The God-trodden Mount of Sinai

Καὶ ἀνέβη Μωυσῆς καὶ ᾿Ααρὼν καὶ Ναδὰβ καὶ ᾿Αβιοὺδ καὶ ἑβδομήκοντα τῆς γερουσίας ᾿Ισραήλ καὶ εἶδον τὸν τόπον, οὗ εἱστήκει ὁ Θεὸς τοῦ ᾿Ισραήλ· καὶ τά ὑπὸ τοὺς πόδας αὐτοῦ ὡσεὶ ἔργον πλίνθου σαπφείρου καὶ ὥσπερ εἶδος στερεώματος τοῦ οὐρανοῦ τῇ καθαριότητι. Καὶ τῶν ἐπιλέκτων τοῦ ᾿Ισραὴλ οὐ διεφώνησεν οὐδὲ εἷς· καὶ ὤφθησαν ἐν τῷ τόπῳ τοῦ Θεοῦ καὶ ἔφαγον καὶ ἔπιον.

And Moses went up, and Aaron, and Nadab and Abiud, and seventy of the elders of Israel. And they saw the place where the God of Israel stood; and under his feet was as it were a work of sapphire slabs, and as it were the appearance of the firmament of heaven in its purity. And of the chosen ones of Israel there was not even one missing, and they appeared in the place of God, and did eat and drink. (Exodus 24:9-11 LXX)

It is from these verses that the mountain is known as Τὸ Θεοβάδιστον Ὄρος Σινά, the God-trodden Mount of Sinai.

Egeria visited Sinai in December of the year 383. She worshipped at the cave of the Prophet Elijah, and then she writes,

The oblation having been made there, we came to another place not far off, which the priests and monks pointed out to us, where holy Aaron had stood with the seventy elders, when holy Moses was receiving the law from the Lord for the children of Israel. In that place, although it is not covered in, there is a great rock which has a flat surface, rounded in shape, on which those holy men are said to have stood; there is also in the midst of it a kind of altar made of stones. The passage from the book of Moses was read there, and one psalm, suitable to the place. Then, after prayer had been made, we descended thence.

There are rock formations a short distance from the cave of the Prophet Elijah that seem to fit Egeria’s description.

With this post we mark a decennium of my little blog. Δόξα τῷ Θεῷ.