Summary: A continuation of the special update on the world’s first alphabet featured in our films The Moses Controversy and Journey to Mount Sinai.
Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly. And as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him in thunder. – Exodus 19:18-19 (ESV)
Inscriptions at Serabit el-Khadim
Tim Mahoney interviewed Mori Michael Shelomo Bar Ron and Dr. Pieter Van der Veen concerning updates on the Proto-Sinaitic script found in the Egyptian mines of the Sinai Peninsula. This article is part 2 of a summary of their podcast discussion.
In part 1, they discussed the development of an alphabetic script around the time of Israel’s sojourn in Egypt. With a phonetic writing system of just 22 letters, script could be used by the masses, compared to Egyptian hieroglyphs which contained 800 different complex pictures. Jacob’s son Joseph may have played a part in the establishment of this alphabetic script, which later developed into Arabic and Assyrian scripts. Dr. Van der Veen even mentioned the possibility that proto-alphabetic writing was being used before that time.The guests discussed the specific site where these inscriptions were found, Serabit el-Khadim, at the foot of the twin peaks, Jebel Saniyah and Jebel Ghoriba, which they propose to be the Biblical Mount Sinai and Mount Horeb. The inscriptions include worship and desecration of Ba’alat, or Hathor, the Egyptian cow goddess alongside worship of El, Israel’s God. Check out part 1 of this discussion for more details.
Inscriptions Against Ba’alat
MORI MICHAEL SHELOMO BAR RON:
At Serabit el-Khadim, with Mount Sinai and Mount Horeb looming in the background, there are a whole slew of different types of inscriptions with many accompanying offerings and gifts. There are inscriptions from people who worshiped Ba’alat/Hathor, which was likely to be the ‘Golden Calf’ deity, which may have been a ‘Golden Heifer’, and inscriptions from people who worshiped El or God. Then there are inscriptions rebuking people against the worship of Ba’alat and this is the cult that Moses and the Israelites move to eradicate in the desert at the foot of Mount Sinai in the Book of Exodus.
We find worshipful inscriptions lauding the idol Ba’alat, with clearly an El or God-serving scribe coming in later and canceling out certain letters, in an effort to turn the message into a God-serving one. This is ground zero for this conflict. There is a mention of the “Gate of the Accursed One,” which means the gate of Pharaoh. What’s very interesting is that Pharaoh Amenemhat III, who represents the crown of Egypt, is the one who built a temple for this golden calf cult right there. Archaeological evidence shows the temple was burned. Clearly, a group of people were motivated very powerfully and spiritually against this cult.
MORI MICHAEL SHELOMO BAR RON:
Many inscriptions are colorful, bringing those ancient times to life and making your heart go out to these Hebrew slaves. One inscription says: “Bring Ba`alat joy, but there is no strength. We will die.” It’s very, very powerful. Then we see a later scribe coming in and crossing out a fish symbol that represents the Ba’alat/Hathor cult. All the writing rests on established understandings of symbols. One inscription, etched on a rock cliff next to symbols of the monarchy of Pharaoh Amenemhat III, expresses gratitude to a kind slave master. Then there are also messages asking God to save them from a cruel master. These inscriptions show real life happening..
TIM MAHONEY:
Not many people are brave enough to try to solve the difficulties these inscriptions present, with no breaks in the letters and no clear direction in how to read them. They can be read down or left or right, plus some of the letters are hard to see. Your thesis is that you have a formalized way to identify Hebrew letters, according to these Proto-Sinaitic letters, and give interpretations?
MORI MICHAEL SHELOMO BAR RON:
My work is critical with consistent rules for the direction of how the letters are to be read. Although there is no hard rule as such, I have found, across a number of inscriptions, that Ba’alat worshipers tended to write a bit differently than those writing about El. Among votive El-inscriptions, you find writing in rows, right to left, in the same way that the Books of the Hebrew Bible would later be written. My soon-to-be-released* proto-thesis shows the connection between every single letter of this alphabet and its hieroglyphic roots, a framework that is perfectly consistent across my readings of all 22 inscriptions. The plan is for this paper to serve as the basis for my upcoming M.A. and PhD. theses.
“Moses” in Mine L
TIM MAHONEY:
Is the word “Moses” in these inscriptions as well?
MORI MICHAEL SHELOMO BAR RON:
I took a very critical view towards finding the name “Moses” or anything that could sound sensationalist. In fact, the only way to do serious work is to try not to find elements that seem “biblical”. To struggle to find alternative solutions that are at least as likely. By the way, even if my finds don’t exactly stand the test of time and peer review, that wouldn’t cause me to cease believing in God or worshipping him according to my own traditions, and neither will you. One motive for what I do see is to honestly see if there is actual extraordinary evidence that anyone, who is trained, would be able to recognize.
