Was Mt. Sinai a volcano?

Was Mt. Sinai a volcano?

The mountain that is commonly called Mt. Sinai is not of volcanic origin. But then again serious scholars are not in agreement of the actual location of the Mountain of God where God manifested himself to Moses. Some of these others locations may be of volcanic origin.

Where is the real Mount Sinai? No one really knows for sure. For centuries, scholars, explorers, and pilgrims have sought the location of the real Mount Sinai—the mountain where God gave the law to Moses and the people of Israel. To this day, several sites have been proposed, but no one site has been confirmed by archaeology as the place where God met with Moses.

The Bible gives us some general clues about the location of Mount Sinai. We know it was outside of Egypt, because the Israelites came to Mount Sinai after leaving Egypt (Exodus 19:1). Scripture also hints that Sinai was not in Midian, based on Moses’ Midianite in-laws leaving Sinai to return to their own land (Exodus 18:27; Numbers 10:29–31).

The traditional site of Mount Sinai is in the south central part of the Sinai Peninsula. The mountain, today called Jebel Musa (“the mountain of Moses”), has an elevation of 7,497 feet above sea level. In AD 530, St. Catherine’s Monastery was constructed at the northern foot of Mount Sinai. At the peak are a Christian chapel and an Islamic mosque. The ancient library at Jebel Musa was the source of Codex Sinaiticus, one of the major Greek texts used to aid Bible translation.

Other locations proposed for Mount Sinai include sites in the western, central, and northern parts of the Sinai Peninsula. One theory identifies Mount Sinai as the modern Mount Yeroham in the northern Negev Desert. Others see Sinai as being in southern Edom, or Seir (Deuteronomy 33:2). Another view places Mount Sinai in northwestern Saudi Arabia, associating it with the mountain called Jabal Maqla or Jebel el-Lawz today.

In Galatians 4:25, Paul mentions “Mount Sinai in Arabia.” It’s good to keep in mind that “Arabia” in the ancient world is not to be equated with “Saudi Arabia” in the modern world. The biblical term Arabia covers a vast area, including what we now call Saudi Arabia and the Sinai Peninsula.

Charles Beke in 1873 suggested that Mount Sinai was actually a volcano, but only a minority of scholars hold this opinion.

The location of the Mount Sinai described in the Bible remains disputed. The high point of the dispute was in the mid-nineteenth century. Hebrew Bible texts describe the theophany at Mount Sinai in terms which a minority of scholars, following Charles Beke (1873), have suggested may literally describe the mountain as a volcano.

Mount Sinai is one of the most sacred locations in Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

Other possible locations of the Mountain of Moses are Mount Helal (Jabal al-Halāl), Mount Gabal Sin Bishar, Mount Hashem El Tarif, Mount Catherine, Mount Serbal, Mount Sinai, Mount Jebel al-Madhbah, Mount Jabal Ahmad al Baqir, Mount Jabal al-Lawz, Mount Jabal Maqla and Mount Hala-'l Badr.

It is impossible to determine if the actual Mountain of Moses was volcanic at one time, but Mount Jabal Maqlā is believed to be by some as the ”Burnt Mountain”.

In discussions about the location of biblical Mount Sinai, Jabal Maqlā ('Burnt Mountain') is often believed to be Jabal al-Lawz by various authors such as Bob Cornuke, Ron Wyatt, and Lennart Möller as shown by local and regional maps and noted by other investigators. In contrast to the real Jabal al-Lawz, the summit of Jabal Maqlā consists mainly of dark-colored hornfels derived from metamorphosed volcanic rocks that originally were silicic and mafic lava flows, tuff breccias, and fragmental greenstones. The middle and lower slopes of Jabal Maqlā consist of light-colored granite, which has intruded into the overlying hornfels. This is the same granite that comprises Jabal al-Lawz. Jabal Maqla is about 7 kilometers to the south, and a few hundred meters lower.

Claims made by some writers, including Bob Cornuke, Ron Wyatt, and Lennart Moller, that Jabal Maqlā, possibly identified as Jabal al-Lawz, is the real biblical Mount Sinai have been rejected by such scholars as James Karl Hoffmeier (Professor of Old Testament and Ancient Near Eastern History and Archaeology), who details what he calls Cornuke's "monumental blunders". Creationist Gordon Franz has also argued against this identification.

Remains both of pillars and cairns at the site have been described as "similar to rock cairns of uncertain use and often uncertain date found at other sites throughout northern and western Arabia."

Jabal al-Lawz

A biblical archaeologist organization claims that Saudi Arabia's Jabal Maqula mountain may be Mount Sinai from the Bible. (The Sun)