The Sinai Peninsula, or simply Sinai, is a peninsula in a triangular shape in Egypt, the only part of the country located in Asia, between the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Red Sea to the south, a land bridge between Asia and Africa. The Sinai Peninsula has a land area of about 23,000 square miles with a population of approximately 600,000 people. In the classical era this region was known as Arabia Petraea. This peninsula acquired the name Sinai in modern times due to the assumption that a mountain near Saint Catherine’s Monastery is the biblical Mount Sinai. Mount Sinai is one of the most religiously significant places for Jews. Christians, and Muslims. The Sinai Peninsula has been a part of Egypt from the time of ancient Egypt around 3100 BCE. In periods of foreign occupation, the Sinai was, like the rest of Egypt, also occupied and controlled by foreign empires. In more recent history the Ottoman Empire from 1517–1867, and the United Kingdom from 1882–1956 have held this land, the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula. Israel invaded and occupied Sinai during the Suez Crisis of 1956, and during the Six-Day War of 1967. In 1973, Egypt launched the Yom Kippur War to retake the peninsula, which was unsuccessful. In 1982, as a result of the Egypt–Israel peace treaty of 1979, Israel withdrew from the Sinai Peninsula. Today, Sinai has become a tourist destination due to its natural setting, rich coral reefs, and biblical history. The ancient Egyptians called it the “land of turquoise.” Sinai is one of the coldest provinces in Egypt because of its high altitudes and mountainous topographies. With the conquest of Egypt, the Roman Empire went on to control all the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. The Sinai Peninsula became part of the Roman province of Arabia Petraea. The first scientifically accurate map of the peninsula was in 1869. What do you know about the Sinai Peninsula?
Month: August 2023
Arrival at the Sinai Wilderness
In Exodus, chapter 19:1-2, Moses and the sons of Israel arrived at the Sinai wilderness. It took about 3 months or 90 days from the time they left Egypt. They arrived at the foot of Mount Sinai after their short stop at Rephidim. They camped facing the holy mountain. “Sinai” appears 35 times in the Hebrew Bible, 13 times in Exodus alone. In the New Testament, Paul the Apostle referred directly to Sinai in Galatians 4:24-25. The name “Sinai” was only used in the Torah by the Jahwist and Priestly sources. The other name for this holy mountain was “Horeb,” used by the Elohist and Deuteronomist sources, a name that only appears 17 times in the Hebrew Bible. Nevertheless, the exact location of Mount Sinai remains disputed, since modern scholars differ as to the exact geographical position of Mount Sinai. Josephus in the 1st century CE specified that it was between Egypt and Arabia, within the Roman Province of Arabia Petraea. He said that Sinai was the highest of all the mountains, very difficult to be ascend because of the sharpness of its precipices. There are at least thirteen different possible locations for Mount Sinai. Some modern biblical scholars explain Mount Sinai as having been a sacred place dedicated to one of the Semitic deities, even before the Israelites encountered it. Sinai may have derived its name from the word for Moon which was “Sin.” Arabians were still celebrating moon feasts there in the 6th century CE. The main center of moon worship seems to have been concentrated in the southern Sinai Peninsula. The traditional Mount Sinai, located in the Sinai Peninsula, is the name of a collection of peaks, sometimes referred to as the Holy Mountain peaks, that consists of Jabal Musa, Mount Catherine, and Ras Sufsafeh. The whole mountain group looks as if it were a single peak, but, as you enter the group, there are more than one. According to textual scholars, in the JE version of the Exodus narrative, the Israelites traveled in a roughly straight line to Kadesh Barnea from the Red Sea, since the detour via the south of the Sinai Peninsula is only present in the Priestly source. Some scholars and commentators have therefore looked towards the more central and northern parts of the Sinai Peninsula for the holy mountain. There is no indication that the name Sin was ever employed by the Canaanites or the Semitic nomads of Palestine. It is much more likely that the name Sinai related to the place-name Sin, which belongs to a desert plain in Sinai, as well as to a Canaanite city in Syria, and perhaps to a city in the northeast Delta of Egypt. It may somehow relate to the name of a kind of bush where Moses was said to have first witnessed the theophany of Yahweh. There may be a link between Sinai and the burning bush that Moses encountered at Mount Horeb in Exodus, chapter 3:1-6. The emblem of the Sinai deity was a tree of some sort. In Deuteronomy, chapter 33:16, Yahweh was the one who dwells in the bush. According to Rabbinic tradition, the name “Sinai” derives from sin-ah, meaning hatred, in reference to the other nations hating the Jews out of jealousy, due to the Jews being the ones to receive the word of God. Do you know where the Sinai wilderness is?
