Mount Sinai

The Book of Exodus recognizes the Mount Sinai (Hebrew: Har Sinai) as the mountain where Moses received the Ten Commandments from God. In the Book of Deuteronomy, these events are described as having transpired at Mount Horeb. Scholars consider “Sinai” and “Horeb” to refer to the same place.

Hebrew Bible texts describe the theophany at Mount Sinai which has been interpreted by certain scholars to literally describe the mountain as a volcano. Jewish and Priestly sources have used the name “Sinai” in the Torah whereas “Horeb” has only been used by the Elohist and Deuteronomist sources.Horeb is thought to mean “glowing/heat”, which seems to refer to the sun, while Sinai may have derived from the name of Sin, the Sumerian deity of the moon.  Interpreted thus Sinai and Horeb would be the mountains of the moon and sun, respectively.

According to the biblical account, Sinai was enveloped in a cloud. After experiencing a quake, there were lightning-flashes and thunder with fire burning at the summit of the mountain.This entire sequence of events was interpreted as the arrival of God upon the mountain. According to the biblical narrative, Moses visited Mount Sinai twice and stayed there for 40 days and nights in order to receive the Ten Commandments.Scholars of Judaism as well as modern scholars differ as to the exact geographical position of Mount Sinai. While Josephus specifies that it was “between Egypt and Arabia”,the Pauline Epistles only specify that it was in Arabia, which covers most of the south-western Middle east.