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12 Is Mt. Sinai the Mountain of YEHOVAH?

abundance of water with rich pastures, and must have been situated near large transport
routes so that they could purchase what they needed from the trade caravans.

Moses knew such a country, the land of Midian, where he himself had found a refuge,
and where in the person of his father-in-law the priest of Midian, he had a powerful protec-
tor not only for himself but also for his kindred of Israel. He therefore led the Israelites
DIRECT FROM EGYPT INTO MIDIAN TO THE MOUNTAIN OF GOD, where Jehovah
appeared to him (Appendix VI).

Constantine and His Mother

It has become customary since the time of Constantine the Great for the majority of the
Christian world to accept the area of the Sinai peninsula for the location of the biblical Mt. Sinai.
Unknown to most, the REASON this location was selected rests solely with the opinions of one
man -- the Roman emperor Constantine the Great (c.280-337 A.D.)!

The question is, of course, did Constantine select the correct spot? What prompted him to
pick the rugged, mountainous region of south-central Sinai? The answers to these questions may
surprise you!

As we have seen, there
was not the SLIGHTEST bib-
lical or historical evidence to
sustain the selection of this
site as the proper place for the
giving of the Law. In fact, just
the OPPOSITE was the case,
yet Constantine's opinion pre-
vailed while he remained
alive -- and is paramount to
this present day.

Coin of Constantine the Great What we must under-
stand is that Mt. Sinai in the
Sinai peninsula was selected
exclusively through the agency of dreams and visions that Constantine experienced throughout his
troubled life. Constantine had a long history of visionary experiences. From the year 312 A.D. they
became a regular part of the emperor's life; and throughout his career he was affected by
FREQUENT supernatural occurrences. And, according to Constantine himself, he never had a re-
versal in his affairs if he heeded these visions.

The beginning of his trust in the SUPERNATURAL occurred just before the battle at
Milvian Bridge outside Rome, which gained for him the mastery of the western portion of the Ro-
man Empire. As the story goes, he witnessed (along with his troops) a parhelion (a bright image ap-
pearing on a solar halo) of the sun which appeared to him as a cross in the heavens. With the cross he
noticed the Greek letters Chi Rho accompanied with the words "by this sign conquer." The follow-

The Berean Voice September-October 2002