The institution of the judges
In Exodus, chapter 18:13-27, this author showed how the judges were instituted. Moses sat as a judge, וְשָׁ֣פַטְתִּ֔י (wesapatti), for the people from morning until evening. Then Jethro, his father-in-law, said to Moses, why are you doing this for all the people? Moses replied that the people came to him to inquire about Elohim, when they had a dispute. Moses then would explain the laws and commands of Elohim. Jethro said that Moses was going to wear himself out with this heavy load, since Moses was 83 years old. His father-in-law was up in the 100s. Jethro told him to teach others the statues and instructions, instead of having everyone come to him. He wanted Moses to find some able men who feared Elohim and were trustworthy. They should be made officers over thousands, hundred, fifties, and tens. Let them judge the minor cases so that Moses would only decide the important cases, since Moses was a judge over all the Israelites. Thus, Moses appointed other judges to whom cases were delegated in accordance with the advice of Jethro, his Midianite father-in-law. The later judges in the Book of Judges were military leaders in times of crisis also, in the period before an Israelite monarchy was established. Moses had listened to his father-in-law. He appointed judges who judged the people, so that they brought all the hard cases to Moses, but they decided most of the minor cases themselves. Then his father-in-law went back to his own country in Midian. There is no indication what happened to Moses’ wife and children. Thus, this institution of the judges made life simpler for Moses. Do judges make life simple for you?
The meeting of Jethro and Moses
This author in Exodus, chapter 18:1-2, said that the family of Moses at Midian made an appearance. Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, the priest of Midian, met Moses at the mountain of Elohim that according to chapter 4 was Horeb in Midian. Jethro brought Moses’ wife and two sons with him. However, in chapter 4, they went with Moses to Egypt, but here it says that Moses had sent away his wife and two sons, apparently because things were tricky in Egypt. There was no mention of a second son in chapter 2, just Gershom and an explanation of this name. The Elohim of his ancestors had helped him. In chapter 4, it says Moses took his sons, but never mentioned the name of Eliezer or the explanation of his name like here. Eliezer’s name implies “a problem with Pharaoh.” Moses went out to meet his father-in-law. Interesting enough, there is more emphasis on their reunion rather than with his wife and children. This is probably from the Elohist tradition. Moses told his father-in-law everything that had happened. Jethro rejoiced for all the good that Yahweh had done for Moses and the Israelites. Moses explained that the Elohim of his ancestors had helped him. Jethro was now sure that Yahweh was greater than all the other Elohim, because of what he did to the Egyptians. He brought a burnt offering and sacrifices to Elohim. Then Aaron and the elders of Israel broke bread with Moses’ father-in-law. Obviously, the priest of Midian is now clear that Yahweh is the chief Elohim. What convinced you that God is all powerful?
