Did Nephi have any special affinity to Moses? According to the Hiltons, both Nephi and Moses might have been familiar with the sacred heights of Mount Sinai. The actual site of Moses’ Mount Sinai has long been an open question. The traditional site at St. Catherine‘s in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula is only one of several possible sites. However a new look (Williams, 223), following indications from satellite infrared pictures, has identified a broad ancient trail from Egypt that passes down the west side of the Sinai Peninsula (bypassing St. Catherine’s) and arrives at the Straits of Tiran. The infrared data identifies the trail coming out of the Red Sea 10 miles away on the east side of the Strait in Saudi Arabia (see illustration). The trail goes to Jethro of Midian (near al-Bad) and ends in a huge campsite on the east side of Mount Lawz, a large mountain only 15 miles northeast of the village of al-Bad. Could this be the real Sinai? [Lynn M. Hilton and Hope A. Hilton, Discovering Lehi, p. 59] [See the commentary on 1 Nephi 11:1; 3 Nephi 25:4]
1 Nephi 4:2 Moses ([Illustration] Proposed locations for Mt. Sinai. [Lynn M. Hilton and Hope A. Hilton, Discovering Lehi, p. 59]
1 Nephi 4:2 Moses ([Illustration] Theory of Visits to Mt. Sinai in Midian [Lynn M. Hilton and Hope A. Hilton, Discovering Lehi, p. 60]
“Moses - Mt Sinai - Horeb”
According to Ray Huntington, despite the importance of Moses’ exodus with the children of Israel through the wilderness to Mount Sinai, or Horeb (see 3 Nephi 25:4) in the Old Testament narrative, biblical scholars are not in agreement regarding the mountain’s location. Much of the confusion is due to a lack of geographical information in the biblical text… . This lack of geographical information is significant, for Mount Sinai was along the route traveled by the children of Israel after their exodus from Egypt. But the book of Exodus also does not tell us where the Israelites miraculously crossed the Red Sea or in which direction they traveled once they were on the other side. Consequently, it is difficult to determine if Mount Sinai is, for example, in the north or south of the area we call the Sinai Peninsula or located in another region of the Middle East, such as Arabia… . Religious and secular scholars typically refer to three specific geographical areas as probable locations for Mount Sinai: southeastern Sinai Peninsula, northwestern Sinai Peninsula, and northwestern Arabia. [Ray L. Huntington, “Do We Know Where Mount Sinai Is?” in The Ensign, April 1998, pp. 32-33] [See the commentary on 1 Nephi 11:1; 3 Nephi 25:4]
1 Nephi 4:2 Moses ([Illustration] A Latter-Day Saint View of Moses (What the Bible Teaches; What the Latter-day Revelation Adds) [Todd B. Parker and Robert Norman, “Moses, Witness of Jesus Christ,” in The Ensign, April 1998, pp. 26-28]
“Let Us Be Strong Like Unto Moses”
The reader should understand that Nephi’s trip back to secure the plates of Laban has a covenant setting; that is, Nephi is showing the reader that the Lord’s power to keep his covenants with those who obey him is “mightier than all the earth” (1 Nephi 4:1). Thus, the reader should be aware of the symbolic comparisons noted within the story. One of those comparisons which Nephi points to is Moses’ triumph over the power of Pharaoh:
Therefore let us go up; let us be strong like unto Moses; for he truly spake unto the waters of the Red Sea and they divided hither and thither, and our fathers came through, out of captivity, on dry ground, and the armies of Pharaoh did follow and were drowned in the waters of the Red Sea (1 Nephi 4:2)
On September 6, 2000, Kerry Muhlestein, a graduate student at UCLA and a Nibley fellow, made a FARMS presentation in which he examined the confrontation between Moses and Aaron and the priests of Pharaoh as a challenge to the Egyptian view of divine kingship. He listed the key elements of Egyptian kingship, showing that Pharaoh was regarded both as the son of Re and Osiris and as the embodiment of Re, Osiris, and Horus, making him the creator god and therefore divine.
