Kanook – Tlingit Nation

February – 2010

Ask just about anyone associated with three of the religions having a direct link to Abraham
and you will learn that they have a vague scholarship on its significance of Mount Sinai’s
relationship to the three religions. Albeit they might be somewhat doubtful of its location
they pretty much have an idea of its location and/or it ancient history.
And there might even be some who know some of the other names it is called by some of the
population scattered across the world – for instance it can be referred to as Mount Horeb,
Mount Musa, Gabal Musa and Jabal Musa all referring to the man who is supposed to have
led a mass of individuals from the clutches of the evil Egyptians, Moses.
According to the Hebrew Bible the mountain we now refer to as Mount Sinai, where Moses is
said to have accepted the Ten Commandments from his God was actually Mount Horeb,
today many scholars believe that Mount Horeb and Mount Sinai are one and the same, albeit
there are a few scholars who maintain that they are two different locations.
It is told to us that when Moses and his people
fled Egypt they fled across the marshes of the
Red Sea and trekked into the Promise Land
following a bright cloud, many wonder to this
day why this particular cloud of luminance
cause the crowd of refugees to make an abrupt
turn to the southeast and walk for 200 plus
miles through the desert, make a turn northeast
and eventually stumble onto a mountain that
Moses climbed (twice) the last time bringing to
his people a set of laws from his God we today
call the Ten Commandments. The question
arises, if they were headed to the Promise Land why take the detour and if so, was it a
command that only Moses understood whereas he and his God calculated this his followers
would follow the cloud no-matter what leading them to they mystical place when the Lord
lowered the sky and cover the peak in fire and thunderstorms as Moses ascended to receive
the laws.
This mountain has been “traditionally” been considered by the Christians as Mount Sinai.
Geographically it is not the highest mountain in the area, being only 7,497 feet high, while a
short distance away is Mount St Catherine at 8,625 feet in height and is recorded as the
tallest mountain in what we know today as the Sinai Peninsula…Mount Sinai is also
surrounded by higher peaks of the mountain range. The mountain itself is said to have
formed during the Arabian-Nubian Shield evolution occurring over a 300 million years
timeframe, beginning over 700 million years ago, give or take. Mount Sinai’s exposed rocks
indicated they erupted from different depths in themselves, not a true mystery other than the
mountain was formed along with its neighboring mountains with cataclysmic actions.
As far back as the
historian Josephus’ time
the area was referred to
as the Country of
Turquoise, and it was not
until the early part of
Christianity that a group
of Anchorites settled on
Mount Serbal, which is
located in the Wadi
Feiran in southern Sinai
sometimes referred to in
texts as Gebel Serbal at
6,791 feet high, making it
the 5th highest mountain
in Egypt. The early
Anchorite settlers left
many granite dwellings
on the Mountain, and
found on at its base are traces of a 4th Century monastery – some believe this mountain is
Mount Sinai, at the foot of mountain is located the Valley of the Writing, “Mokatteb”, that
contains at various places rocks with many inscriptions, some in Greek.
Nevertheless during his time, Josephus told his peers that Mount Sinai was the highest of all the
mountains in the region, which some said he was talking about Mount Catherine – but in
other opinions since civilization had no GPS units, who was to argue with the historian,
 while other scholars of Biblical text argue that Mount Sinai wasn’t located on the Sinai
Peninsula in the first place. Although Mount Catherine is the tallest mountain in Egypt at
8,625 feet and is some 1,128 feet higher than Mount Sinai, and in my opinion as a amateur
map reader more accessible to foot traffic with a broad plain for the camping of over a
million refugees fleeing Egypt – who am I to question the numerous scholars on both sides
of the fence of antiquity. The two mountains are separated by only 2.265 miles – so maybe a
common mistake by all.
