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10 Is Mt. Sinai the Mountain of YEHOVAH?

has to be shown that the Sinaitic peninsula could be thus described. At the time of the
Exodus it [Sinai Peninsula] was an Egyptian province.

These and OTHER OBJECTIONS have been raised against the TRADITIONAL
THEORY; their resolution depends upon the final discrimination of the documents under-
lying the Pent. and upon the results of further archaeological investigations, not only in the
peninsula of Sinai but TO THE N. AND E. OF IT (Dictionary of the Bible. T. & T. Clark,
Edinburgh. 1947. Vol. IV, p. 538).

On page 536 of this same volume, Hastings makes further observations:

The real problem lies in the identification of the mountain described in the Pent., especially
in view of the fact that the whole of the [Sinai] Peninsula is a mass of mountains, many of
which are conspicuous objects in the landscape, and certain to have early attracted attention
and invited nomenclature. We are assuming that Mt. Sinai is somewhere in the tongue of
land at the head of the Red Sea, between the two arms of that sea which constitute respect-
ively the Gulf of Akaba and the Gulf of Suez. It should, however, be remembered that Sayce
thinks he has grounds for LOCATING MT. SINAI OUTSIDE THE PENINSULA AND IN
THE LAND OF MIDIAN ITSELF. In this he is following in some points as earlier...sugg-
estion of Beke.

Hastings points out the main advantages in Sayce's theory:

The advantage of such a theory lies in the fact (1) that Mt. Sinai is closely connected with
the land of Midian in the biblical account. Thither Moses escapes from the wrath of
Pharaoh, and while engaged in pastoral occupations in that land [Midian] he sees the
theophany of the burning bush. Moreover, his wife and her relations are Midianite. The
general opinion is that MIDIAN IS ON THE FARTHER SIDE OF AKABA TO THE
EAST AND NORTH, and that special evidence is needed if we would include in it the
surroundings of the traditional Mt. Sinai. (2) The theory furnishes a new explanation of
the encampment of the Israelites by the sea, which on this theory is the Gulf of Akaba;
(3) it finds a site for the much-disputed Elim in the modern Aileh (ancient Eloth); (4) it
explains why nothing is said about the exquisite valley of Feiran [in the western side of
the Sinai peninsula] by a writer [Moses] who is so careful to record the palm-trees and
springs (certainly of a much inferior quality) at Elim; the identification of Rephidim with
Feiran is, on this hypothesis, incorrectly made.

Captain Haynes of the Palmer Search Expedition of 1882 has a comment in his notes about
the location of Sinai. It reads as follows: "From the account in Ex.3,1, the mount of God considered
with respect to Canaan -- for Exodus was written after the Israelites reached the Holy Land -- was at
the 'BACK [SIDE] OF THE DESERT,' and also WITH RESPECT TO EGYPT IN FRONT OF
MIDIAN, for we read that Moses returned unto Jethro from SINAI to get leave to go back to Egypt
(Ex.4, 18)."

C.C. Robertson comments on this in his book On the Track of the Exodus:

The Berean Voice September-October 2002