The movement to Rephidim
In Exodus, chapter 17:1-16, the sons of Israel, under Moses and at the command of Yahweh, left the Wilderness of Sin and went to Rephidim, that might be Wadi Feiran near Wadi esh-Sheikh. Wadi Feiran was an oasis, which would explain the battle with the Amalekites in terms of a struggle for control of water sources. Rephidim means place of rest. Another proposed location for Rephidim is in northwestern Saudi Arabia north of the town of al-Bad, the ancient city of Midian. To the northwest of this mountain is a large plain and a massive split rock that shows signs of water erosion. More recent scholarship identifies Rephidim with Wadi Refayid in the southwest Sinai. At Rephidim, they could not find any water to drink, and angrily demanded that Moses give them water. Moses called on Yahweh for help. This certainly was a complaining group. Moses asked them why they were quarreling with him and testing Yahweh. They complained some more when they said that would die of thirst. They would have been better off if they stayed in Egypt. Thus, Moses asked Yahweh, “What shall I do with these people?” He thought that they were going to stone him. Then Yahweh told him to take his magic staff that he had in Egypt and go to a rock at Horeb and strike the rock. This he did, and water came pouring out of it. Moses called this place Massah and Meribah, meaning testing and quarreling. He said not to worry because Yahweh is among them. In the Book of Numbers, chapter 20:2-13, a similar event was described as taking place near Kadesh. Water was beneath the limestone in the Sinai area. It is difficult to tell who is doing the complaining and how widespread it is, but there were Israelite elders. With 600,000 men, it would be easy to find some people who would be complaining all the time. Afterwards, the Amalekites attacked the Israelites encamped at Rephidim, but were defeated. The Amalekites were a desert tribe that controlled some of the wilderness. Amalek was the grandson of Esau, according to Genesis, chapter 36:12, the son of Esau’s son Eliphaz with his concubine, Timna, thus one of the bad folks. Whether it was him or not, clearly the allusion to a grandson of Esau as opposed to a great-grandson of Jacob is clearly indicated. Moses called Joshua to lead a select team of warriors to fight Amalek. This was the first mention of Joshua. He, Aaron, and Hur would watch from a nearby hill. This mysterious Hur was somehow related to Miriam or died in some battle according to some rabbinical sources. Moses noticed that when his arms were raised with the Egyptian staff of God in his hand, the Israelites gained the upper hand, but when they are down the Amalekites prevailed. He sat with his hands held up by Aaron and Hur until sunset, securing the Israelite victory. Finally, Joshua defeated Amalek. To commemorate this event, Yahweh told Moses to write it in a book as a reminder of Joshua’s battle. This is the first mention of a book to be written by Moses. The word “book” appears 186 times in the Hebrew Bible. Yahweh wanted to blot out the memory of Amalek. They really did not like this guy. Moses built an altar here called Yahweh is my banner. There probably will be more wars with these guys. Have you had a disagreement with a group of people more than one time?
How long did they eat this manna?
The Israelites ate this manna for 40 years until they came to the border of Canaan. Yahweh wanted Moses to keep an omer of this manna for future generations, in order that they may see the food that they ate in the wilderness. In case you did not know it, the text explained that an omer was a tenth of an ephah, roughly the equivalent to a bushel or 33 liters. They took a jar with an omer of manna in it and placed it before the covenant, but there was no covenant yet. Besides the manna melted every day. The Israelites only ate manna during their wilderness desert travels. However, they would have had milk and meat from their livestock that traveled with them. There were also references to provisions of fine flour, oil, and meat, in parts of this journey’s narrative. As a natural food substance, manna would produce waste products, but in classical rabbinical literature, as a supernatural substance, it was held that manna produced no waste, resulting in no defecation among the Israelites until several decades later, when the manna had ceased to fall. Modern medical science suggests the lack of defecation over such a long period of time would cause severe bowel problems, especially when other food later began to be consumed again. Classical rabbinical writers say that the Israelites complained about the lack of defecation, and were concerned about potential bowel problems. Many Christian vegetarians say that God had originally intended that man should not eat meat because plants cannot move, so that manna, a nonmeat substance, was used to support this theory. Further, when the people complained and wished for quail, Yahweh gave it to them, but they apparently still complained. Some greedily gathered the quail. Food was not manna’s only use. One classical rabbinical source states that the fragrant odor of manna was used in an Israelite perfume. Some were diligent enough to go into the fields to gather manna, while others just lay down lazily and caught it with their outstretched hands. Manna was found near the homes of those with strong belief in Yahweh, and far from the homes of those with doubts. Despite these hints of uneven distribution, classical rabbinical literature expresses the view that manna fell in very large quantities each day. Shabbat or Sabbath was reinstituted the first week manna appeared. Form critics regard this part of the manna narrative to be spliced together from the Yahwist and Priestly traditions, with the Yahwist tradition emphasizing rest during Shabbat, while the Priestly tradition merely states that Shabbat exists, implying that the meaning of “Shabbat” was already known. These critics regard this part of the manna narrative as a supernatural story designed to explain the origin of Shabbat observance, that was pre-Mosaic. Exodus states that the Israelites consumed the manna for 40 years, starting from the fifteenth day of the second month, but that it then ceased to appear once they had reached a settled land, and once they had reached the borders of Canaan. Form critics attribute this variation on the views about the manna ceasing derives from different tales. The “settled land” is attributed to the Priestly tradition, and “Canaan’s borders” to the Yahwist tradition. The Book of Joshua stated that the manna ceased to appear on the day after the annual Passover festival, when the Israelites had reached Gilgal, literally, forty years less one month after the Exodus. Did the manna cease at the death of Moses?