Regardless it is noted that in the
timeframe of 300 AD that Saint
Catherine’s Monastery was
constructed at the base of Mount
Sinai, which eventually led to the
abandonment of the monastery at
Serbal – it was at the future Saint
Catherine’s that two monks claimed
that one of the bushes in the monastic
grounds was the Biblical “Burning
Bush”, and according to monastic tradition this bush sill survives today – the original.
Unlike the invading Christians (albeit a few year hundred years ago) the local “Bedouin”
tradition considers “Jabal Musa” which is adjacent to Mount Catherine to be the Biblical
Mountain and it is this mountain that local
tour groups and religious groups advertise as
the Biblical Mount Sinai, a claim that travels
back to the time of “Helena of
Constantinople” (Istanbul). Evidently this
view was assumed by Christian groups as
well, as in the 16th Century a church was
constructed at the peak of this mountain,
which was replaced by a Greek Orthodox chapel in 1954.
According to an extraction from the Hebrew Torah, what is commonly referred to as the “JE”
source text, where the Jahwist portion was extracted around 950 BC and the Elohist section
extracted around 850 BC and combined and edited into the Torah around 400 BC. Being a
hypothetical source text it has naturally drawn a clinical eye by some scholars, but this being
nothing new in that the entire history of the Israeli nation that has drawn more than one
 critical eye towards its recorded documents. Regardless, the “JE” version of events say the
fleeing mob with Moses moved in a literal straight line to Kadesh Barnea from the “Reed
Sea (Red Sea)”, where Kadesh Barnea or Qadesh-Barne was a place in the south of Ancient
Israel, where it is said Kodesh translates into “holy” and Barnea may mean “desert of
wandering”. It is here that it is said that Miriam the sister of Moses left this earthly realm
and where Moses disobediently smacked his rod into a rock which consequently issued forth
a stream of water – must have been some blow. Since 1905 this location has been associated
with modern “Ain el-Qudirat” in the Wadi el-Ain in northern Sinai, whereas several “Iron
Age” fortresses have been excavated here with the oldest being a small elliptical structure
dating back to the 10th Century BC, but had been abandoned for some time after the 1 st fort’s
destruction. A 2nd fort was constructed during the 8th Century BC, believed to have been
during the reign of “Uzziah” (Azariah) who was the King of the ancient Kingdom of Judah
and one of “Amaziah’s” sons, he was appointed by the people to take over after his father
was slain – in fact Uzziah is one of the kings mentioned in the genealogy of Jesus in the
Gospel of Matthew. He was 16 when he became King of Judah and held his position for 52-
years, from 783 to 740 BC, some state he was afflicted with leprosy in the 751/750 BC
timeframe at which time his son Jotham assumed the role of leader, at Uzziah’s death in 739
BC or so, Pekah became King of Israel in the last year of Uzziah’s rule.
Needless to say the 2nd fortress was destroyed during the 7th Century BC, more than likely
during the reign of Manasseh’s – there have been found two ostraca (pieces of a stone bowl
or such) that had Hebrew engravings on them – dated from around the 8 th or 7th Centuries
BC, albeit they are therefore hundreds of years to “recent” to be associated with the Biblical
Exodus. It should be noted that Kadesh-Barnea is some 11-days march by the way of Mt
Seir from Horeb.
As for the detour, via the south of the Sinai Peninsula, can only be found in the “Priestly
Source”, it to a compilation of documents incorporated into the Torah around 400 BC, this
again a suspect source has accounted for the number of scholars and other researchers of
Israeli history to look towards a more central and northern part of the Sinai Peninsula for the
famous mountain. One such mountain is Mount Sin Bishar in the west-central part of Sinai,
a proposal put to the pen by Menashe Har-El, a biblical geographer at Tel Aviv University,
and another Mount Helal, in the north of the peninsula has also been suggested.
