Where God Parted the Red Sea, Part 5

Where God Parted the Red Sea Part 5

Mount Sinai Is in Saudi Arabia

Most people, because of tradition, think that Mount Sinai is in the Sinai Peninsula. The Bible shows us, however, that the mountain is in what is now part of northwestern Saudi Arabia.

Midian

Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb. (Exodus 3:1 KJV) Mount Sinai is near enough to the land of Midian that Moses, while a resident of Midian, was able to lead his father-in-law's flock to God's mountain. Midian is in northwestern Saudi Arabia, east of the Gulf of Aqaba (see the map below).

Based on the above passage, Mount Sinai is across a desert from Midian, on the "backside of the desert." The Jabal al Lawz mountain range fits this description. A strip of desert approximately 20 kilometers (12 miles) wide is between the mountains of ancient Midian and the Jabal al Lawz mountain range. The Wadi Ifal cuts through that desert (see the map below). Moses probably led his flocks across that strip of desert to the Jabal al Lawz Mountains, on the "backside of the desert."

Above is a map of ancient Midian. If Moses, a resident of Midian, had attempted to graze Jethro's sheep at the traditional site of Mount Sinai in the Sinai Peninsula, Moses would have marched his sheep at least 190 km (118 miles) through harsh deserts, across rugged mountains, and through narrow ravines. This did not happen. Mount Sinai is near the land of Midian.

The Apostle Paul, a first century Pharisee educated at the feet of a Jewish sage named Gamaliel, confirmed that Mount Sinai is in Arabia.

For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia… (Galatians 4:25 KJV) Valley of Worship
I met with a Saudi Arabian government official in the fall of 1995 who had been in the Wadi al Abyad, a valley on the east side of the Jabal al Lawz mountain range in northwestern Saudi Arabia. He said there are many ancient paintings of bulls on the boulders in the valley. I spoke with an Aramco employee who had also been to the Wadi al Abyad. He confirmed the existence of the paintings.

Dr. Kyle McCarter of Johns Hopkins University informed me that the Hebrew word "agel," less accurately translated "calf" in "golden calf," actually means "young bull."1 The ancient Israelites did not make a golden calf, but a golden bull. This may account for the paintings of bulls in the Wadi al Abyad, rather than calves.

In a phone conversation in the fall of 1995, the Aramco employee, mentioned above, said that he saw several archaeological sites in the Wadi al Abyad. The sites had been fenced-off by the Saudi Arabian Directorate General of Antiquities. The Aramco employee said he thought he had remembered seeing an archaeological site-number on a sign at one of the sites. I later emailed him and asked if he recalled the site number. He sent me the following email on September 13, 1995:

In a faxed letter dated October 25, 1995, Dr. Frank Moore Cross of Harvard University wrote:

I do think there is enough hard evidence that Sinai was in Midian

For further reading about the probable location of the real Mount Sinai, read Howard Blum's book, The Gold of Exodus, and Larry Williams' book, The Mountain of Moses.

Continue to part 6, "The Exodus Route"

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Endnotes, Part 5
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1 Dr. McCarter gave this information to me in a telephone conversation in the fall of 1995.