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SCIENTIST PUTS MOUNT SINAI IN SAUDI
Monday 14 April 2003 08:43am
A British scientist is making two claims about Jewish history this that could surely spark furious discussion.
Colin Humphreys of Cambridge University has concluded science backs traditional beliefs that the Israelites' exodus from Egypt was led by Moses as the Bible and the Haggadah ritual tell it.
But he says that Mount Sinai, where scripture says Moses received God's Law, is located in Saudi Arabia, not Egypt's Sinai Peninsula - moving a key site for Judaism into the nation where Islam was founded.
Humphreys' theories come at a time when his close, literal reading of the Book of Exodus is far out of fashion among Conservative and Reform Jews, though it may be welcomed by Orthodox Jews and conservative Christians.
He details his ideas in a new book, The Miracles of Exodus: A Scientist's Discovery of the Extraordinary Natural Causes of the Biblical Stories (HarperSanFrancisco).
The 61-year-old academic brings a solid intellectual reputation in his own fields of physics and materials science to the table, though admittedly amateur status in archaeology and Bible scholarship.
Humphreys doesn't feel his lack of expertise is a problem: He believes it gives him an open mind. "I am not preconditioned to accept standard interpretations," he says.
Other scholars have proposed that Sinai was in Arabia.
But Humphreys' claim is distinct because he reckons the holy mount must have been an active volcano, since it shook and emitted fire and smoke (Exodus 19:18). And he has carefully examined records ancient and modern to fix the site.
His candidate: Present-day Mount Bedr in north-western Saudi Arabia, since there were no ancient volcanoes in what was later named the Sinai Peninsula. Humphreys also thinks that near Mount Bedr, Moses experienced God's call at the "burning bush". He suggests the mysterious phenomenon was caused by flammable natural gas or volcanic gas escaping from a small vent in the ground.
Copyright (c) Press Association Ltd 2003, All Rights Reserved.
Monday 14 April 2003 08:43am
A British scientist is making two claims about Jewish history this that could surely spark furious discussion.
Colin Humphreys of Cambridge University has concluded science backs traditional beliefs that the Israelites' exodus from Egypt was led by Moses as the Bible and the Haggadah ritual tell it.
But he says that Mount Sinai, where scripture says Moses received God's Law, is located in Saudi Arabia, not Egypt's Sinai Peninsula - moving a key site for Judaism into the nation where Islam was founded.
Humphreys' theories come at a time when his close, literal reading of the Book of Exodus is far out of fashion among Conservative and Reform Jews, though it may be welcomed by Orthodox Jews and conservative Christians.
He details his ideas in a new book, The Miracles of Exodus: A Scientist's Discovery of the Extraordinary Natural Causes of the Biblical Stories (HarperSanFrancisco).
The 61-year-old academic brings a solid intellectual reputation in his own fields of physics and materials science to the table, though admittedly amateur status in archaeology and Bible scholarship.
Humphreys doesn't feel his lack of expertise is a problem: He believes it gives him an open mind. "I am not preconditioned to accept standard interpretations," he says.
Other scholars have proposed that Sinai was in Arabia.
But Humphreys' claim is distinct because he reckons the holy mount must have been an active volcano, since it shook and emitted fire and smoke (Exodus 19:18). And he has carefully examined records ancient and modern to fix the site.
His candidate: Present-day Mount Bedr in north-western Saudi Arabia, since there were no ancient volcanoes in what was later named the Sinai Peninsula. Humphreys also thinks that near Mount Bedr, Moses experienced God's call at the "burning bush". He suggests the mysterious phenomenon was caused by flammable natural gas or volcanic gas escaping from a small vent in the ground.
Copyright (c) Press Association Ltd 2003, All Rights Reserved.