A production by James Cameron on the History Channel “The Exodus Decoded” points to some
obvious facts that in addition to its geographic site, Mount Hashem el-Tarif has other
features that make it a suitable location, where there is a cleft that overlooks a natural
 amphitheatre at which the Israelites could have been addressed by Moses, there is a nearby
plateau where the gang could have set up camp, with sufficient foliage to feed their flocks,
and there is evidence of an ancient spring at the top of the mountain. In addition to this
evidence it is important to remember that the Biblical Mount Sinai is an unknown mountain,
yet it is described as a Holy Mountain, consider that Hashem el-Tarif has several ancient
stone shrines all around it, as well as more than a few graves of apparently prominent people
near its summit – and in looking at the Christian choices you see that Jebel Musa is lacking
any of the previous and is surrounded by a granite plateau unsuitable for herding sheet.
Unfortunately Hashem el-Tarif has been off-limits to any archeological excavation as it is
under Egyptian military control, this may change in the near future, but understanding the
rules and regulations of the country I doubt it.

Moses on Mount Sinai

In the Book of Exodus it is said that Moses encountered the “Burning Bush” on Mount Horeb,
where according to the narrative the Bush was on fire, but was not consumed by the flames,
where Moses who had been performing his daily duties guarding the flocks of Jethro, his
father-in-law a priest of the Midian, who had given his daughter Zipporah to Moses as his
wife. It is reported that Jethro lived in Midian, a territory stretching along the eastern edge
of the Gulf of Aqaba in what is today northwestern Saudi Arabia, albeit some believe that it
was located within the Sinai Peninsula – where biblical maps from long-ago show Midian in
both locations. Some sources say that the Midian’s were related to Abraham and that the
name referred to a tribe living in the area…they were basically wandering shepherds who
moved about in small bands with their goats and sheep, using camels as their beasts of
 burden during the dry season, congregating in large groups during the wet season breeding
their flocks thereby increasing their size and diversity.
The narrative goes on stating that an angel of “Yahweh” appeared in the middle of the Burning
Bush, whereas Yahweh calls out to Moses and when Moses approached Yahweh stopped him
and told him to remove his sandals as the ground around the Bush was holy – subsequently
Moses hides his face and doesn’t look at God showing his Moses respect.
Scholars (here we go again) tell us that the account was spliced together from the Jahwist and
Elohist texts, with the appearance of the Angel of Yahweh and the removal of sandals being
part of the Elohist version, and the Jahwist version to the voice of Yahweh and Moses’
respect in his turning away his face.
When Moses challenged the voice as for its
identity, Yahweh replies that he is the God
of the Patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob
and that he is Yahweh – text being
translated ties the title Yahweh back to the
Hebrew word “Hayah” which means he
who is he, or I am that I am.
The narrative continues with Yahweh telling
Moses that he sending him to the Pharaoh in order to bring the Israelites out of Egypt,
Yahweh informs Moses are being oppressed and treated as lowly slaves in the land of the
Pharaoh’s. Yahweh tells Moses to inform the elders of the Israelites that Yahweh would lead
them onto the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Hivites, and Jebusites a region that
is generally referred to as a region Canaan, where it is described as being a land of milk and
honey.
Yahweh from his position in the Burning Bush on Mount Horeb, as it states in the narrative
instructs Moses to confront the Egyptians and Israelites briefing him that he should be
expected to be jerked around by the leaders in Egypt – Yahweh then dips into his box of
miracles pulls a few out and demonstrates to the wide-eyed Moses his power in order to
convince the Prophet of his awesome power – at one time turns Moses’ staff into a snake and
making Moses’ hand into a hand of leper and a stream or container of water into blood – two
different versions exist on whether or not Yahweh gave Moses’ a new staff (Elohist) or his
own staff was used by Moses’ after his meeting with Yahweh (Yahwist).
