Corpus-Paul

["David C. Hindley" <DHindley AT compuserve.com>]

On 04/10/99, ""Liz Fried" <lizfried AT umich.edu>" wrote:

> Paul says that Mt. Sinai is in Arabia (Gal 4:25).  What was the concept of
> Arabia at that time?  Did he have the same understanding of the location of
> the Sinai as we do now?  I ask this because of a curious experience we had
> while in Damascus this fall. We were taken to an ancient synagogue and told
> that this was the place where Elijah slept, and where he prayed for death.
> I would have sworn that location was in the Sinai -- not Damascus!  What was
> considered the location of Mt Sinai/Horeb in the time of Paul?

Elijah traveled 40 days from Beer-sheba to Horeb (1 Kings 19:8). The 
traditional Horeb is a distance of about 160 miles south of Beer-sheba. 
However, Damascus is also about 170 miles from Beer-sheba, but to the 
north.

A. H. Sayce (_The Higher Critricism and the Monuments_ pg 268) reportedly 
argues that Sinai was "a mountain of Seir, and not the so-called Sinaitic 
peninsula". I imagine that he was thinking of the regions of Edom south and 
east of Beer-sheba. Mt. Seir is of course the range of mountains running 
southward from the Dead Sea, east of the valley of Arabah, to the Elanitic 
Gulf. He may have based this in part on Paul's assertion in Gal 4:25.

However, I understand that there -was- another Mount Seir, which formed one 
of the landmarks of the northern boundary of Judah (Josh 5:10). It was to 
the west of Kirjath-jearim and between it and Beth-shemish. This is about 
50 miles from Damascus. Unfortunately, if there was any association of this 
latter site with Sinai, then I have missed it.

In Gal 1:17 Paul says "I went my way into Arabia, and again returned to 
Damascus". The author of Acts, on the other hand, simply says that "he was 
with the disciples at Damascus. And in the synagogues immediately he 
proclaimed Jesus ... and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus" 
(9:19-22). There is no mention of Arabia. Taking Gal 1:17 and 4:25 
together, I wonder if the "Mt. Sinai" he located in Arabia was not close to 
Damascus, but that is pure speculation on my part.

More likely, I think Paul was thinking of Mt. Seir as equivalent to Mt. 
Sinai, which would have been in the area controlled by King Aretas, and 
hence "Arabia."

Dave H