Sacred Biblical Mountains - Part One

Sacred mountains are a central factor to various religions and produce many wonderful legends. In reference to biblical mountains, the peak is usually symbolic because it is believed [at the top] is the closest mankind can get to a Superior Being who resides somewhere in the universe.

There are many religion-based traditions centered around sacred mountains, such as:  Mount Ararat in the Abrahamic religions and Mount Olympus in Greek mythology. Other mountains are related to famous events, such as: Mount Sinai in Judaism, Christianity and Islam. In other cases, divine mountains can be purely mythical, such as: Hara Berezaiti in Zoroastrianism. Then you have Mount Kailash, which is believed to be the residence of the Hindu gods, Shiva and Parvati (which are sacred to Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism). Volcanoes, such as Mount Etna, were also considered revered as [they lay claim to being] the abode of Vulcan, the Roman god of fire and the forge.  

The following will focus on four different sacred mountains that are well-known throughout the world. Part One includes Mount Ararat and Mount Sinai. Part Two will include Mount Zion and the Mount of Olives.

Mountains of Ararat: Mountain of Noah's Ark

"At the end of the hundred and fifty days the water had gone down, and on the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat." ~ Genesis 8:3-4  

For thousands of years many religious scholars have proclaimed Mount Ararat, located in present-day Turkey, is where Noah's ark came to rest, yet other biblical theologians point out Ararat is a large mountain range and Mt. Ararat is not necessarily the actual mountain in question. Since the Middle Ages the mountain range of Ararat has been identified as the resting place of Noah's ark, known as Masis. This sacred range corresponds to the ancient Assyrian mountain of Urartu, which was located east of Shinar (aka: Chaldaea or Babylonia).

According to the 1st century A.D. historian, Flavius Josephus, and quoting earlier historians such as, Berossus, Mnaseas and Nicolaus of Damascus, Josephus writes in his Antiquities of the Jews, "... the ark rested on the top of a certain mountain in Armenia... over Minyas, called Baris."

In the Latin Vulgate, Jerome of Stridon translated Genesis 8:4 to read, "... and the ark rested... on the mountain of Ararat." However, after the Second Vatican Council in 1962, the toponym is amended to the "mountains of Ararat".

The early Syrian tradition places the ark on Mount Judi in what is the southeastern section present-day Turkey in the Sirnak Province. Yet this particular association slowly faded after the Middle Ages and is now confined to Quranic tradition.

According to the Book of Jubilees, the holy mountain in question came to rest on the peak of Lubar, a mountain in the range of Ararat. 

In his book, Historie of the World (1614 A.D.), Sir Walter Raleigh implies in several chapters that in ancient times the mountains of Ararat included not only those of Armenia (east of Turkey), but also all of the taller mountain ranges extending into eastern Asia. Raleigh noted that since Armenia is not actually located east of Shinar, the ark must have landed somewhere in the Orient.

While the majority of scholars cannot pin-point the exact location of where Noah's ark landed, they do agree it was somewhere in the mountain range of Ararat.

"There is no doubt of the antiquity of the tradition of this (Mount Ararat) being (as it is sometimes termed) the "Mother of the World". ~ Cyclopaedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature-1894

Mount Sinai: Mountain of Moses

"Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. Mount Sinai was completely enveloped in smoke, because the LORD had descended on it in fire." ~ Exodus 19:17-18

Mount Sinai, located in the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt, is considered by the Abrahamic religions to be the place where Moses received the Ten Commandments from God. The mountain was traditionally known as Mount Horeb in Judaism and Christianity and referred to as Jabal Musa (Mount Moses) in Islam. The sacred mountain is near the present-day city of Saint Catherine in south Sinai Peninsula. It is surrounded on all sides by higher peaks in the mountain range Jabal al-Lawz which extends into Saudi Arabia.   

According to Acts 7:29-30, Moses fled from Egypt as a young man and lived in the area of Mt. Sinai. It was here, in the same place, that God instructed Moses to return after bringing the Israelites out of the bondage of Egypt (Exodus 3:12).

Early Christians identified Mount Serbal, the fifth largest mountain in Egypt, as the holy landmark’s location. This mountain is situated in Wadi Feiran in southern Sinai. 

The historian, Josephus, reported in his writings that Mt. Sinai was the highest mountain in the area where Moses once lived. And the philosopher, Philo of Alexandria, said this same sacred mount was located east of the Sinai Peninsula and south of Palestine.

There is no concrete archaeological evidence that the 7,500-foot Mount Sinai is the holy peak mentioned in the Biblical account. However, as early as the 3rd century A.D., Christian recluses living in the Sinai’s remote wilderness began to identify this particular mount as Moses' mountain, even locating what they believed to be the burning bush near the base of the mountain. 

In 337 A.D., Empress Helena, the mother of Constantine [the emperor who legalized Christianity in the Roman Empire in 313], made a pilgrimage to the site and ordered a chapel to be built around the bush. By the 6th century, when the complete departure of the Romans brought lawlessness to the region, the monastic community sought help from Byzantine Emperor Justinian I. The Byzantine emperor sent architects and masons, who from 527 to 565 built a fortified monastery complex, with 60-foot-high granite walls, to protect the community and its chapel. Justinian also sent men, most likely from Macedonia, to serve as guards. These Christians, over generations, intermarried with the indigenous Bedouin tribes and gradually converted to Islam and became known as the Jabaliya (“of the mountain”) tribe. The Prophet Muhammad visited the monastery in the 7th century and blessed it with a promise "that it would be cherished by Muslims for all time". Muhammed was convinced the monastery sat at the foot of Moses' mountain. Today, the monastery is home to a group of Greek Orthodox monks.

A small minority of scholars believe Mount Sinai is not in Egypt at all, but instead is located in Saudi Arabia. They believe that Moses traveled that way during the exile from Egypt. Another opinion, held by Emmanuel Anati - a modern archeologist - concludes that the holy landmark mountain is located at Har Karkom in Israel due to the biblical art found within the 2700-foot ridge.

While Mount Sinai’s exact location is disputed among many, it remains one of the most sacred mountains in biblical literature.

"The law given from Sinai was a civil and municipal as well as a moral and religious code; it contained many statutes . . . of universal application-laws essential to the existence of men in society, and most of which have been enacted by every nation which ever professed any code of laws." ~ President John Quincy Adams

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