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  • From: JimStinehart AT aol.com
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [b-hebrew] What Is "Hebron"? Part II of II
  • Date: Wed, 14 May 2008 12:09:11 EDT


Avi Wollman:

You wrote: “being that i live near what could be that mountaintop between
Beth-el and Hai. i don't think your right.”

1. We can start with the following website (although I disagree with many of
the things said at that website):

_http://www.ancientsandals.com/overviews/bethel.htm_
(http://www.ancientsandals.com/overviews/bethel.htm)

“From its high elevation, one can see Jerusalem from Bethel, some twelve
miles to the south. “


I realize that a tourist promo is not reliable for history. But it should be
reliable as to the narrow issue of whether Jerusalem could be seen from a
mountaintop near Bethel.

2. My own view is that the mountain between Beth-el and Hai in the
Patriarchal narratives is Mt. Jebel et-Tawil, located between El-Bireh and
Khirbet
Nisya. (This is an old, minority view, which D.P. Livingston has forcefully
reasserted for the last several decades. The majority view, per Anson
Rainey, is
that Beitin is Beth-el.)

>From the top of Mt. Jebel et-Tawil, one should be able to see both (i) the
Jordan River, north of the Dead Sea, less than 20 miles away, straight east,
and
(ii) Jerusalem, only about 10 miles away, to the southeast.

3. Consider the following 1891 traveler’s report from the Palestine
Exploration Fund Society:

"...what can there be seen is the northern end of the Dead Sea, the Jordan
Valley, and the river running like a blue thread through the green plain. The
hills of Engedi shut out completely all view of the southern end of the sea;
but as I before said, the northern end, where the Jordan runs in, and about
two
or three miles of the sea, can be seen. I have wandered all over the Bethel
hills and tested this question." ("The Bible and Modern Discoveries" by
Henry
A. Harper, a Member of the Palestine Exploration Fund Society, 1891.)

http://www.arkdiscovery.com/s&g-research1.htm

4. And I’ve saved the best for last. Here’s a modern account of the
panoramic view from near Beth-el (that is, Beitin):

“Bethel. … I live ten miles north of Jerusalem in the Judean hills….Today’
s Beit El is a town of orthodox Jews with its own mayor and municipal council
situated in the heart of the Binyamin region, just to the east of Arab
Ramallah. Its Pisgat Ya'acov (“Jacob’s Heights”, named after the patriarch
Jacob)
neighborhood has a hilltop observatory with a commanding view -- as far east
as
the mountains of Jordan, as far west as Tel Aviv and the Mediterranean Sea,
south to Jerusalem, and on clear days, as far [north] as Mount Hermon in the
Golan Heights. It has a higher elevation than Jerusalem and summer nights are
cool. Occasionally, we have snow in winter.”

“Yedidya Atlas is a commentator for Arutz 7 and a long time resident of Beit
El.”

_http://mideastoutpost.com/archives/000372.html_
(http://mideastoutpost.com/archives/000372.html)

Perhaps Yedidya Atlas is a neighbor of yours?

5. Based on the foregoing, my understanding is that from the top of Mt.
Jebel et-Tawil, one could see both Jerusalem and the southern portion of the
Jordan River Valley.

Have you ever been to the top of Mt. Jebel et-Tawil? What could you see from
there?

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois




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