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Bible Dictionaries
Mount Mountain
Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament
or (ὄρος)
‘Mountain’ is a somewhat elastic term expressing not only an isolated peak, but an extended range, or even a whole district of high elevation. Palestine being an exceptionally mountainous country, it was natural that Biblical writers should often allude to its physical features; but it is noteworthy that they spend little time in describing the mere scenery. To the ancients mountains played a conspicuous part in religion; they were not infrequently the scenes of theophanies, and when great men, such as Aaron and Moses, died, they were buried on the tops of mountains. Mountains are also the natural image for eternal continuance and stability. But even these monuments of firmness and stability are pictured as moved out of their place in the final cataclysm (Revelation 6:14; Revelation 16:20).
In apostolic history four conspicuous mountains are especially referred to: the Mount of Olives, Sinai, Zion, and ‘the Mount’ (of Transfiguration).
1. The Mount of Olives (τὸ ὄρος τῶν ἐλαιῶν, Acts 1:12).-In this passage it is related that after the Ascension the disciples returned ‘unto Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet.’ Apostolic history thus begins, geographically, where Gospel history leaves off (cf. Luke 24:50-53, Mark 6:19-20). The Mount of Olives, called by the Muslims Jebel et-Tur (‘Mountain of Light’), and Jebel ez-Zeitun (‘Mount of Olives’), is the name of the somewhat elevated range (circa, about 2,650 ft.) lying due east of the Holy City and separated from it by the deep Kidron ravine. Its northern portion is called Scopus by Josephus (Bellum Judaicum (Josephus) v. ii. 3); its southern is known to the Arabs as Batn el-Hawa, and by many is identified as the ‘Mount of Offence.’ The distance from Jerusalem to its summit is 2,000 cubits, or about 6 furlongs. This was fixed by the Rabbis as the maximum distance to be travelled on the Sabbath day. The view from Olivet is one of the most extensive in all Palestine, including the Holy City, the hill country of Judaea , much of the Jordan Valley, a portion of the Dead Sea, and the broad sweep of the mountains of Gilead and Moab.
2. Mount Sinai (Σινᾶ, Acts 7:30; Acts 7:33, Galatians 4:24-25, Hebrews 8:5; Hebrews 12:18; Hebrews 12:20).-In the first of these passages (Acts 7:30; Acts 7:38) the martyr Stephen recalls to his murderers’ minds Moses’ vision of the Burning Bush (Exodus 3:1 ff.), and thus defends himself against the charge of speaking against Moses and the Law. In the second (Galatians 4:24-25) St. Paul makes Hagar, Abraham’s bondwoman, representative of the earthly Jerusalem and the bondage of the Law, whereas Sarah was free and represents the heavenly Jerusalem and the freedom of the gospel. Hagar’s son Ishmael was a child according to the course of nature, whereas the birth of Isaac was according to the promise, and therefore a Divine event. The whole OT story is here allegorized, and is intended to show the incompatibility of a spirit of bondage with a spirit of sonship. Mount Sinai is usually identified with Jebel Musa (circa, about 7,000 ft. in altitude), though some prefer to identify it with Jebel Serbal (circa, about 6,500 ft.), a few miles to the N. W. of the former, both being located in the southern portion of the Sinai Peninsula. Of the two passages in Hebrews, the first (Hebrews 8:5) affirms that the tabernacle constructed in the wilderness was a mere copy and shadow of the heavenly things, made by Moses according to the pattern that was showed him in the Mount (cf. Exodus 25:40). Even the furniture of the earthly tabernacle had its heavenly archetypes; so also the priesthood of Aaron and his descendants is but a copy of the priesthood of Jesus. In the other passage from Hebrews (Hebrews 12:18-24) the terrors of the Old Covenant, given at Sinai, are contrasted with the glories of the New. The words ‘a mount’ are not in the original of Hebrews 12:18, but they are implied by the words ‘mount Zion’ in Hebrews 12:22 (cf. Hebrews 12:20). The Apostle paints the theophany of Sinai (Exodus 19) vividly, in order to appeal his readers with the awful sanctity of the mountain where God proclaimed His Law. So great was the sacredness of the mountain, indeed, that even unconscious trespass was visited by death.
3. Mount Zion (Σιών, Hebrews 12:22).-Over against Sinai, which quaked at the giving of the Law, the Apostle places Zion, using it, however, in a spiritual sense: ‘But ye are come unto mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem,’ etc. The contrast between the two Dispensations is thus emphasized: Sinai, sensible, provisional, and accompanied by the physical phenomena of the world; Zion, ideal, super-sensible, abiding, final, and pertaining to the world above. To the Apostle, Zion is here not the earthly Jerusalem, but the heavenly world of realities, ‘Jerusalem the golden.’ As there was a Zion below after the order of the world, there is also a Zion above true to the ideal; the one here is only the symbolic abode of God, that above is His real abode; yea, the abode also of the Lamb (Revelation 14:1).
4. ‘The Holy Mount.’-The expression occurs in St. Peter’s description of the transfigured glory of Christ, ‘when we were with him in the holy mount’ (ἐν τῷ ὄρει τῷ ἀγίῳ, 2 Peter 1:18). Doubtless the Mount of Transfiguration is meant (cf. Matthew 17:1-13). This was very probably one of the spurs of Mount Hermon, Jebel esh-Sheikh, ‘the mount of the chief.’ It is the highest peak in all Palestine and Syria, rising 9,050 ft. above sea-level, and covered with snow during a great part of the year. The name ‘Hermon’ signifies that it was considered sacred.
5. The other references in apostolic history to ‘mountains’ are for the most part mere figures of speech. For example, St. Paul says in his matchless paean on love (1 Corinthians 13:2), ‘And if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains.’ Mountains were the image of eternal stability, yet, though one had faith to remove the unmovable, without love one would be nothing. In Hebrews 11:38 there is an allusion to the sacrifices which the heroes of faith endured in OT times, wandering ‘in deserts and mountains’-mountains being symbols of the difficulties and dangers of life. On the other hand, the apostle John, attempting to describe the terrors of the Final Judgment, pictures kings as hiding themselves ‘in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains,’ and as saying ‘to the mountains and to the rocks, Fall on us and hide us, etc.’ (Revelation 6:15-16), the swift agony of being crushed to death being considered preferable, as the implication is, to being left face to face with an angry God. The same Seer, when the second angel sounded, beheld a great burning mountain cast into the sea (Revelation 8:8). Perhaps he had seen such phenomena in his lonely life of exile amid the islands of the aegean! The allusion in Revelation 17:9 is likewise figurative, ‘The seven heads are seven mountains.’ Finally, the Apostle is ‘carried in the spirit to a mountain great and high’ (Revelation 21:10), from which as a vantage-ground of elevation he saw ‘the holy city Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God.’ This was St. John’s mode of describing heaven. There is a peculiar ecstasy associated with mountain tops, even to the most prosaic.
George L. Robinson.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Mount Mountain'. Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdn/m/mount-mountain.html. 1906-1918.
