THE SEARCH FOR REAL MT. SINAI

The Search for the Real Mt. Sinai, DVD, Reel Productions, 50 minutes. Available at http://www.explorationfilms.com.

As every Sunday school teacher and student knows, Mount Sinai, the mountain on which God in flame and smoke delivered the Ten Commandments to Moses, is located in the southern portion of the Sinai peninsula. At least, that’s what Bible maps show, and they can’t be wrong, can they?Two amateur archaeologists have created a DVD that answers that question in the affirmative. Mt. Sinai (also called Mt. Horeb) isn’t where these maps show it to be; in fact, it isn’t even on the Sinai peninsula. Mt. Sinai, they say, is likely located in modern day Saudi Arabia!

The ExplorersThe two men are Larry Williams, a commodities trader by profession, and Bob Cornuke, a southern California police investigator. They became interested in searching for the famed mountain after the late Jim Irwin, the astronaut and Noah’s Ark hunter, gave Williams a letter from a man claiming to have been in Saudi Arabia and seen what could have been Mt. Sinai.Irwin warned the two would-be explorers of the dangers of snooping around in Saudi Arabia, but, inspired by Irwin’s own courage as well as the excitement of possibly making a major discovery, Williams and Cornuke made plans for an expedition to that country.The Traditional Mt. Sinai SiteWilliams and Cornuke contend that no archaeological evidence has ever been found suggesting anyone ever camped in the area of the traditional site, and archaeologists have thoroughly examined this mountain. This Mt. Sinai, they claim, was named by a fortune teller in or about the third century A.D. Furthermore, they point out that Galatians 4:25 says plainly that Mt. Sinai is in “Arabia.” (However, my NIV map of the area when Galatians was written shows that “Arabia” included the Sinai peninsula. wk.)More telling might be a reference to Midian in Exodus 18:1 which occurred before the Israelites reached Mt. Sinai, and Midian according to Bible maps was located in present-day Saudi Arabia.Williams says the phrase “out of Egypt” occurs 72 times in the Bible in describing the Exodus. The Sinai peninsula at that time was in control of the Egyptian army, he says, with a significant military presence. It would seem logical God would have led His people out of this peninsula.Planning the ExpeditionWilliams and Cornuke may have been encouraged by reports they had heard of people seeing a mountain with a scorched top in Saudi Arabia, but these people had been arrested and their film confiscated before they were sent out of the country.

So, using the Bible and old maps as guides, they concluded that a mountain in Arabia called Jabal Al Lawz might be the Mt. Sinai for which they were looking.Their ambitious plans included trying to find the following features: the exodus route; the Red Sea crossing; the Bitter springs of Marah; the 70 palms; the 12 springs of Elam; the cave of Elijah; boundary markers around the mountain; the golden calf altar; an altar at the foot of the mountain; 12 stone pillars representing the 12 tribes of Israel; a rock from which water gushed; and, of course, the mountain itself.Getting Into Saudi ArabiaEyebrows will surely be raised at the admission by Williams and Cornuke of how they got into Saudi Arabia. They somehow managed to get their hands on a letter from the king of Saudi Arabia, a promotional letter of some kind they think. Then using the letterhead and the king’s signature, they devised a fake letter supposedly from the king giving them permission to enter Saudi Arabia. Williams seems to express some regret as to this method of gaining entry into the country, but he said they did what they had to do to find out the truth.The Red Sea Crossing PointScholars often point to three possible places at which the Israelites crossed the Red Sea. (See map.)The two northern points (1. & 2.) Williams and Cornuke rule out because Pharaoh could easily have sent part of his army around to the other side to cut off the Israelites.

At the southern point (3.) the sea bottom is like a canyon. With the sea parted, it would have been almost impossible for the elderly, children, and the animals to have climbed down one side and up the other. But the archaeologists say there is an interesting feature in the Gulf of Akabar that runs from the tip of the Sinai peninsula across the straits to Saudi Arabia—a land bridge. Cornuke feels this bridge which rises from the depths of the sea to within a few feet of the surface was especially created by God to allow the Israelites to escape. A wind following the parting of the sea could have dried out this land bridge so it wasn’t slimy or soggy. At the western end of the land bridge is nothing but wilderness and a mountain range so that the Israelites could have felt “hemmed in” as suggested by Exodus 14:3.
1. Sea of Reeds(Bitter Lakes) >>>
2. Tip of Suez >>>
3. Gulf of Suez >>>

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