The Sinai Peninsula 1

310 The Testimony, August 2003 This final quotation is most interesting. Not dignity, euthanasia, and the right to sui- only does it embody liberty and equality, it ex- cide. We oppose the increasing invasion pounds fraternity as an obligation to democracy. of privacy, by whatever means, in both Note also that it concludes by specifically tracing totalitarian and democratic societies. We this Humanist Manifesto back, not merely to 1948 would safeguard, extend, and imple- (UN Declaration) and the French Revolution, but ment the principles of human freedom also to the 1688 Bill of Rights and to the 1215 evolved from the Magna Carta to the Magna Carta! This surely confirms the validity Bill of Rights, the Rights of Man, and of our thesis, that the contemporary manifesta- the Universal Declaration of Human tion of the three frog spirits is humanism. Rights. (To be concluded) EDITOR: Tony Benson, 26 Tiercel Avenue, Norwich, Prophecy, History NR7 8JN. Tel./Fax 01603 412978; email: [email protected] and Archaeology The Sinai Peninsula 1. Roads and routes David Green HE AIM OF this seven-part series of arti- dered in the wilderness in a solitary way; they cles is to describe a range of features relat- found no city to dwell in”, says the psalmist Ting to the Sinai Peninsula, and to a lesser (107:4), yet there was sufficient plant growth and extent the adjacent wilderness areas of the Ara- water to support the flocks and herds, “large bah and the Negev. Past and present aspects will droves of livestock” (Ex. 12:38, NIV), that they be included, together with any Biblical connec- brought out of Egypt. tions, but there will be no detailed examination Travel routes crossing Sinai were developed, of the route taken by the Israelites in their wil- particularly for the purpose of trade and com- derness journey. It is hoped that the subjects merce. Three main overland routes connected discussed will be of interest to Bible students, Egypt with countries to its north and east (see particularly those who may not be very familiar Map 1). The most southerly of these linked the with the area under consideration. area of Egypt just below the Nile Delta with The Sinai Peninsula extends over an area of Ezion-geber and Elath at the tip of the Gulf of 23,500 square miles. The Mediterranean bounds ‘Aqaba arm of the Red Sea (Deut. 2:8; 2 Chron. it on the north and the Red Sea on the south. The 20:36) and then continued on to Arabia. This Gulf of Suez and the Suez Canal lie on its west route, running very nearly east-west, rough- side and the Gulf of ‘Aqaba and the Negev Desert ly divided Sinai into northern and southern on the east. In its greatest extent it is 130 miles halves. from east to west and 240 miles north to south. There were two major routes passing through northern Sinai. The easiest of these was the coastal Travel and trade road that led from Egypt to the land of the Phil- On the whole, the lack of water, vegetation and istines, running roughly parallel to the Mediter- shade make the Sinai Peninsula an inhospitable ranean Sea. This is described in Exodus 13:17 environment for travellers and their animals. as “the way of the land of the Philistines”. The Moses describes the area through which the Isra- children of Israel were prevented from leaving elites travelled as “a desert land . a barren and Egypt by this route to avoid the discouragement howling waste” (Deut. 32:10, NIV). “They wan- that would be occasioned by war with the Philis- The Testimony, August 2003 311 Mediterranean Sea Hebron Gaza Dead Sea Former mouth of Pelusiac branch Rafah of the Nile Beersheba 1 el-‘Arish 2 Coastal route El Suez Canal Wall of forts 1 Sin Qantara 2 Migdol The Negev Wilderness of Shur (Etham) Present border Road to Shur Wadi Arabah Route to Arabia Ezion-geber Elath SINAI Gulf of Suez Gulf of ‘Aqaba To Mecca 60 miles MAP 1 Red Sea tines. A more southerly route called “the road to Hebron and Beersheba, and then heading in the Shur” (Gen. 16:7, NIV) was a continuation of the direction of the Wilderness of Shur, which lay to highway from the north running through Bethel, the east of Egypt. For most of its length the road 312 The Testimony, August 2003 Lake Burlus Mediterranean Sea Lake Menzala (once the most fertile part of Pelusiac mouth the delta) Sin Tanis (Pelusium) (Zoan) Migdol Tahpanhes Sile (El Qantara) Goshen Avaris (Qantir, Shur Pi-Ramesse) Lake Timsah Bitter Lakes On (Heliopolis) Memphis (Noph) Red Sea MAP 2 40 miles River Nile to Shur would be