Despite all the miracles performed by Yahweh, Moses had his druthers being very reluctant to
take on the role that his God had ordered, he made the argument that he lacked the speaking
 ability or eloquence to do so and asked that Yahweh chose another person. The reaction
from Yahweh was to be expected whereas he angrily rebuked Moses for his presuming to go
against Yahweh’s decision where Yahweh lectured telling him, “who are you to question me,
who made the mouth on who was qualified to speak and not to speak!” Yet as almost an
afterthought Yahweh concedes and allows Aaron, whose name shows up in the Torah for the
1st time, to accompany Moses – where it is said that Aaron was very eloquent and was on his
way to visit Moses, in a word or two Aaron becomes Moses eloquent mouthpiece.
In the scriptures Aaron is referred to as “Aaron the Levite”, and represented the priestly
functions of his tribe and was to become the 1st High Priest of the Israelites. During Moses
40-year self-imposed banishment to the Sinai Peninsula as a shepherd Aaron and his sister
Miriam remained with his kinsmen in Goshen. It was here that Aaron obtained his
reputation as an eloquent and persuasive speech, a fact that leads to the assumption that over
the 40-years Aaron and Moses and the rest of their family had remained in contact.
Eventually under Moses’ request to Yahweh Aaron was to become his brother “nabi” or
spokesman, convincing not only his people to follow Moses but later on to the Pharaoh when
the Big Boss refused to let the Israelites travel to the
Promise Land.
Shortly after receiving his command Moses’ is said to have
left his adopted family and left for Egypt, along the way
he is said to have had God teaching him the practice of
transforming his “rod” into a serpent and inflicting and
healing leprosy – along with polishing his ability to
pour river water on the ground and turn it into blood.
An obscure passage in the Torah mentions that Moses’ was
nearly slain by his God when Yahweh found out Moses’
son was not circumcised, the obscure passage doesn’t refer to which of Moses’ two sons,
whereas the oldest is believe to be “Gershom” and his 2nd and only other son was “Eliezer”
both born before Moses’ trek to Egypt – this information only being mentioned very briefly
in the “Pentateuch”, and another couple of notes in Exodus 4:30 and 18:4, and one reference
in Numbers 11:27 that Gershom is the lad who warns Moses that people have been seized
with the divine spirit.
After a bit, during the journey to Egypt Moses meets up with his brother Aaron, and after some
I would imagined heated exchanges convinces Aaron that they must convince the people of
Israel of the upcoming Exodus.
 Meeting with the people of Israel Moses pleads with them
and convinces the elders and his oppressed kindred, who
after seeing the “signs” presented that had been taught to
Moses by Yahweh begin packing their bags for their eventual
trip to the Promise Land.
It was during this timeframe that Moses learned the Pharaoh
of Oppression had died, and the land was now ruled by the
Pharaoh of the Exodus. Today debates ring through the halls
of religious scholars on who this Pharaoh was that Moses in his 80th year demanded the
release of his kindred, where the list includes Ahmost I, Thutmose III, Horemheb (who
practiced monotheism), Ramesses I, Ramesses II (Rameses the Great), Merneptah, and
Amenmesse.
One thing that has always bothered or tickled my uneducated mind is the fact that no record has
ever been found in Egypt of the Exodus, and as I have read and been taught the Egyptians if
nothing else were known for carving their history in monuments, now whether or not they
were ashamed of being bested by Moses is also not clear, but in fact the records of the
Egyptians also do not indicated whether there were Israelites in Egypt at all.
But then again the Hebrew’s were pretty footloose when composing their history, whereas there
is a mention in their books that Moses taught the Phoenicians the alphabet – which I strongly
dispute along with numerous other scholars in Levant history. There again only proving that
the Hebrew’s were proficient in their writing of fiction, not unlike other historical documents
produced by other civilizations – regardless their story continues.
Moses and Aaron’s 1st visit to the Pharaoh saw them asking the Pharaoh to let their people,
under the orders of Lord God of Israel, to celebrate a feast in the wilderness – eventually
seeing through this ruse the Pharaoh responded that he did not know their God and would
not permit the people to wander off into the wilderness to celebrate, giving his response
pounding his fists and peering down and the two. In other words, who do you think I am?