For each plague that the Lord visited on Egypt through Moses, Muhlestein pointed out the direct challenge to Pharaoh’s claim of divine kingship. For example, the victory of the snake that came from Aaron’s rod over the snakes conjured by the priests was a direct challenge to the Uraeus, the symbol of the Pharaoh (in the form of a cobra on Pharaoh’s crown). Other examples include the water turned to blood, which challenged Pharaoh’s domination of the Nile; the plague on the livestock, which threatened Pharaoh’s role as the shepherd of Egypt; the plague of boils, which targeted the king’s connection with Horus and Isis, who were doctors; the fiery hail, locusts and crop damage, and the darkening of the sun all of which countered the traditional image of the king as a protector; and the final plague, the angel of death, which challenged Pharaoh’s ability to protect his children (the heir to his throne was killed, but the Israelites, God’s heirs, were saved). These challenges continued as the children of Israel left Egypt; for example, the parting of the Red Sea saved the children of Israel but destroyed Pharaoh’s armies. [Kerry Muhlestein, “The Plagues as a Challenge to Pharaoh’s Divinity,” FARMS presentation, farms, byu.edu/web/insights/nov 00/pf.asp?content=plagues]
Note* If the Lord no longer recognized the power of the king of Judah, and if Nephi had been commissioned by the Lord to take possession of the record of the tribe of Joseph, the birthright heir of the tribes of Israel, then it shouldn’t be surprising that within his record, Nephi--ever obedient to his covenants with the Lord--is referred to as a “king,” a “ruler” and a “teacher” to his brethren (see 1 Nephi 3:29; 16:37-38; 18:10; 2 Nephi 5:19), according to the covenant promises made to him by the Lord (see 1 Nephi 2:19-22). [Alan C. Miner, Personal Notes]
“Moses: Mt Sinai - Horeb”
According to George Potter, mount Sinai is important to Book of Mormon readers for the following reasons: (1) It would have been the most ancient of all temple sites known to Nephi; (2) It would have been a dedicated site--a place where special “temple” ordinances might be performed (see D&C 37:55); (3) It probably was located near the Valley of Lemuel; and (4) It might possibly play a part in the Second Coming. In D&C 29:13 we read: “For a trump shall sound both long and loud, even as upon Mount Sinai, and all the earth shall quake, and they shall come forth--yea, even the dead which died in me, to receive a crown of righteousness, and to be clothed upon, even as I am, to be with me, that we may be one.” Muslims hold that it is the actual site where God will take the faithful when He comes in the Last Days. This implies that Sinai has a special connection with God and his covenant people.
The following is a list of what the scriptures say about mount Sinai:
1. According to the book of Exodus, Moses is said to have led the children of Israel out of Egypt by crossing the Red Sea. They continued to journey until they camped around mount Sinai, the place where Moses received his calling while watching over the flocks of his father-in-law Jethro in the land of Midian. There they were met by Jethro (Exodus 2:15, 19; 3:1-8, 10, 12; 18:1, 5). Midian is said to be located in the furthest northwest corner of Arabia called Midian (Exodus 4:19-25--See the LDS Bible map).
2. The burning bush and subsequently the camp of Israel were said to be on the backside of the mountain, the side away from the homeland of Moses and Jethro (Exodus 3:1-2).
3. There was an altar built of unhewn stones (Exodus 20:24-26).
4. Sinai had a brook (Deuteronomy 9:21).
5. An altar of the Golden Calf was made within sight of the mount (Exodus 32:17-19).
6. Boundary markers were erected to prevent the children of Israel from coming upon the mountain (Exodus 19:23).
7. Twelve pillars were set up for each tribe (Exodus 24:4).
8. Sinai had a habitable cave that was used by Elijah (1 Kings 19:8-9).
9. The mountain was “exceedingly high” (Moses 1:1).
10. There was room for approximately 3,000,000 Israelites to camp next to the mountain (Exodus 12:37).
11. From the campsite at the foot of the mountain, the children of Israel could see the presence of God (Exodus 19:17-18).
