Islam Critiqued trusts his Bible; True location of Paran?

In answer to the video "Abraham and the Kaaba: From Borrowed Stories to Sacred Scripture"

Lets start with the mountain where the Torah was revealed. It is often placed in the Sinai peninsula, yet we read in Gal4:25 that Mt Sinai is in Arabia. By his time, Hellenistic geography applied the term Arabia to the Peninsula as a whole. It was therefore easy to imagine the inhabitants of the inner Arabian desert also as Ishmaelites. The location of Horeb and Mt Sinai in the Sinai peninsula instead of the Arabian peninsula originated in the 4th century. Christian authorities of the time created several such fictious holy sites for pilgrims throughout the empire because of the massive revenue it generated for the Church and local areas. 

There are no maps from the 1st century that delineate Arabia, all that is available are accounts of geographers, historians, and contemporary travellers. Until Hellenistic times, only the northern part of the Arabian Peninsula was referred to as "Arabia". But as the Greek explorers began mapping the shores of the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, the Indian Ocean and the Persian Gulf, they extended the name to the entire Peninsula. What is of interest here is the area around central Saudi Arabia, more particularily the Hijaz which borders to the north the ancient land of Canaan, Moses and the Israelites' final destination following their desert wandering. There is a reason why the location of "Sinai", the place associated with the most momentous miracles witnessed by an entire nation has never been located yet. People have simply been looking in the wrong place. 

"Sinai" is an Arab location and an Arabic word known to the descendants of Ishmael under 2 variations saynaa' 23:20 and sineen 95:2. It further is interesting to note, the verse 23:20 speaks of a tree yielding oil pleasant to eat, in reference to olive oil. In Saudi Arabia, even today, wild olives grow high in the Hijaz mountains, stretching from Jabal Radhwa (West of Medina) to Jabal Fayfa near the Yemen border. The largest population is concentrated between Baljurshi, 300km south of Mecca, to Al Namas further south. Many trees can be seen there even today having large trunks and are probably over a 1000 years old.

The desert of Paran where Ishmael was settled Gen21 is equally associated with Mt Sinai (Numbers10), again reinforcing the fact that the correct location is Arabia.

Ex3:1 plainly identifies Mt Sinai/Horeb as being in Midian. That is where Moses at the beginning of his herding job was tending to Jethro's flock. This place could not have been in the modern Sinai peninsula since Moses' refuge in Midian is qualified as being outside of Egypt Ex2:15,4:19. The name of his Midianite son reflects this fact

Ex18:3"named Gershom, because he [Moses] said, "I was a stranger in a foreign land".

He would have never returned to Egypt, much less with a whole flock of sheep at that point. His return would only occur later on when God told him to do so. Later as he led his people out of Egypt and was encamping at the mount of God/Sinai in the desert, Jethro came to visit the community and hear first hand the miraculous account from Moses, his son in law. He is reported to have converted and returned to his land to preach to his people Ex18. The implicit meaning as per the rabbinic commentaries is that he went to "convert the members of his family".

Obviously, Jethro wasn't the ruler of the whole land of Midian and further it is appropriate to refer to the wilderness as a foreign land within one's own geographical borders. In another instance in Numb10:31, Moses pleads with Hobab the Midianite (Jewish tradition says this is none other than Jethro) to be his and the Israelites' guide in the wilderness, prior to his return to his land and kinsmen. Again, there is a reason why he was very familiar with this wilderness, as a Midianite who would have no reason to wander around the Sinai Peninsula instead. As a side note his return to his land and kinsmen corroborates the Jewish commentary on Ex18:27 mentionned above.

IT would have been completely insane for Moses, accused of murder, to "hide" in Sinai, ie Egyptian territory with state mining activity throughout the region, meaning presence and movement of government officials and manpower. It would have been even more improbable for the whole Israelite comunity to "hide" in the same area, let alone wander in it for 40 years after having escaped their masters, along with their masters' precious belongings Ex3:21-22,11:2,12:35-36.

There is a reason why not a shred of evidence has been found for the massive wandering of Israelites in the Sinai peninsula. The Jews witnessed impressive, collective revelation and miracles at that location. So extraordinary and terifying their experience was that they never forgot it, actually even used and still use it to claim superiority over gentile religions. Yet even they have no idea where that location is, further showing how "truthful" and "preserving" they were of their religion and covenant they were entrusted with.

It is interesting to note here that the Quran states that following their ungrateful request for "better" foods during their desert march, Moses scolds them and tells them to 2:61"descend to Egypt, and you will find what you asked for". They were therefore wandering outside Egyptian territory (if one considers that the Pharao of the exodus was RamessesII as is most certainly the case), and the only vast desertic region that fits is the one in the Arabian peninsula.

The Quran in addition, in its usual pattern of narrating ancient stories and at the same time restoring the truth, states that the enslaved Israelite population was few in numbers compared to the Egyptians 26:52-6. The HB on the other hand Ex12, as well as Jewish tradition place their number in the millions, almost equalling the known number of Egyptians at the time. Besides the absurdity of captors being able to control and enslave, torture and humiliate with such a compelling manner this relatively vast population, no evidence has been found that Egypt, whose population was estimated at between 3 and 5million, ever suffered the demographic and economic catastrophe such a loss of population would represent. Nor is there the slightest spark of evidence suggesting that the Sinai desert ever hosted (or could have hosted) these millions of people and their herds. Marching ten abreast, and without accounting for livestock, they would have formed a line 150 miles long. Also, no evidence has been found that a large new group of people entered into Canaan during the post-Exodus settlement period, further dividing the land among 12 tribes.

In fact archaeological finds from the area of the Israelite settlement in Canaan display no connection between the area’s inhabitants and Egypt, which certainly wouldnt have been the case had the group been as numerous and overwhelmingly invasive as Biblically depicted. No archaeological evidence has ever been found of the migration of the Israelites from the wilderness of Sinai via the Jordan Valley to the fertile land of Canaan, as described in the Bible. The Abrahamic relatives of the Israelites, among the Edomites and Moabites inhabitants of Canaan, were natives to the land and no evidence suggests that the Israelites came from outside, as stated earlier. Although a limited number may have been taken captives by the Egyptians, most archaeologists now agree that the Israelite-Jewish identity arose from traditions that developed among the inhabitants of Canaan. It was not brought from outside by invaders. This doesnt mean the event didnt occur, just that it happenned differently. Ancient records are known to have sometimes been exagerated for story telling purposes. Besides other instances of blatant exagerration with the HB, as in 2Sam24:9 where the Israelite army numbers above a million soldiers, something unheard of in ancient times and very difficult to achieve even in the modern era, Herodotus for instance claims that a million Persians invaded Greece in 480 BCE. The numbers were undoubtedly exaggerated, as in most ancient records. But nobody claims the invasion of Greece never happened. It has been argued that the Hebrew word for thousand, eleph, can mean different things depending upon context. It can even denote a group/clan or a leader/chief. Elsewhere in the bible, "eleph" could not possibly mean "a thousand”. For example 1Kings20:30 mentions a wall falling in Aphek that killed 27000 men. If we translate eleph as leader, the text more sensibly says that 27 officers were killed by the falling wall. By that logic, some scholars propose that the Exodus actually consisted of about 20000 people.