between twenty and thirty- sandy desert lying between the line of the Suez five miles south of the coastal road. Canal and the Wadi el-‘Arish (see Map 1). From The Egyptians usually controlled the trade el-‘Arish the route continues to Rafah (Raphia) routes of Sinai, but the power of Egypt gradually and then on to Gaza, passing through areas where declined, and the Nabateans took control for cultivation is possible. about two centuries until the Romans defeated Egyptian armies used the coastal route as a them in A.D. 106. Then the region of Sinai be- military road, and during certain periods asserted came part of the Roman province of Arabia. authority and maintained wells along the entire length from the border of Egypt to Gaza in the The coastal route land of the Philistines.1 Particular military expe- From Egypt, the way to the land of the Philis- tines passes through the northern fringes of the 1. For example, during the nineteenth dynasty, c. 1300 Wilderness of Shur (Ex. 15:22), which is a barren, B.C. The Testimony, August 2003 313 ditions mentioned in the Bible are those of Egypt that used to pass along the Wadi of Shishak (Shoshenq I),2 invading in the fifth year Dothaim near Dothan.3 of Rehoboam, circa 925 B.C. (1 Kgs. 14:25), and When Joseph’s brothers came down to Egypt Pharaoh-necho, in the days of Josiah, 609 B.C. for corn they would have had to journey about (2 Kgs. 23:29). 230 miles each way at a rough estimate (about Armies invading Egypt from the north also 205 miles as the crow flies) if they travelled be- traversed it. It would have been the route taken tween Hebron and Avaris, in the east Delta, the by the Babylonian army of Nebuchadnezzar most likely site for Joseph’s home. Jacob, at the when he attacked Egypt in 568/7 B.C., as proph- invitation of Joseph, travelled this road into Egypt esied by Jeremiah (43:8-13). In more modern with all his family, going via Beersheba (46:1-3). times the Trans-Sinai railway was constructed After being embalmed, the body of Jacob must over this relatively easy terrain, but, following have returned this way, since he was buried at the 1967 war, Israel destroyed the section from Hebron/Mamre (50:13; 23:19). the town of el-‘Arish to the Suez Canal. Nowa- When Assyria threatened Judah, the envoys days, goods and materials passing between Is- that were sent from Jerusalem to obtain Egyp- rael and Egypt are transported along a coastal tian help would have travelled ‘the road to Shur’. highway linking Israel with the Suez Canal The prophet Isaiah gives a very poetic picture of Zone. the area through which they would travel: “An A considerable number of Jews fled to Egypt oracle concerning the animals of the Negev: to escape the Babylonians. Some of these settled Through a land of hardship and distress, of lions at Tahpanhes and others at Migdol, Noph (Mem- and lionesses, of adders and darting snakes, the phis) (see Map 2) and in the country of Pathros envoys carry their riches on donkeys’ backs, their (Jer. 44:1). The group led by Johanan the son of treasures on the humps of camels, to that un- Kareah, which included Jeremiah and Baruch, profitable nation, to Egypt, whose help is utterly ended up at Tahpanhes (43:5-7). Since Migdol useless” (30:6,7, NIV). and Tahpanhes lay very close to the Egyptian Perhaps Mary and Joseph with the young child end of the coastal road, it is possible that they Jesus passed this way when fleeing into Egypt travelled this way to Egypt. On the other hand, and later returning. It is unlikely that they had with Bethlehem as their starting point (41:17), stayed at Bethlehem for the two years since the the more southerly route through Shur may have birth of Jesus, so we do not know which town proved to be more convenient, and that would they fled from. If they had gone to Hebron in the have brought them to the border of Egypt at a meantime, this would have been the route to point about sixteen miles roughly south of use, but if Nazareth, either route would have Tahpanhes. proved suitable. One tradition is that they stayed at Memphis while in Egypt.4 Another is that they The road to Shur stayed at On (Heliopolis), where in those days The road to Shur is the most likely road used by there was a large Jewish colony and a temple Abraham when he visited Egypt (Gen. 12:10). founded by Onias.5 If they did travel by the Abraham was in the Negev, “the south”, when coastal route, they would have crossed over into he left for Egypt (v.

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