Biblical Hebrew Forum

[JimStinehart AT aol.com]

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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