii. 1), have located Sinai in Midian (q.v.), southeast of Edom. This theory is, however, irreconcilable with Judges v. 4-5. The hypothesis has likewise been advanced that the theophany recorded in Ex. 16, 18; Deut. iv. 11, ix. 15 indicates that Sinai was regarded as a volcano, so that it has been supposed to be represented by one of the extinct craters of northwestern Arabia, southeast of Midian, in the region between Tabuk and Mecca. While some of the volcanoes in the Hauran, east of Damascus, may have been active within historic times, there is no certain evidence that the Israelites were acquainted with them, nor do the data of the Old Testament necessitate such a hypothesis. (H. Guthe.)
Bibliography: C. W. Wilson and H. S. Palmer, Ordnance Survey of the Peninsula of Sinai, 5 vols., Southampton, 1869-72; G. R. Lepsius, Reise von Theben nach der Halbinsel Sinai, Berlin, 1846, Eng. transl., A Tour from Thebes to the Peninsula of Sinai, London, 1846; idem, Brief e aus Aegypten, Aethiopien, und der Halbinsel des Sinai, Berlin, 1852, Eng. transl., Letters from Egypt, Ethiopia, and the Peninsula of Sinai, London, 1853; J.
Sinai Sinim