Well known for its role in the biblical Exodus, the Sinai Peninsula spans roughly 23,000 square miles, making it larger than the modern state of Israel.
Scholars debate whether Mt. Sinai is Har Karkom in Israel or in northwest Saudi Arabia, with evidence supporting both locations.
Why did the Israelites make a golden calf? It’s a question that has puzzled readers of the biblical Book of Exodus for millennia. As Exodus tells us, after Yahweh is victorious over the gods and armies of Egypt and delivers the Israelites from slavery, he brings them to Mt. Sinai to initiate a covenant. The covenant process is initiated by a theophany in which God himself descends upon the ...
A 5,000-year-old Sinai inscription links violence and state power with divine sanction—a combination later biblical authors critique in their Sinai narratives.
Constantine Tischendorf’s chance finding of Codex Sinaiticus, the oldest New Testament manuscript, at St. Catherine’s Monastery in the Sinai—and his later removal of the manuscript—made
Everything about it has been difficult. Located in the Sinai desert about 10 miles west of the ancient Gaza Road (Darb Ghazza, in Arabic) as it passes through Bedouin territory separating the Negev from Egypt, Kuntillet ‘Ajrud is remote and isolated from any other settlement. In 1975, Tel Aviv University archaeologist Ze’ev Meshel and a band of nine volunteers, mostly from kibbutzim and a ...
KADESH IN THE BIBLE. In the Hebrew Bible, a place called Kadesh—also known as Kadesh-Barnea—was an important stop during the Israelites’ wilderness wanderings. Where is Kadesh? The site of Tell el-Qudeirat in the northeastern part of the Sinai Peninsula is considered to be the best candidate. Photo: Israel Antiquities Authority.