I only work with high-resolution inscriptions and work hands-on with original stone surfaces and casts of the original inscriptions, as I did, doing research at the Semitic Museum at Harvard University. There are big differences between a 2-D image of an inscription, let alone a tracing by another scholar, and an actual original or cast that can be held against the light at various angles.At the very beginning of this research in 2017, I worked with an inscription called Sinai 357, which blew me away. Although I was nervous about saying such a thing, I humbly speculated it could have been written by Moses and his entourage. Now, very recently, 8 years later, I discovered smaller letters next to its main pillar of text. It seems to read, “This is from Moses.” The first thing that I did was show it to my academic supervisor. He saw exactly the same thing. It is the “Mine L” inscription, which you made famous in your movie, in which I had a small cameo.
So right beneath the vertical text, smaller letters, is another inscription by what seems to be a different scribe saying, ” Hearken, says Arba`.” To my understanding, this fellow named Arba, likely a person of authority, such as a Levitical leader or a minor chieftain, is telling the reader to “hearken” to the main message. What’s so significant is that these inscriptions have high value, in that they are found “in situ.” This is a fancy word meaning “in their original place,” not just in the large pile of rubble in front of the mine.
It happens to be that this “Mine L” inscription is adjacent to where the inscription “Sinai 358” is found: Mine M. The two mines are connected in the back. For me personally, per what I read, it is the most awe-inspiring inscription of them all. It reads as a prayer to God to save the people. It seems to read very clearly, “God of the hidden” or “God who is hidden”. Below, you find “king” or “your king”, and that seems to be followed by “save them.” A few of the inscriptions I read as possible poems or songs may have even rhymed. What I see in 358 even gives me inspiration in my own life.
El (Hebrew) Versus Sopdu (Egyptian)
TIM MAHONEY:
So, you are trying hard not to say this is Moses, because critics say you are just finding what you want to find. But how many other possibilities are there, right? Peter, I understand that there is also evidence of the Israelite tribes in these inscriptions.
PIETER VAN DER VEEN:
Yes. Not only do we have proto-alphabetic inscriptions, we also have hieroglyphic inscriptions at the site. That is because along with Western Asiatics, Egyptians who used hieroglyphs were also working there as higher officials. Now we have inscriptions that do explain the same as what we find in the proto-alphabetic inscriptions, the worship of Ba’alat or Hathor the Egyptian cow goddess, alongside the worship of another deity whom we find in the proto-alphabetic inscriptions as El. But in the hieroglyphic inscriptions, we find the apparent equivalent of this deity called Sopdu, who likely had his own shrine at Serabit el-Khadim from the period when the mining activity started and onwards under Amenemhat III. Sopdu was the Egyptian god known as the “Guardian of the Borders” and of the Western Asiatic population of the Eastern Delta.
The book of Genesis records that the Israelites lived at Goshen or Gesem in the Wadi Tumilat. While until recently a place called Kes was only known from late pharaonic times, we now discovered a place with that name from the time of the 12th Dynasty. Indeed we have a reference in hieroglyphs to Sopdu residing at Ges or Gos, precisely a direct relation to the Israelites at the time of Joseph. So indeed, both in the hieroglyphic inscriptions and the proto-alphabetic inscriptions, we have two deities that stand out. One, the cow goddess Hathor or Ba’alat, called the Lady of Turquoise Mining, and the other deity El which in Egyptian was equated with Sopdu, the God of the Western Asiatics of Goshen. And this clearly matches what we find in the Bible.
TIM MAHONEY:
El meaning El Shaddai, the God of the Israelites?
PIETER VAN DER VEEN:
Yes. We have epithets (titles) for El in the proto-alphabetic inscriptions, where he’s called El Olam, “God the Eternal One” like we encounter in the Book of Genesis. We have him being called “God of the Father.” This evidence becomes even stronger because Sopdu, El’s Egyptian equivalent, is depicted at Serabit el-Khadim in a way that we find also in the area of Harran, from where Abraham and the patriarchs derived. At Harran, the God El Amurru, the god of the Amorites, is depicted as a shepherd and Sopdu is depicted like this at Serabit el-Khadim.
TIM MAHONEY:
Interesting, because Psalms 23 calls the Lord our shepherd.
PIETER VAN DER VEEN:
Absolutely. The depiction of the patriarchal El Shaddai is a shepherd. Interestingly, El Amurru, the god of the Amorites, has an epithet in Harran, Bel Shadde, a term that is closely related to El Shaddai in Genesis. Now, the depiction of both is virtually the same, and we find it at Serabit el-Khadim, as well.
Inscriptions of Israelite Tribes
PIETER VAN DER VEEN:
But we find even more than that. We find Israelite names such as Levi and Leva the Asiatic, Lord of Reverence, and a certain Sakarum, a name closely related to Issachar. We find another person named Qeni (literally ‘the Kenite’), a name related to the Midianites who were present there, while his brother has the name Yana’am. The “Yah” – element likely represents the God of Israel and in full this person’s name would mean, “The spoken word or utterance of Yahweh.” All this is at Serabit el-Khadim, so you have the cult of Hathor on one hand, and on the other, the cult of El and Yahweh.