Their 2nd audience with the Pharaoh had them demonstrating their ability to turn Moses’ rod
into a serpent, the Pharaoh chuckled and had his court magicians do the same with their rods.
Not to be turned aside on their third visit Moses convinced the Pharaoh to go with him and
Aaron to the banks of the Nile where Moses turned the river into blood, again the Pharaohs
court magicians duplicated the feat.
Soon after they gained a 4th audience whereas Aaron called forth an abundance of frogs to
overrun Egypt – again the magicians called their frogs out – now whether or not the Pharaoh
 was tired of the fun and games or was annoyed with too many frogs underfoot he promised
to let the Israelites in going and celebrating their feast in the wilderness, if only Moses would
rid his land of the frogs – the next day the frogs expired leaving the air heavy with the stench
of dead frogs and their carcasses laying about causing a horrible mess. Now this really got
the Pharaoh up on step, he revoked his permission – this put Moses in the battle mode and he
and Aaron really brought down the anger of Yahweh and the ten plagues were pulled from
the bag which and everything went against the Egyptians.
The 10th plague was the clincher, where the slaying of Egyptian 1 st born broke the Pharaohs’
will that caused him to release the people, whereas they were protected from the old man
Death by taking lamb’s blood and marking a post causing the Lord to not kill its inhabitants.
It is noted that the 10th plague not affected humans, but the livestock of the Egyptians. The
day of the 10th plague is celebrated by the Israelites as the Day of Passover.
On their release Moses calculated that as before the Pharaoh would change his mind, wasting
no time the group of over a “million souls” and their livestock left that night marching off
with their arms raised in supplication to their release by Yahweh. The group being very large
including their flocks move eastward very slowly, where they camped three times before
reaching the Egyptian frontier – some believe at the Great Bitter Lake while others suppose
they crossed further south at the northern tip of the Red Sea – as imagined the Pharaoh did
change his mind and was after them with a substantial army – eventually approaching them
as they came upon the water way.
There are two supposed routes from Cairo, the top one follows the Tamitic Arm (stream off the Nile)
heading toward the Promise Land until it reaches Mt Casiurs and then turns south eventually
ending up by passing the eastside of the Bitter Lakes and meeting up the bottom route at Ayun
Musa – the bottom route follows the Road of Israel to Abu Kesheb onto Ehtam, backtracking to
the West side of the lakes finally crossing the northern tip of the Red Sea, the journey ending at
Ayun Musa (Uyun Musa).

Both ends of their trek seemingly at an end, the Army on one side and water on the other it is
said that Yahweh divided the waters
allowing the Israelites to pass across
the muddy bottom reaching the other
side, the Pharaoh and his army were not
so lucky, whereas somewhere across
the water Yahweh caused the water to
reclaim the crossing. Unfortunately as
most everything noted in the narrative
the account has been questioned
because of the translation whereas an earlier incorrect account of “Yam Supla” to the Red
Sea was found later to have meant the Reed Sea.
After reaching “dry land” the group then continued to Marsa after a march of 3-days along the
wilderness of Shur without finding any water. It is then reported they came to Elim where
12-water springs and 70 Palm trees were found, from Elim after a well deserved rest they set
out for the wilderness of Sin reaching their destination after 45-days, which was located
between Slim and Sinai. The crowd eventually reached the plain of Rephidim, again finding
no water for which they blamed poor old Moses, such an anger arose he was afraid they
would stone him – this is where Moses was commanded to “speak” to a certain rock or the
“rock of Horeb”, which God said would cause a stream to flow from the inside of the
mountain – turning to the people who were clearly upset with him he yelled at his people,
“Hear now, ye rebels, must we fetch you water out of this rock?” Moses in speaking to his
people instead of the rock, which would have sanctified Yahweh got himself on the wrong
side of his God, and then when he struck the rock twice instead of once as his God later told
him to do he really caused himself grief as God, albeit water flowed, God punished Moses
by not ever letting him enter into the Promise Land.
