Is Mount Sinai in Saudi Arabia?* by Gordon Franz Two treasure hunters stood on the top of Jebel al-Lawz thinking it was the real Mt. Sinai, the “Mountain of God.” One was struck with fear because he thought he was trespassing on the “holiest place on earth.” As he gulped down Gatorade and munched on M&Ms, a sense of guilt overcame him because he had forged a letter from the king of Saudi Arabia in order to obtain a visa into the Kingdom (Cornuke and Halbrook 2000:10, 11, 74, 77, 79; Blum 1998a:206). Should he have felt guilty for this deceit? Yes, what he did was illegal, and offended the honor of the Saudi Arabian people. Should he have been afraid because he was on the holy mountain of God (Exodus 19:12)? No, because he was standing on the wrong mountain. MT. SINAI IS NOT IN SAUDI ARABIA! This article will examine four aspects of the question regarding whether or not Mt. Sinai is located in Saudi Arabia. First, the credibility of the claims will be questioned. Second, the false assumptions by the proponents of Jebel al-Lawz will be disputed. Third, the Biblical evidence will be discussed. Fourth, the archaeological evidence will be examined. Mount Sinai was the destination of Moses and the children of Israel after the Lord miraculously delivered them from the bondage of Egypt (Exodus 18:5). It was from this mountain that the Lord gave the Ten Commandments to Moses and the people of Israel (Exodus 19:1–3, 11, 18; 20:1–17). Here, too, the prophet Elijah found himself after his escape from wicked Queen Jezebel (1 Kings 19). Pilgrims, scholars and tourists have visited the traditional site, Jebel Musa (Arabic for the Mountain of Moses) for more than 1,600 years. In the early fourth century AD Eusebius of Caesarea placed Mt. Sinai in the southern Sinai Peninsula. When Egeria made a pilgrimage to the East between AD 381 and 384, she visited Jebel Musa as Mt. Sinai (Wilkinson 1981:1, 18, 91–100). This impressive mountain located in the southern Sinai Peninsula is situated behind the Byzantine monastery of St. Catherine built by Emperor Justinian in the middle of the sixth century AD (Tsafrir 1978:219). It may come as a surprise to most people, but scholars have identified 13 different sites as the “real” Mount Sinai (Har-El 1983:2). I would agree with the proponents of the Jebel al-Lawz hypothesis that Jebel Musa, the traditional Mt. Sinai, or any other site in the southern Sinai Peninsula, cannot be the real Mt. Sinai. Professor Har-El (1983:175–233) in his book, The Sinai Journey, has argued very convincingly against the southern Sinai theory. * This article was originally published in Bible and Spade 13 (2000): 101–112. Reprinted by permission. 72 CTS Journal 12 (Spring 2006) Recently, six American treasure hunters have added a 14th mountain to the already long list of candidates for the real Mt. Sinai: Jebel al-Lawz. Who’s Who Among the Treasure Hunters The idea of Mt. Sinai being in Midian (Saudi Arabia) is not new. Charles Beke suggested Mount Baggir, to the northeast of the Gulf of Aqaba, as the true location of Mt. Sinai in his book Sinai in Arabia and of Midian in 1878. Alois Musil (1926:263, 264, 269, 296–98) and H. Philby (1957:222–24) identify Mt. Sinai/Horeb with Jebel al-Manifa, near Wadi al-Hrob, 20 km north of ‘Ajnuna. A French scholar, Jean Koenig (1971), has added the volcanic peak of Hala ‘l-bedr to the list. The late Ron Wyatt, a nurse anesthetist turned treasure hunter, added a fourth Midian site, Jebel al-Lawz, to the list. He also claimed to have discovered Noah’s Ark, Sodom and Gomorrah, the Exodus crossing and some of Pharaoh’s chariots, the Ark of the Covenant with the blood of Jesus on the mercy seat, and other spectacular archaeological discoveries. This list is enough to make any archaeologist green with envy!1 In 1978, Wyatt claimed to have discovered the Exodus crossing at Newaba in the Gulf of Aqaba (the eastern branch of the Red Sea) and some of “Pharaoh’s chariot wheels.”2 This led him to conclude that Mt. Sinai must be in Saudi Arabia. His candidate for Mt. Sinai was Jebel al-Lawz because it was the highest peak in the entire northwest Saudi Arabian region (Noorbergen 1982:157–74). In 1984 Wyatt and his two sons illegally crossed the border of Jordan into Saudi Arabia to visit the site. They explored and photographed the area around Jebel al-Lawz. As they tried to get back across the border they were captured and jailed for 78 days as Israeli spies. They were eventually released. Eleven months later, Wyatt returned to Saudi Arabia legally under the patronage of a certain Mr. Samran