Sinai

Sinai Identified since the 4th cent. CE (but other locations are proposed) as the peninsula which joins Africa and Asia; on the north is the Mediterranean, on the south the Red Sea; much of it is desert, though the area has always managed to support a smallish nomadic population. The Israelites trekked through the wilderness of Sinai when they left the slavery of Egypt. At Mount Sinai, in the south of the peninsula, Moses had witnessed the Burning Bush (Exod. 3: 1–2). It was to this mountain that the Hebrews escaping from Egypt at the Exodus made their way. This was the sacred mountain where Yahweh was believed to dwell, and it was natural that because they associated him with their rescue from slavery they would proceed to Sinai before going on to the promised land of Canaan. At Sinai the people received the Law (Exod. 20–3) and the covenant was ratified. This ‘mountain of God’ is also known in the E and D sources, as Mount Horeb. One modern identification is with the volcanic peak Mount Bedr in N. Arabia—its eruptions would correspond to the cloud and fire (Exod. 19). The mount became so much identified with the revelation to Israel that when Paul discusses the relationship of the new covenant to the old, he makes Sinai in his allegory stand for the old system of Judaism (Gal. 4: 24–5).