12. There was ample grazing for the animals of the Israelites for an extended period of time.
13. The apostle Paul placed the Mountain of Moses in Arabia (Galatians 4:25). Since Paul spent time in Arabia, it is possible that he actually visited the mountain himself: “Neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me; but I went into Arabia …” (Galatians 1:17).
Although 55% of the modern locations of biblical place-names are still lost to us, there are several key place-names that have been carried down from antiquity. One of these is Midian were mount Sinai was located. The account of Moses reads that he fled from the face of pharaoh, and came to the land of Midian and sat down by a well:
Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters: and they came and drew water, and filled the troughs to water their father’s flock. And the shepherds came and drove them away: but Moses stood up and helped them, and watered their flock. (Exodus 2:15-17)
There is ample scholarly evidence that Midian was both a town and also a “land” in northwest Arabia. The land of Midian has its western border on the eastern shore of the Gulf of Aqaba. Its capital city, Madyan (Midian), was a major halt of the ancient frankincense trade route from southern Arabia to Egypt, and would have been a good place for Moses to have come upon as he fled along the trail from Egypt. The official name of the town is now al-Bada’a, however modern Arabic maps of northwest Arabia still show the name of the town as Shu’ayb, the Arabic spelling of Jethro.
Over a thousand years ago, the early Islamic geographer Al-Hauqal wrote that there was a well in Midian from which Moses watered the flocks of Jethro (Shu’aib). He explained, even then, that the name of the town was derived from the tribe of Jethro. Writing in the same period, Al-Muqqaddasi wrote, “Here may be seen the stone which Moses removed when he gave water to the flocks of Shu’aib. Water here is abundant.” Abdulla Al-Wohaibi, who compiled the writings of Arab geographers between A.D. 900-1100 noted that "the attention that Madyan [Midian] has always attracted from the Arab geographers is due to the fact that it is mentioned in the Qur‘an in connection with the story of the prophet Shu’aib [Jethro].
Arab geographers place the land of Midian west of the city of Tabuk, which infers that the land of Midian reached only a short distance into the interior of Arabia (Tabuk is less than 150 miles east of the Gulf of Aqaba). Although local traditions can be misleading, the local habitants of Midian (al-Bada’a) have a rich tradition of Moses and his father-in-law Jethro. Besides the traditional name of the town being Jethro, the locals will readily show you the caves of Moses, the wells of Jethro, the wadi Horeb, the wadi Moses, and the Waters of Moses. Intriguingly on a visit to Midian, the renowned Arabia explorer H. St. John Philby also wrote of “circles of Jethro” from which he could view a mount “lauz”: “From here my guide and I climbed up the cliffs to visit the ‘circles’ of Jethro on the summit of Musalla ridge, from which we climbed down quite easily to our camp on the far side… . A cairn marked the spot where Jethro is supposed to have prayed, and all around it are numerous circles, … from here I had a magnificent view of the whole of Midian mountain range, with Lauz [Jebel al-Lawz] and its sister peaks in the northeast.” As Philby described, the mount al-Lawz is visible from al-Bada’a (town of Midian) and is to its northeast. The Bible seems to suggest that al-Lawz might be mount Sinai. If Moses took Jethro’s flocks there (Exodus 3:1), this implies that the mountain is in the vicinity of Al-Bada’a.
The Bible also says that Moses led the flocks of Jethro to the “backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb” (Exodus 3:1). Since Arabia has long been known as “the desert” or “the wilderness,” its backside would be to the interior or east, not to the shoreline of the Gulf on the west. This would imply that the burning bush was on the eastside of the mountain, which is the opposite side from the town of al-Bada’a (Midian)--Jethro’s home. The Qur’an states that the Lord appeared to Moses on the “right side” of the mountain. This is exactly the location where Potter’s group found monuments and petroglyphs.