What was this manna?
In Exodus, chapter 16:31-36, there was an attempt to explain what manna was. This author said that it was like a coriander seed, white, with the taste of honey. Coriander is both a spice and an herb, like cilantro. Manna was an edible substance, described as white and comparable to hoarfrost in color. There was also another explanation in Numbers, chapter 11:1–9 as a part of a separate narrative. Manna was a fine, flake-like substance, like the frost on the ground. It arrived with the dew during the night and had to be collected before it was melted by the heat of the sun in the morning. Manna was the size of a coriander seed, but white in color, like bdellium. The Israelites ground it and pounded it into cakes, which were then baked, that tasted like cakes baked with oil. Stored manna created worms and had a bad smell. Manna tasted like wafers made with honey. Other commentators have called it a honey-dew excretion of insects that feed on a tamarisk tree, like crystallized honeydew of certain scale insects. Tamarisk trees were once comparatively extensive throughout the southern Sinai. The honeydew produced by the Tamarisk manna scale is like wax, melts in the sun, sweet and aromatic like honey, and has a dirty-yellow color. Thus, this fits the biblical descriptions of manna. However, being mostly composed of sugar, it would be unlikely to provide sufficient nutrition for a population to survive over long periods of time. Also, it would be very difficult for it to be compacted into cakes. Another type of honeydew is turkey oak manna, common in western Iran, northern Iraq, and eastern Turkey. When dried it forms into crystalline lumps which are hard and look like stone. They are pounded before inclusion in breads. Some researchers have believed manna to be a form of lichen, a plant-like colony that often has a low mass per unit volume density. Known natural aerial falls of various lichens have been described as occurring in accounts separate from that in the Hebrew Bible. Some form critics hold that these conflicting descriptions of manna are derived from different folk tales, with the description in Numbers being from the Jahwist tradition, and the description in Exodus being from the later Priestly tradition. The Babylonian Talmud stated that the different descriptions were due to the various tastes, depending on who was eating it. It tasting like honey for small children, like bread for young people, and like oil for the elderly people. Similarly, classical rabbinical literature rectifies the question of whether manna came before or after dew, by holding that the manna was sandwiched between two layers of dew, one falling before the manna, and the other after. Despite the eventual termination of the supply of manna, Exodus states that a small amount of it survived within a pot or jar, which was kept facing the Ark of the Covenant. The Christian Epistle to the Hebrews, chapter 9:4, stated that this pot was stored inside the Ark. Classical rabbinical sources believe this pot was made of gold. Form critics attribute the mention of the pot to the Priestly tradition, concluding that the pot existed in the early sixth century BCE. By extension, manna has been used to refer to any divine or spiritual nourishment. What do you know about manna?
Bread from heaven
In Exodus, chapter 16:4-30, Yahweh told Moses that he was going to rain bread from heaven each day. This was a test to see if they could follow instructions about gathering this food for six days. Moses warned that their complaining against him was actual complaints against Yahweh. They were going to get meat in the evening, and bread in the morning. Yahweh had heard their complaints. Aaron gathered all the people as the glory of Yahweh appeared in a cloud. Yahweh told Moses that he had heard their complaints so that he was going to send meat and bread. Thus, they would know that Yahweh was their Elohim. In the evening quails came up and covered the camp, while in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. They were confused about the dew with its fine flaky substance. Moses explained that it was bread. The name “manna” comes from the expression, “What is that?” They had no confusion about the quails, although it is not clear whether they were dead or alive. The quails seem to fly in at twilight and then let themselves be captured and eaten. Then the Israelites went out to gather the bread. They gathered as much as they needed. Whether you gathered a lot or a little, there was no shortage or overage. They were not to leave any of it until morning, but they did not listen to Moses. Moses was angry with them. Every morning they gathered it, as much as they needed, but when the sun grew hot, it melted. On the sixth day they gathered twice as much food, two omers apiece. An omer is nearly four quarts. Moses told the Israelite leaders to gather twice as much as normal because the next day was a solemn rest on the Sabbath to Yahweh. They could bake and boil on the sixth day, but not the on the Sabbath. On the seventh day, the Sabbath, there would be no heavenly bread. The food from the day before would not rot and would not have worms. There would be nothing to gather on the Sabbath day. However, on the seventh day, some of the people went out to gather food and there was nothing. Yahweh was mad at Moses, saying they were not keeping his instructions and commandments. They should have taken their food on the sixth day. Once again, the emphasis on the Sabbath rest dominated. Do you rest on the seventh day?
