Where is Mount Sinai (Mt. Horeb)? Hashem el Tarif??
Deuteronomy 1:2 is a key verse in the discussion. The text mentions an 11-day distance between Mount Horeb / Sinai to Kadesh-barnea, a distance that roughly fits Hashem el Tarif as Mount Sinai. This definitely puts Hashem el Tarif on the map of likely possibilities for Mount Sinai. Dr. Uzi Avner, a respected student of the Sinai and Negev, favors this location for this reason among others. It's a much better fit than the idea of Harvard's Frank Cross and others (such as BAR's Hershel Shanks) who propose that Mt. Sinai was in Saudi Arabia.
Interestingly, the verse also mentions "Seir." Chris goes on to write, "I have no idea why anyone would want to go from Kadesh-barnea to Mount Horeb by way of Mount Seir. It seems like a strange route to me." True, so perhaps "Seir" means something different here in Deut 1:2 than the mountain point in eastern Edom on most Bible maps. Is the NAB on to something, when it speaks of "the highlands of Seir," rather than the traditional "Mount Seir," in this verse?
Judges 5:4 has Yahweh come from Edom and Seir to do battle for his people, and Deuteronomy 33:2 says, "Yahweh . . . dawned upon us from Seir." Where is this Seir? Uzi Avner has noted that the extension of Hashem el Tarif is identified as Jabel Seira on maps of the Sinai. Other scholars have noted that Egyptian topographical lists from the 14th and 13th centuries b.c.e. list a "country of Yhw-nomads" under the heading "country of Seir-nomads." All very interesting! And what about the open-air cult sites, graves of saints, and fresh-water spring at Hashem el Tarif? I'd like to know more about this evidence. For instance, does it reflect ancient veneration of Hashem el Tarif, before the Iron Age, before the exodus? Does it reflect pilgrimages to Mount Sinai by Israelites of the later, post-settlement, monarchic period? Does a holy mountain need a spring to water God's gardens (a la Eden)? These are honest questions...
Even if some Israelite pilgrims were using Hashem el Tarif as Mount Sinai, their identification was not necessarily correct, and other Israelites may have disagreed with it. 1 Kings 19:3-9 indicates that it took Elijah 41 days to reach Horeb from Beersheba. This tradition would put Mount Sinai much farther south in the Sinai. It would, in fact, be closer to Jebel Musa and St. Catherine's monastery, the traditional site of Christian pilgrimage to Mount Sinai.
Update: For my next post on this topic, with photo and map, click here.