I stopped supporting the Jebel El Lawz theory a long time ago, but I”m no longer inclined to believe in the Jebel Baghir theory for Sinai either. But most importantly I can’t even support Identifying Kadesh with Petra any longer.
This Link lays out the arguments for a Sinai Peninsula location for Mount Sinai.
I still haven’t made up my mind 100% on where exactly I think Sinai was, the most official mainstream identification could be legit, but I”m equally open to Mount Catherine and Mount Sherbal and am willing to consider Hashem El Tarif. But I can’t consider Mount Helal a plausible Sinai because God in Exodus 13:17 stressed taking them to Sinai partly to keep them far away from the Philistines, saying He’s going well out of the way to do so.
The claim that Sinai is the tallest mountain in its region comes from quotes in Philo and Josephus, The Bible never says that. If anything some translations of Psalm 68:16 suggest the Mountain God chooses doesn’t look impressive by secular standards. The immediate context as a Davidic Psalm is probably about The Temple Mount or Zion, but it’s still worth noting.
Kadesh is the same, I’m not entirely convinced the current official site is correct, but I do now believe Kadesh-Barnea and Meirbah are the same location and must be west of the Arabah.
Now some anti Jebel El Lawz articles I’ve read other than what I linked to are arguing strongly for a more Northern Sinai Location based on the Southern Sinai being more than 11 days from Kadesh since they are not disputing Kadesh’s location. Thing is I don’t think we can know for certain what distance that implies, moderners could easily be overestimating or underestimating how fan Ancient Peoples could travel. We don't know what differences between how this region was then and now could make a difference in estimating that. And as far as the Israelites Journey from Sinai to Kadesh goes there was various supernatural Assistance from God that could have sped things up.
My belief that the Petra as Kadesh theory could be Biblically supported was mainly that I had for some dumb reason misread Ezekiel 47:19, 48:28 and Number 34:4 as making Kadesh the Easternmost point of Israel’s Southern Border. In fact Ezekiel makes Tamar the eastern end of the southern border and its Akrabbim in Numbers.
The reason some think even Kadesh is on the Eastern Border is because they think Numbers 34:4 says “south of” Kadesh thus Kadesh can only be outside the Holy Land if it’s east of the border.. The KJV and YLT readings of Numbers 34:4 are arguably ambiguous but can be taken as saying to keep Kadesh-Barnea south of the borderline you are drawing. And Brenton’s Speutigant says “and the going forth of it shall be southward to Cades Barne”. The Geneva Bible also agrees with the KJV and YLT on this. The “south of” readings are entirely the fault of corrupt modern translations.
Why are these verses defined as the Southern Border if it’s actually still just an Eastern Border till we reach the reference to Kadesh? That’s a question they don’t answer.
People also use Numbers 20:17 to argue Kadesh was on the King’s Highway. In that verse they are promising to stay on that road as they travel through Edom, something they were denied precision to do, it doesn’t say anything about where Kadesh was located.
The Petra as Kadesh argument begins with Josephuss.
Josephus’s first reference to Petra during the Wandering in Book III Chapter 2 of Antiquities is not as a place the Israleites were at but as a City of The Amalekites That frankly seems mutually exclusive with being any place the Israleites camped at much less where they were the longest. In Genesis 14:7 I believe Moses is anachronistically using geographical terms that weren't used at the time, but either way it’s not making Kadesh and the “country of the Amalekites” exactly the same location, rather it was from Einmishphat these kings carried out their campaign against those who lived where the Amalekites will live in the future.
In Antiquities Book VI Chapter 4 near the end Petra is associated with where Aaron died after leaving Meribah-Kadesh not Meribah-Kadesh itself, the place where Miriam Died is a different location. And Josephus is arguably describing them as coming near Petra but not in the city proper. The proposed Petra identification for Mount Hor, Jebel Harun, isn’t in Petra proper but to its North-West. I’m skeptical of even that location for Mount Hor since Numbers 21:4 and Deuteronomy 2:8 heavily imply to me that Mount Hor was west of the Arabah.
But even if Petra's Mount Hor is correct, that actually works against Meirbah being in Petra proper because the narrative of Numbers 20-21 has Israel travel in the opposite direction when they reach Hor. The context is that the King of Edom just refused to let Israel pass through his land so now Israel is heading away from Edom and from the Canaanite king Arad to go around Edom to Moab. Meaning Israel should be heading East and/or South not North-West.
Josephus also doesn't mention Petra when he mentioned Paran in Book III Chapter 14.
If the Israelites were in or just south of Petra at any point it could be where the Brazen Serpent Narrative took place in Numbers 21:5-10, which is either Zalmonah or Punon of Numbers 31:41-43.
Josephus’s third reference to Petra is again in Book IV but this time Chapter 7 where it seems to be a Midanite city built or rebuilt by King Rekem (Numbers 31:8 and Joshua 13:21). But at this point we've moved from early in the 40 year period to near the end, so any number of things could have changed which tribe controlled Petra. Again this is a capital of a people the Israelites were at war with, can’t be the same as Kadesh.
Sometimes I wonder if the three Petra’s Josephus referred to aren’t even the same place, he treats each one like an introduction, and the Greeks may have called various Nabetian Rock Carved cities Petra. The city we today call Petra has been archaeologically verified to have also been called Rigmu/Reken so it would have to be the Midianite one.
Those still fanatically devoted to Petra being Kadesh also confuse Petra and Sela/Cela which are separate cities.Sela is a core Edomite city, the Israelites were explicitly never in Edomite territory, or traveled through only its southernmost outskirts. Petra was also under Edomite dominion at some time periods when Edom ruled well beyond its main homeland, but Cela is presented as the heart of Edom, a place that is Edomite even when Edom was at its smallest.
