Where Is Mount Sinai?

The Apostle Paul explicitly states in Galatians 4:25: "For this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia." This is the definitive Scriptural statement on Mount Sinai's location.

The Israelites completely departed Egypt and all its territories — including the Sinai peninsula, which was an Egyptian territory in the time of Moses — before receiving the Ten Commandments. The traditional location of "Mount Sinai" at the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula (St. Catherine's Monastery) was a Byzantine tradition, not a Biblical designation.

Arabia in Paul's time referred to the territory of the Nabataean Arabs — roughly modern-day Saudi Arabia and Jordan, east of the Gulf of Aqaba. Several researchers have identified Jabal al-Lawz in northwestern Saudi Arabia as a strong candidate for the true Mount Sinai, based on the Scriptural description and the route of the Exodus.

The Exodus route that crosses the Gulf of Aqaba (rather than the northern Sinai route) aligns with: (1) Paul's statement that Sinai is in Arabia; (2) the distance and timeline described in Exodus; (3) the description of the Red Sea crossing as a deep-water sea crossing, not a shallow crossing of a marshy area.

In the book of
Galatians, Chapter 4, Verse 25,
the apostle Paul declares that Mount Sinai is in…

In the Book of Exodus, during the time of Moses, the land of Midian is where Moses fled after killing a slave trader. And, after leaving Egypt, the Israelites traveled to the land of Midian. And it was in the land of Midian that the Israelites camped at the foot of Mount Sinai.

So, where is the land of Midian?
The Bible places the land of Midian in the northwest corner of what is today…

Saudi Arabia

In a place below (south of) what is now the southern part of the land of the Jordan, which in the days of Moses was identified as the land of Edom. The Bible places Midian east of the Gulf of Aqaba (east of the Red Sea) on the Arabian Peninsula.

How did Mount Sinai come to be mistakenly identified in its current location?

The most prominent source of the misidentification of the supposed present-day location of Mount Sinai is Helena, the mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine. In the early 4th century, after Constantine decreed that Christianity be accepted as a "tolerated" religion within the Roman Empire, his mother toured the Holy Land region, selecting physical and geographical locations of notable biblical events.

To her shame and disgrace, Helena had no knowledge of any of the authentic biblical sites. And, regarding the location of Mount Sinai, it is clear that she certainly did not bother to consult the Books of Exodus and Galatians in the Christian Holy Scriptures. Instead of seeking reliable and accurate information from the source manual of Christianity (The Bible), Helena relied on information from whoever was available, in a land almost devoid of Christians and Jews, 300 years after the time of Jesus Christ, as indicated by the location of several dubious shrines that were supposedly built on authentic biblical sites.

To add to Helena's confusion,
there were competing duplicate sanctuaries to choose from.

It is clearly stated in the Book of Exodus that the Israelites completely left the lands controlled by Egypt and moved to the land of Midian (outside Egyptian rule) before receiving the Ten Commandments. The present-day Sinai Peninsula was within the borders and control of ancient Egypt, and to leave Egypt completely, the Israelites had to leave the Sinai Peninsula completely as well. It is not physically possible for the Israelites to camp on the mountain falsely called Sinai in Egypt and leave Egypt completely at the same time.

The Bible does not suggest that the Israelites crossed the Red Sea twice. And to reach Midian, while leaving Egypt completely, the Israelites first had to travel east across the Sinai Peninsula and cross the Red Sea near the midpoint of the Gulf of Aqaba. First, the Israelites had requested to be allowed to leave Egypt, while, after the ten plagues, the Pharaoh ordered the Israelites to leave Egypt completely and entirely.

In the northwest corner of present-day Saudi Arabia lies a mountain that perfectly matches the biblical description of Mount Sinai. Had Constantine's mother relied on information from the Bible, Helena could have chosen a location for Mount Sinai that was, at the very least, within ancient Midian. There is a mountain within what was once ancient Midian that the Saudis of today call "Jebel al-Lawz," the Mountain of the Law (or, the Mountain of the Tablets, upon which the Ten Commandments were written). The Saudis readily acknowledge that "Jebel al-Lawz" is indeed the location of the biblical Mount Sinai.

Furthermore, the physical description of the mountain and the surrounding area perfectly matches the biblical account. That mountain, in what is now northwestern Saudi Arabia, is a non-volcanic mountain with a blackened summit. The mountain appears to have been scorched by fire across its entire upper 25%, which perfectly matches the biblical description. The area immediately surrounding the mountain has enough level plains to provide space for the encampment of up to two million people — a number consistent with the Bible, representing the potential number of foreigners coming from Egypt. Furthermore, the mountain in Saudi Arabia has archaeological artifacts that fit the biblical descriptions; for example, twelve impressively large, obviously man-made stone pillars, extremely ancient petroglyphs, and so on.

The supposed and misidentified Mount Sinai, on Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, possesses absolutely NONE of these characteristics. The falsely named Sinai mountain in Egypt is not in ancient Midian; it does not have a blackened summit; it does not have enough plains around it to accommodate the encampment of two thousand people, let alone two million; and it reveals no 3,500-year-old archaeological artifacts of any kind.