In contrast, Potter’s group has observed large Bedouin camps in and around the mountains of Midian. Historian Abdulla Al-Wohaibi indicates that Midian was “a flourishing ancient town with numerous wells and permanently flowing springs whose water had a good taste. There are farms, gardens and groves of palm trees.” In ancient times there appears to have been more than enough fodder for sheep in Midian. The Greek Agatharkides of Cnidos wrote of Midian, “the country is full of wild camels, as well as of flocks of deer, gazelles, sheep, mules, and oxen.” As a result he also noted that the game “attracts numerous lions, wolves, and panthers.”
The traditional tourist site for Mount Sinai is located at St. Catherine’s monastery on the Sinai Peninsula. All we know is that a psychic had convinced Constantine that this remote mountain near the southern end of the Sinai peninsula was the sacred mountain. Tim Sedor and George Potter visited St. Catherine’s and found it a poor candidate for precisely the same reasons outlined by Larry Williams and Bob Cornuke in their book Gold of Exodus
1. Moses would not have driven Jethro’s flocks nearly two hundred miles to a land that is almost entirely void of fodder for sheep.
2. There is not enough room for a large encampment at the St. Catherine’s site. Indeed the nearest campsite would have been what is referred to as the wadi of the Rest. This wadi could not have been where the children of Israel camped because the mountain is not visible from the campsite, and we know that the children of Israel were able to see the presence of God on the mountain.
3. Moses, a man of eighty years of age, would have needed to climb a mountain that requires mountaineering equipment to scale.
4. The mountain has no source of drinking water. Why would Moses have led more than 2.5 million people to a place with no water?
5. There is no archaeological evidence that there was an encampment of nearly 3,000,000 people.
6. None of the other features described in the Bible are found there (i.e. cave, markers, pillars, etc.)
Concerning this tourist location of Mt. Sinai at St. Catherines in the Sinai peninsula, one has to ask what Moses‘s reasons would have been for taking Jethro’s flocks the great distance out of Arabia and into Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula where the pasture was inferior and Moses was a wanted man. C. S. Jarvis, Britain’s governor of the Sinai peninsula of Egypt after WWI, became acquainted with the area during his long tenure there as perhaps no other westerner before him. In an article entitled “Yesterday and Today in Sinai” he wrote that there was no way the Israelite multitudes and their livestock could have traveled through-much less sustained themselves for more than a year-in the “tumbled mass of pure granite” of the southern Sinai. Furthermore, it should be remembered that Egyptian garrisons protected the copper mines near St. Catherine’s mountain.
So if mount Sinai is not in the Sinai peninsula, and if it is indeed in the land of Midian, then where exactly is it? A bluntly naive thing to do is to just pick up a modern road map and follow it. The most widely used road maps in Arabia are published by Eng. Zaki M.A. Farsi. His map guide to Tabuk covers the land of Midian. The modern roadmap shows a trail leading east from the wadi I’fal, about ten miles north of Al-Bada’a. The trail heads directly towards a towering V shaped mountain that towers into the sky. The name of the valley is “wadi Musa,” meaning the valley of Moses. The wadi Musa (valley of Moses) ends at the western base of the V shaped mountain. On the “backside” or “eastside” of this very peak is where we [Potter’s group] found the monuments that suggest that it is the real mount Sinai. [George Potter, “Where Is The Real Mount Sinai,” E-published by Nephi Project, February 2002 at [http://www.nephiproject.com/sinai.htm]]
1 Nephi 4:2 Moses (Mt. Sinai-Horeb) [Illustration]: Map showing the site of St. Catherine’s, one of the proposed sites for Mount Sinai, and also the Arabian site, another candidate for Mount Sinai. [George Potter, “Where Is The Real Mount Sinai,” E-published by Nephi Project, February 2002 at [http://www.nephiproject.com/sinai.htm]]
