48 PROF. EDWARD HULL, LL.D., P.R.S., F.G.S., ON 



The Chairman (T. Chaplin, Esq., M.D.) — I am sure that our 

 thanks are due to Professor Hull for the interesting paper he has 

 just read (hear). 



Sir C. W. Wilson, R.E., K.C.M.G., K.C.B.— I do not think 

 I can add very much to what Professor Hull has aaid in his paper, 

 but T would remind you that the question of Mount Sinai being 

 in Edom is not a recent one. 



The same question was raised a great many years ago by the 

 late Dr. Beke, who was a very determined- man and very certain 

 of his opinions, and before he left England he decided where 

 Mount Sinai was. He went out and made a very short journey 

 across the desert and found Mount Sinai in the mountains in 

 Edom, and came back again fully satisfied that he had found the 

 true mount. He did not go up the mount or examine its environs. 

 He merely encamped about the mountain and looked up at it and 

 was certain that all was right. 



There are two points that I should like to mention in connection 

 with the paper, and one is that I think Professor Hull has hardly, 

 or not at all, introduced what I think is a very strong argument 

 iu favour of the present Mount Sinai. 



There is no doubt that the Jews, during the period of the 

 Kings, knew perfectly well where the real Mount Sinai was, and 

 from the time of the Kings, — if you consider the intimate connection 

 there was between Palestine and Egypt during the latter part of 

 the monarchy — I cannot think that the identification of Mount 

 Sinai could be so completely lost. It is rather the fashion to doubt 

 tradition such as that of Mount Sinai, but I think we may be 

 pretty certain that the tradition has been true, and that in Jebel 

 Musa, or rather the mountain group of that name, we have the 

 true Mount Sinai of the Israelites. I do not quite know where 

 Professor Hull got his authority for saying that in the time of 

 Eusebius and Jerome, Serbal was considered the true Mount 

 Sinai : that is not in accordance with my reading of the old 

 authoiities, and I do not think it is quite in accordance with 

 the existing remains that are found in the peninsula. When 

 the upper Monasteries were destroyed by the Arabs, a great many 

 hermits were driven out and there was a concentration of hermits 

 round Mount Serbal, where there is one of the most interesting 

 types of rock steps ever seen laid down from the monasteries to 

 the waters. One of the oldest accounts that has come down to us 

 clearly refers, I think, to Jebel Musa and not Mount Serbal. 



I am sorry that I did not knov.'- that the illustrations of the 



