What is the location of the real Mount Sinai?

Answer

Where is the actual Mount Sinai located? The exact location remains unknown. Over the centuries, scholars, explorers, and pilgrims have searched for the true Mount Sinai—the mountain where God delivered the law to Moses and the Israelites. Various locations have been suggested, but none have been definitively confirmed by archaeological evidence as the precise meeting place of God and Moses.

The Bible provides some general indications about the whereabouts of Mount Sinai. It was situated outside of Egypt, as the Israelites arrived at Mount Sinai after departing from Egypt “In the third month after the children of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on the same day, they came to the Wilderness of Sinai.”, (Exodus 19:1). Additionally, Scripture implies that Sinai was not in Midian, as Moses’ Midianite relatives left Sinai to return to their own land (Exodus 18:27;Numbers 10:29-31).

The traditional location of Mount Sinai is in the southern central part of the Sinai Peninsula. The mountain, known today as Jebel Musa (“the mountain of Moses”), stands at an elevation of 7,497 feet above sea level. In AD 530, St. Catherine’s Monastery was built at the northern base of Mount Sinai. At the summit, there is a Christian chapel and an Islamic mosque. The ancient library at Jebel Musa housed the Codex Sinaiticus, a significant Greek text used in Bible translation efforts.

Other proposed locations for Mount Sinai include areas in the western, central, and northern regions of the Sinai Peninsula. One hypothesis suggests Mount Sinai is the present-day Mount Yeroham in the northern Negev Desert. Some believe Sinai is located in southern Edom or Seir “And he said: ‘The LORD came from Sinai, And dawned on them from Seir; He shone forth from Mount Paran, And He came with ten thousands of saints; From His right hand came a fiery law for them.’.”With tens of thousands of saints: From his right hand went a fiery law for them. », (Deuteronomy 33:2). Another perspective suggests Mount Sinai is located in northwestern Saudi Arabia, possibly linked to the mountain known as Jabal Maqla or Jebel el-Lawz today.

In Galatians 4:25, Paul references “Mount Sinai in Arabia.” It’s important to note that “Arabia” in ancient times should not be confused with “Saudi Arabia” in the present day. The biblical term Arabia encompasses a wide region, including what is now known as Saudi Arabia and the Sinai Peninsula.

So, where is the actual Mount Sinai? No one can definitively pinpoint it. Scholars have varying opinions on proposed locations. The significance of what transpired at Sinai had a global impact; the exact location holds minimal importance.