Satisfied they had water the mob backed off, after a time the Israelites while camped at
Rephidim were attacked by the “Amalekites”, this action being noted in the “Pentateuch”
classifying them as a tribe of nomads – in reality attacking the
stragglers of the group. Hebrew history records them as the 1 st of
the Nations to make war against Israel, the ensuing battle was led
by Joshua with Moses, Aaron and Hur watched the battle from a
nearby hill. Moses noticed that when his “arms” were raised the
Israelites gained the upper hand, and when he lowered them the
battle shifted in superiority to the Amalekites, consequently as the
battle progressed and Aaron and Hur held his arms up by sunset
the Israelites successfully secured their victory. “Hur” was
mentioned only a couple of times in the Torah, once at this battle and the other as a
companion of Aaron and staunch ally of Moses looking over the Israelites when Moses
assented Mount Sinai, he was also the grandfather of “Bezaleel” the principal creator of the
Tabernacle and the Ark of the Covenant, as order by and designated by Yahweh.
The Good Book actually mentions 42 locations or “stations” that were visited by the Israelites
following their Exodus from Egypt – the one at Rephidim was number eleven, number
twelve being the Sinai Wilderness that is supposed to have contained the unverified Mount
Sinai.
Following orders from his God, Moses is said to have led his people to the foot of Mount Sinai
where they made camp, hearing this his father-in-law gathered up Moses wife and two boys,
who Moses had sent back to Jethro before he started his quest, and went to meet Moses and
his million plus crowd. During his visit, as it is written the day following the evening of
greeting Moses sat in front of his crowd and heard complaints thereby issuing decisions to
their outcome, a tedious process that moved far into the day. At the end of the day, Jethro
having watched his son-in-law suggested that Moses appoint a systematic system of
“judges”, from judges over large groups of judges down to a series of judges over smaller
and tight clans – “Let them bear the complaints, clear up the minor ones and move on up the
ladder with a council of them making major decisions – remove yourself from the process,
and just be the law giver.” Moses followed his father-in-laws advice and Jethro soon
returned to his territory.
It is recorded that shortly thereafter he climbed Mount
Sinai where he remained for 40-days and 40-nights
receiving God’s rules for the Israelites, and it is also
written that Moses finally (one must assume the 2nd
time) the Ten Commandments and the Book of the
Covenant 3-months following their Exodus from
Egypt.
When you think about it 40-days and 40-nights is a long
time to leave 1 million plus people mulling around
doing nothing, especially this group who seemed to
have complained about their predicament most of the
way between Cairo and Mount Sinai, experience should tell you if you’ve even sat with a
group of Jews that there is something that they will find to complain about even it is too
much sunshine or not enough – all in the same breath.
Regardless the Torah tells its reader that somewhere in that 40-day, 40-night period the masses
got up-on-step and bored doing nothing and convinced Aaron and Hur that they should run
around camp and collect gold, throw it into a hot cauldron and make a Golden Calf – this
after Aaron refused to construct an image of God, which would have been a little hard to do
for Aaron as even Moses who had turned his head really did not have an idea what Yahweh
looked like. The continued
complaining of his “no”, echoed
through the camp like chalk over a
blackboard, he finally relented where
the gold was melted down and the
construction of a gold young bull was
done.
Aaron also built and altar before the
calf and declared, “Israel, these are your Gods, which brought you out of the land of Egypt!”
As it so happens the next day when the mob was going about offering up some goods to the
calf, Moses made his way down the mountain carrying his tablets.