More complaints about food
In Exodus, chapter 16:1-3, all the Israelites set out from Elim, into the wilderness of Sin, between Elim and Sinai. They left Elim on the fifteenth day of the second month after leaving Egypt. The Israelites had left Rameses at midnight on the fifteenth of the first month, so that it would have been a lunar month, or thirty days later, when they departed Elim for Mount Sinai. They all began to complain again. Would it not have been better for them to die in Egypt where they could eat bread and meat whenever they were hungry? They were going to die a slow death of hunger in this desolate unknown wilderness. Sin, a name that appears only 6 times in the Hebrew Bible, was probably the narrow plain of el-Markha, which stretches along the eastern shore of the Red Sea for several miles toward the promontory of Ras Mohammed. However, some scholars have since rejected this traditional identification. Some modern scholars imply that the wilderness of Sin was roughly equal to central Arabah. The wilderness of Sin is mentioned by the Hebrew Bible as one of the places which the Israelites wandered through during their Exodus journey. The similarly named wilderness of Zin is also mentioned by the Hebrew Bible as having been a location through which the Israelites travelled. The biblical narrative states that on reaching the wilderness of Sin, the Israelites began to raise more objections over the lack of food, as they had already consumed all the grain that they had brought with them from Egypt. Yahweh heard their murmurings, and so provided them with abundant manna and quail. Later they left the wilderness of Sin and complained about a lack of water while camping at Rephidim. After all, they were a lot of them, at least a half million people, so that they needed a lot of food and water. Have you ever complained about the lack of food?
The other side of the Exodus story
Writers in the Greek and Latin period, from the late 4th century BCE to the late 1st century CE, record several Egyptian tales of the expulsion of a group of foreigners that were connected to the Exodus. These tales often include elements of the Hyksos period and most are extremely anti-Jewish. The earliest non-biblical account is that of Hecataeus of Abdera, around 320 BCE, as preserved in the first century CE Jewish historian Josephus in his work Against Apion and in a variant version by the 1st century BCE Greek historian Diodorus. Hecataeus told how the Egyptians blamed a plague on foreigners and expelled them from their country. Then their leader Moses took them to Canaan. In this version, Moses was portrayed extremely positively. Manetho, as preserved in Josephus’s Against Apion, told how 80,000 lepers and other “impure people.” led by a priest named Osarseph, joined forces with the former Hyksos, now living in Jerusalem, to take over Egypt. They wreaked havoc until the pharaoh and his son chased them out to the borders of Syria, where Osarseph gave the lepers a law code and changed his name to Moses. The identification of Osarseph with Moses in Manetho’s account may be an interpolation or may come from Manetho. Other versions of the story are recorded by the 1st century BCE Egyptian grammarian Lysimachus of Alexandria, who set the story in the time of Pharaoh Bakenranef. The 1st century CE Roman historian Tacitus included a version of the story that claims that the Hebrews worshipped a donkey as their god in order to ridicule Egyptian religion. The Roman biographer Plutarch claimed that the Egyptian god Seth was expelled from Egypt and had two sons named Juda and Hierosolyma. It is possible that these stories represent a polemical Egyptian response to the Exodus narrative. Do these stories come from oral sources that predate the writing of the Hebrew Bible? These stories had no single origin but rather combined numerous historical experiences into a folk memory. There is general agreement that the stories originally had nothing to do with the Jews. Do you know anything about Egyptian folklore?
Eugene Finnegan Bible Project 