This worship continued from this time right through to the Roman period because the Nabataeans continued to worship Elohim and Yahweh (as well as other gods) in the southern and western parts of Sinai. Therefore the area is clearly identified as the cultic center where Yahweh was worshiped. It is very, very striking. You won’t find this at any proposed eastern location of Sinai. Only precisely in this area, and predominantly at Serabit el-Khadim, do we have the worship of El and Yahweh by people who have specific Hebrew/Israelite names and Kenite/Midianite names. Like in the Bible, Israelites and Midianites are linked to this region, the area where we also meet Jethro the Midianite, who was also called Hobab. They’re all in the same place camping or residing at Serabit el-Khadim. You can’t find any stronger situation where you have everything fitting together.
Early Israelite History
TIM MAHONEY:
Why is the work on these inscriptions significant?
PIETER VAN DER VEEN:
Mori Michael is working on comparing the proto-alphabetic inscriptions in Western Sinai with the earliest history of the Israelite people, which had already been recognized by early discoverers, but they did not follow it up systematically. Michael is doing an extremely careful job at this. He’s very self-critical and he’s trying to prove himself wrong. This is the only scholarly approach that I could recommend. If anything is to result from this in terms of early Israelite history, then it’s going to be through this type of high level work.
MORI MICHAEL SHELOMO BAR RON:
I feel deeply grateful. For me, it would’ve been enough just to see these things on my own. But to have the backing of mentors gives me the confidence that I’m acting as a vessel to bring them out into the world. The world of faith has already seen generations of academia denying, in a sense, what’s right in front of them. We are in a very different time now. You would not believe how many of such Torah-affirming elements, which we are speaking about as revolutionary, are already known to the top academics.
My friend and another mentor to me, Dr. Ludwig Morenz, is an avowed atheist. I’ve had such productive meetings with him. Between those and what I read in his textbook, it’s as if I’ve been bursting through an already open door. In his book, he actually mentions how Semites (Hebrews) at Serabit el-Khadim were worshiping El, otherwise known as Ptah. In Hebrew, that name Ptah would literally mean “opener,” the “opener of creation.” And we have this Egyptian “Ptah” tradition harking all the way back to Old Kingdom times. What that tells me, together with traditions of El and of Yah traceable back to early Mesopotamia, is that, although they were polytheists, we have here ancient Egyptian traditions of God that truly could have had roots in the the times of Noah, coming to Egypt by means, perhaps, of a “Mitzraim” figure, remembered by my nation as the son of Ham.
Although not mentioned explicitly in Torah, these ideas brought to light by academics are hinted at subtly. For example, you could, indeed, call Israelites a type of Canaanite, because they lived in Canaan. But leaving it at that is misleading: Yes, there were clearly Semite Canaanites or “Habiru”, such as Melchizedek, the high priest to El Elyon, Hashem. But papers and books that plainly define those who worshipped El as “Canaanites” (instead of proto-Israelites, or early Hebrews, etc), not only makes different Semitic groups appear as a monolith, it leaves no historical place for the distinct Hebrew culture of my early forebears. And yet, we are at a different place in history, with a world of scholarship that is more open than in the past. One in which, if you know what to look for, it’s easier to show how, what we find in these inscriptions is the foundation of early Israelite culture. This is where it truly seems to have begun, with Moses at Mount Sinai.
Further Work
MORI MICHAEL SHELOMO BAR RON:
If anyone is able to donate to further our efforts, it is a blessing. Donations go towards my studies, MA and PhD work based on these inscriptions, bringing all these things to life. Not merely for an unlettered, easily convinced public, but for the toughest audiences, with the proper due diligence.
And Tim, if you would allow me to say a word of gratitude to you. January was the 80th anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau. My very own grandparents on my mother’s side barely escaped Germany. It feels like a miracle, a Christian platform giving voice to the research of a Jewish scholar, a rabbinical scholar, someone of my background and faith. It’s a real testimony to your broad-minded approach, which separates what Patterns of Evidence has done, from the work of others on behalf of my people. I want to thank Patterns of Evidence, particularly in these scary times, for seeing that ultimately all people who stand for God can be on the same side.
Conclusion
TIM MAHONEY:
Thank you very much. As you know, we worked last year on The Israel Dilemma, part one, which was the story of Israel coming together. Now we’re working on The Israel Dilemma, part two.
I want to thank you both for being a part of this. We’re trying to make complex information simpler, so everyone can understand it. Many people today just want to be entertained, which is causing an epidemic of non-thinking people. God created us to think. It’s virtuous to be a thinker. It’s fulfilling. If we think, we will realize that there is a God, and he created us for a purpose. We will be back with more in the future, and as I always say, keep on thinking.
TOP PHOTO: Mine L at Serabit el-Khadim where ancient Semitic writing was discovered in the form of an alphabet. (© David Rohl, used with permission)
We hope you enjoyed this final article on the Proto-Sinaitic inscriptions. If you feel led to support Mori Michael’s translational work on these inscriptions, please visit his GoFundMe page. You can also access the podcast of this discussion.
To see portions of this interview in video form, check them out on our YouTube channel here and here.
NOTE: Not every view expressed by scholars contributing to Podcast or Thinker content necessarily reflects the views of Patterns of Evidence. We include perspectives from various sides of debates on biblical matters so that our audience can become familiar with the different arguments involved.