When the man from the mountain observed the goings-on he blew his cool and smashed the
tablets of stone against the mountain, in turn yelling and showing his anger at their foolish
actions, the Lord seeing this said that as far as he was concerned that he might as well
destroy the mob and have Moses start a new people from his loins. Moses, now whether or
not he could or if he calculated how long it would take to build a nation up to one-million
people debated with Yahweh for sparing the ungrateful Hebrews, eventually Moses
arguments were sufficient in that Yahweh relented
and let the up-tight and complain rabble live. However,
Moses burnt the golden calf, ground it into powder,
scattered it amongst some jugs of water and had
the people drink the water – it was during this that
Aaron admitted to collecting the gold, throwing it into the
fire along with cutting wood, and told Moses it came
out of the fire shaped as a calf – obviously another tall
tale. It is not indicated whether Moses believed his
brother, only that he turned to the mob and asked
that those who would follow the Torah to himself – I’m not positive the Torah had yet been
called such, but then again this accounting was written by Jewish historians being edited
 around 400 BC- so one never knows do they. Most of the crowd moved to Moses side of the
line, to include every member of the Tribe of Levi, who are order by Moses, after the culling,
to slay some 3000 who had turned their backs against Moses. It is then reported that a
plague struck the Israelites, no mention on what the physical plague actually was that
afflicted the people of Israel.
As most anything from antiquity one will find “complications” in the narrative, in the golden
calf narrative a few arise where it show a definite criticism of Aaron who later went on to be
the founder of one priestly house that rivaled the priestly house of Moses and as a direct
attack on the northern Kingdom of Israel, the other being that until Moses came down from
the peaks there wasn’t a law on the books that forbid the creation of a graven image – which
was true by all accounts around the region to as far east as India where a bull was consider
the transportation for Shiva and today the animal is still consider sacred in the country – not
to many beef steaks had for dinner in those parts, just as in the Arab and Jewish world eating
pork is a no-no, for whatever reason – most say because the pig is a filthy animal and God
only uses them to hold demons are some strange disease here and there.
The 2nd time up the mountain Moses himself inscribed the Stone Tablets, the 1st being done by
Yahweh – why the change is hard to tell, but it is recorded supposedly by Moses himself
who is said to be the author of the Old Testament.
A different accounting of the golden calf is related in the Qur’an, whereas the calf is
constructed by a man named “Samiri”, where Samiri makes the claim that Moses has
vanished (40-days is a long-time) and that the Israelites have to find a new God. Now Aaron
who is sorta helpless fighting the mob makes a grand attempt at preventing the worshiping of
the idol, loosing out to the mass of most of the 1-million plus refugees. Moses on his return
is infuriated at the pagan ritual, and more so at Aaron’s inability to stop the proceedings,
turns to Aaron and tugs at his beard, banishes Samiri and order the calf burnt and its ashes
cast into the sea – which by the way was some distance away even as the crow flies.
Another 40-days and 40-nights transpired on the 2nd trip up the mountain. It is recorded that the
40-days of Awe began the three religions adherence to the 40-day, 40-night cycle – yet far
before the indigenous people in the America’s had ever been exposed to the Middle East
religions they too practice some of their respect for the Supreme Being in 40-day periods,
such as the ascension of the dead or the 40-day feast after the departed had left this earthly
realm. I have wondered from time-to-time where this 40-day value appeared?
Well there it is the mysterious story of a mountain that no one can really identify and a man that
is equally as mysterious – where one of the oldest civilizations and strongest during his time
 has no record of either him or the Exodus. Yes we have edited texts and some originals that
heap the faith of a nation on his existence as one of its great lawgivers, but did he really
exist? Scholars have combed the records, leaders of great nations in antiquity followed the
stories and constructed monuments and churches, synagogues’ and mosque’s in his name all
based on a shadowy story out of the past. On top of all this, it is recorded that he wrote five
books of the Old Testament, that is, all except the last few versus that tell of his passing on
another mountain along with no record where his earthly remains where laid to rest – really
one of the greatest mysteries in the world. Some consider that he might have jumped aboard
a flaming chariot and hitched a ride upstairs – we’ll never know!
Have a good day!