al-Motairy. This time he had a contract with Samran to split the take on any “commercial minerals” found by them on their treasure hunt (Fasold 1993b:4–6; Blum 1998a:47). To help locate the gold, Wyatt convinced David Fasold, with his “molecular frequency 1 Archaeologists in his own denomination, the Seventh Day Adventists, do not support his views. Dr. David Merling at the Institute of Archaeology, Horn Archaeological Museum, Andrews University, Berrien Springs, MI 49104–0990, has prepared a packet with articles refuting some of his ideas. Two other Seventh Day Adventist researchers have evaluated Wyatt’s claims and found them wanting (Standish and Standish 1999). Another balanced review of Ron Wyatt’s claims can be found on Bill Crouse’s “Christian Information Ministries” website, www.fni.com/cim/reports/wyatt.txt. 2 Some have questioned the validity of this claim (Fasold 1993a:6, 7; Anonymous 1999:13). Is Mount Sinai in Saudi Arabia? 73 generator” (MFG), into joining their expedition to search for the “gold of Exodus” (Blum 1998a:49–51). Fasold claimed this device can detect various types of metal under the ground. When one of Samran’s workers discovered “a bracelet that glittered for all the world like the purest of gold” (Blum 1998a:58), they were arrested and charged with “robbing Saudi Arabia of its wealth from antiquity” which they claimed was a capital offense (Cornuke and Halbrook 2000:218). When they were finally released, all their film and notes were confiscated, and they were made to promise they would never return to Saudi Arabia and never publish or talk about their findings (Blum 1998a:59; Williams 1990:25). Upon his return, Fasold shared the story with Jim Irwin, the Apollo 15 astronaut who walked on the moon. Irwin in turn put Fasold in touch with two other potential treasure hunters—Larry Williams, a commodity trader and treasure hunter, and Robert Cornuke, a former police officer and SWAT team member (Cornuke and Halbrook 2000:17, 20). Fasold told them about the location of Mt. Sinai and the gold from Egypt. Part of his material is reproduced in Williams’ book (1990:25, 209–11) as well as his own newsletters (1993a: 1993b). Before they began this venture, they allegedly consulted an unnamed university professor in California, who wishes his identity to remain a “deep dark secret” (Blum 1998a:108). He seemed to agree with this idea and encouraged them in their pursuit. Williams and Cornuke journeyed to Saudi Arabia twice in the summer of 1988 as self-proclaimed “adventurers of history” in search of the “real” Mt. Sinai and the “gold of Exodus.” They returned to tell the tale (Williams 1990: 10). Williams wrote a book about their adventures entitled The Mountain of Moses. The Discovery of Mount Sinai (1990). It was later reprinted under the title The Mount Sinai Myth (1990). Another author, Howard Blum, also wrote a popular book entitled The Gold of Exodus: The Discovery of the True Mount Sinai (1998a) based on the adventures of these two treasure hunters. The book has a number of inconsistencies. For example, Ronald Hendel (1999:54) points out that before Williams and Cornuke went to Saudi Arabia in the summer of 1988, they allegedly had a meeting with an unnamed Biblical scholar from southern California. During the course of the conversation the unnamed scholar mentioned an interview of Dr. Frank Moore Cross in the August 1992 edition of Bible Review (Blum 1998a:120–22). Talk about getting an advance copy of a publication! How did this professor get a copy of a 1992 issue of Bible Review in 1988? The book is excerpted in an article in the February 1998 issue of Vanity Fair (Bloom 1998b). A video entitled “The Search for the Real Mt. Sinai” (1998) is being distributed based on these books. According to the advertisement for the video, Hershel Shanks, the editor of Biblical Archaeology Review and Bible 74 CTS Journal 12 (Spring 2006) Review, endorsed this video by saying, “Jebal al Lawz is the most likely site for Mt. Sinai.” A weak review of Blum’s book and the video was given by Ronald Hendel in the July/August 1999 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review (pages Map of the route of the Exodus according to Har-EL (adapted from Har-El 1983:357). Is Mount Sinai in Saudi Arabia? 75 54, 56) in which he never adequately deals with the arguments set forth by Williams and Blum. A spirited response appeared in the November/December 1999 issue of the same magazine by Tom Beard, the producer of the video (pages 66, 67). Hershel Shanks also added a clarification of his endorsement.