DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.27910#0024
THE SUMMIT OF GEBEL MOOSA, SINAL
f
LTIIOUGIi we cannot agree in tlie truth of the traditional opinion that the summit of Gebel
Moosa is that beneath which the Israelites were assembled at the giving of the Law, since
the topographical evidence seems, if the controversy be limited to these two summits,
conclusively in favour of Iloreb, the northern end of the great ridge of which Gebel Moosh
is the southern end, yet the same sacred associations are connected with all the heights of
this central region of the peninsula. The Bible does not warrant the special selection of
a single peak as more holy than the rest. Such localization was a characteristic of the Church in
the middle ages, and is not authorized by Scripture. These sublime passages remarkably illustrate the
general sanctity of the great Sinaitic mountains:—
“ Tlie Ltfrd came from Sinai,
And rose up from Seir unto them :
ITe shined forth from mount Paran,
And he came with ten thousands of saints:
From his right hand [went] a fire of law for them.”—Deut. xxxiii. 2,
“ Lord, when thou wentest out of Seir, .
When thou marchedst out of the field of Edom,
The earth trembled, and the heavens dropped,
The clouds also dropped water.
The mountains melted from before the Lord,
That Sinai from before the Lord God of Israel.”—Judges v. 4, 0.
“ God came from Teman,
And the Holy One from mount Paran.
His glory covered the heavens,
And the earth was full of his praise.
And [his] brightness was as the light;
He had horns [coming] out of his hand :
And there [was] the hiding of his power.
Before him went the pestilence,
And burning coals went forth at his feet.
He stood, and measured the earth :
He beheld, and drove asunder the nations;
And the everlasting mountains were scattered,
. The perpetual hills did bow:
His ways [are] everlasting.”—Hab. iii. 3—6.
The mount of the Law seems here to be called Sinai, Seir, and Mount Paran. Sinai is elsewhere the
name of the mount itself, and of the whole central group; Seir is specially the Edomite range to the
north-east; Mount Paran may be the modern Serbal, which overlooks the Wadee Feyrtln and the ancient
town of Pharan. However these names are explained, we cannot suppose them all to apply to one mountain,
still less to a single peak. The great signs which accompanied the giving of the Law no doubt convulsed
all the tract, and involved it in the same mysterious sanctity. No one can look up at these grand masses,
or climb their sides, without feeling the awfulness of the whole region. At Jerusalem, human life, and the
changed scenes, and a hundred distractions, prevent our realizing the past; but here, away from the homes
f
LTIIOUGIi we cannot agree in tlie truth of the traditional opinion that the summit of Gebel
Moosa is that beneath which the Israelites were assembled at the giving of the Law, since
the topographical evidence seems, if the controversy be limited to these two summits,
conclusively in favour of Iloreb, the northern end of the great ridge of which Gebel Moosh
is the southern end, yet the same sacred associations are connected with all the heights of
this central region of the peninsula. The Bible does not warrant the special selection of
a single peak as more holy than the rest. Such localization was a characteristic of the Church in
the middle ages, and is not authorized by Scripture. These sublime passages remarkably illustrate the
general sanctity of the great Sinaitic mountains:—
“ Tlie Ltfrd came from Sinai,
And rose up from Seir unto them :
ITe shined forth from mount Paran,
And he came with ten thousands of saints:
From his right hand [went] a fire of law for them.”—Deut. xxxiii. 2,
“ Lord, when thou wentest out of Seir, .
When thou marchedst out of the field of Edom,
The earth trembled, and the heavens dropped,
The clouds also dropped water.
The mountains melted from before the Lord,
That Sinai from before the Lord God of Israel.”—Judges v. 4, 0.
“ God came from Teman,
And the Holy One from mount Paran.
His glory covered the heavens,
And the earth was full of his praise.
And [his] brightness was as the light;
He had horns [coming] out of his hand :
And there [was] the hiding of his power.
Before him went the pestilence,
And burning coals went forth at his feet.
He stood, and measured the earth :
He beheld, and drove asunder the nations;
And the everlasting mountains were scattered,
. The perpetual hills did bow:
His ways [are] everlasting.”—Hab. iii. 3—6.
The mount of the Law seems here to be called Sinai, Seir, and Mount Paran. Sinai is elsewhere the
name of the mount itself, and of the whole central group; Seir is specially the Edomite range to the
north-east; Mount Paran may be the modern Serbal, which overlooks the Wadee Feyrtln and the ancient
town of Pharan. However these names are explained, we cannot suppose them all to apply to one mountain,
still less to a single peak. The great signs which accompanied the giving of the Law no doubt convulsed
all the tract, and involved it in the same mysterious sanctity. No one can look up at these grand masses,
or climb their sides, without feeling the awfulness of the whole region. At Jerusalem, human life, and the
changed scenes, and a hundred distractions, prevent our realizing the past; but here, away from the homes