1 Nephi 4:2 Moses (Mt. Sinai-Horeb) [[Illustration] Photograph taken from the base of St. Catherine’s, which is to the left, and not in site of the wadi of the Rest (in the distance), where according to one theory Israel supposedly camped. [George Potter, “Where Is The Real Mount Sinai,” E-published by Nephi Project, February 2002 at [http://www.nephiproject.com/sinai.htm]]
1 Nephi 4:2 Moses (Mt. Sinai-Horeb) [[Illustration] Susan Potter at the base of the St. Catherine’s, one proposed candidate for Mount Sinai. [George Potter, “Where Is The Real Mount Sinai,” E-published by Nephi Project, February 2002 at [http://www.nephiproject.com/sinai.htm]]
1 Nephi 4:2 Moses (Mt. Sinai-Horeb) [[Illustration] George Potter at the Arabian site which has been proposed as a candidate for Mount Sinai. [George Potter, “Where Is The Real Mount Sinai,” E-published by Nephi Project, February 2002 at [http://www.nephiproject.com/sinai.htm]]
1 Nephi 4:2 Moses (Mt. Sinai-Horeb) [[Illustration] Well at al-Bada’a which locals claim is the well of Jethro. [George Potter, “Where Is The Real Mount Sinai,” E-published by Nephi Project, February 2002 at [http://www.nephiproject.com/sinai.htm]]
1 Nephi 4:2 Moses (Mt. Sinai-Horeb) [[Illustration] One of eleven boundary markers next to the Arabian candidate for Mount Sinai (the tribe of Levi, the priests, had no separate camp. [George Potter, “Where Is The Real Mount Sinai,” E-published by Nephi Project, February 2002 at [http://www.nephiproject.com/sinai.htm]]
1 Nephi 4:2 Moses (Mt. Sinai-Horeb) [[Illustration] Remains of one of the marble columns at the Arabian candidate for Mount Sinai. [George Potter, “Where Is The Real Mount Sinai,” E-published by Nephi Project, February 2002 at [http://www.nephiproject.com/sinai.htm]]
1 Nephi 4:2 Moses (Mt. Sinai-Horeb) [[Illustration] Two stone pathways lead to “Altar of Moses” at the Arabian Sinai site. The entire monument is made of unhewn stones. [George Potter, “Where Is The Real Mount Sinai,” E-published by Nephi Project, February 2002 at [http://www.nephiproject.com/sinai.htm]]
1 Nephi 4:2 Moses (Mt. Sinai-Horeb) [[Illustration] Calf carvings that surround the entire structure alleged to be the “golden calf” altar at the Arabian Sinai site. [George Potter, “Where Is The Real Mount Sinai,” E-published by Nephi Project, February 2002 at [http://www.nephiproject.com/sinai.htm]]
Note* George Potter and his companions have discovered more information concerning this candidate for the Mountain of Moses. He and Richard Wellington plan to author a book that discusses the mountain, the trail of the children of Israel to it, the place where they crossed the Red Sea, and the campsites they stayed in prior to reaching Mount Sinai.
Note* The apostle Paul seems to have known Sinai’s location, as he referred to it along with its symbolic meaning relative to the ability of the Lord’s covenant way to free a people from bondage through obedience to those covenants as they wander through the wilderness to the promised land where by covenant they will be adopted in and become a chosen people:
For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman.
But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise.
Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which genereth to bondage, which is Agar [related to Hagar].
For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.
But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.
For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband.
Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.
But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now.
Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.
So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.
So for Nephi and Lehi, to go to reside in the Valley of Lemuel which was near Mt. Sinai is very symbolic relative to the bondage into which the children of Israel were plunging themselves by disobedience to the covenants they had made originally at that same location. Moreover, this area which included Mount Sinai would be the place where Nephi, like Moses, prepared himself to lead the children of Israel--remnants of the tribe of Joseph--through the wilderness to their promised land. [Alan C. Miner, Personal Notes]