Kadesh was not an Oasis, Genesis 14:7 gives us some reason to suspect a Spring/Fountain may have been nearby, but there was no local vegetation, God fed the Israelites supernaturally using the Manna and whatever local natural water there was became insufficient by Numbers 20 near the end of Israel’s time there hence the second Meribah incident.
Of the more mainstream scholarly choices for Kadesh I prefer Ain Qedeis over Ain Qudariet, the later became more favored because it’s Spring was larger but I don’t expect a large Spring and I do expect God to keep Israel far from the Philistines and closer to Edom. Also both Petra and Ain Qudariet proponents spent most of their refuting of Ain Qedeis on just how barren it is, because again they are wrongly looking for an Oasis or some other place that could be naturally self-sustaining.
I do not think Kadesh was at the time a normal stopping point for traveling in this region, God is taking the Israelites through a route off the beaten path and He’s feeding them supernaturally.
One hunch I sometimes entertain for a Kadesh location is where the later Nabatean City of Avdat was built, or the nearby Ein Avdat. But that’s pretty random and not based on much.
There are two places some have proposed for Sinai that I think could maybe be more likely as Kadesh locations since there was a Mountain at Kadesh in Numbers 14:40 and Deuteronomy 33:2. Those are Hashem El Tarif and Har Karkom.
Let’s speculate on the history of the name Kadesh itself.
The way Numbers 10-12 don’t use that name right away when Israel started heading there or arrived there but introduced it in 13:26 has me thinking this place wasn’t called Kadehs before then and only was a Holy location to the Israelites because it housed The Mishkan longer than any other single location during the 40 years in the Wilderness.
If that is correct I’m of two minds about the three uses of the name in Genesis (14:9, 16:14 and 20:1). They could be another example of Moses editorially using a later place name anachronistically. Or it could be a different Kadesh that has nothing to do with any place the Israelites camped at in Numbers. Genesis never uses the names Barnea, Meirbah or Zin. Paran is mentioned in Genesis once, maybe twice. Genesis 21:21 identifies Paran as where Hagar and Ishmael settled which is why Islam needs to pretend Paran is where Mecca is. Genesis 14:6’s El-Paran, if it's the same place, is in context clearly distinct from Eimpishphat/Kadesh. Kadesh in Genesis is never a place Abraham or the Patriarchs visit, rather they visit some place between Kadesh and somewhere else. I’m starting to think the Genesis Kadesh could be Ein Qedeis and Numbers Kadesh someplace further east in the Negev.
The added Barnea is only ever used after the fact, not while Israel is still there. While Israel was there it was The Kadesh but after leaving it needed to be distinguished from the various places the Pagans called Kadesh. Kadesh-Meribah isn’t used in the Biblical Text but rather Meribah-Kadesh, there it’s Kadesh that is distinguishing that Meirbah from the earlier Meirbah of Exodus 17 at Rephidim.
Even the location of Mount Seir is a bit of an Enigma.
The Wikipedia page for Seir says The Bible refers to two mountains named Seir, one in Judah and one in Edom East of the Arabah. But the Judean Seir of Joshua 15:10 is identified with a modern Palestinian VIllage far more likely to be Zior of Joshuah 15:54. Joshua 15:10 is associating Seir with Judah’s border in a way that could imply being on the other side of it.
Deuteronomy 1:2 and 33:2 seem to place Seir between Sinai and Kadeshbarnea. But Deuteronomy 1:44 (in referencing back to the end of Numbers 14) and Deuteronomy 2 helps clarify that 1:2 is better read as saying Kadeshbarnea was on the way from Sinai to Seir, and that Seir is north of Kadehsbarnea. And chapter 33 is being Poetic, perhaps like the Seir reference in the Song of Deborah alludes to Seir as a place where YHWH had been worshiped.
I think the Joshua 15:10 Seir and the other references to Seir are the same being Edomite territory South-East of Judah’s allotment.
In all that context obviously the Easternmost candidate for either Ezion-Geber or Elath I find plausible is Tell el-Kheleifeh.
The more I think about my initial point of where Kadesh should be relative to Mount Hor, I think it’s either Har Karkom or some spot due east of Har Karkom but still west of the Arabah.
What implications does all this have for Petra as the original Mecca theory?
I actually still support that one, because Biblically Accurate or not the misidentification of Kadesh and Paran with Petra predates the Birth of Islam being fully formed already in Eusebius of Caesarea’s Onomasticon and Jerome in Hebrew Questions on Genesis and to this day the local traditions still claim to be where the Meribah incident happened.
"Kadesh Barnea (or Cades Barnea): "Kadea Barne. The desert which extends to (the city of) Petra a city of Arabia. There Mariam went up and died, and there the doubting Moses struck the rock to give water to the thirsty people. The tomb of Mariam herself is pointed out there even now. There also Chodollagomor beat the chiefs of the Amalakites." Eusebius, Onomasticon
"Gen 14:7: And they returned and came to the fountain of judgement, that is, to Cades. Because Cades was so named later on, it is specified by way of anticipation; and it refers to a place near Petra, which is called 'The Fountain of Judgement', because God judged the people there" (Saint Jerome's Hebrew Questions on Genesis, translated by C. T. R. Hayward, p 46, Gen 14:7, 1995 AD)
The origins of the Petra view even in antiquity probably came from misunderstanding Josephus. And from that came the misidentifying of Paran as being in Arabia Deserta.
