ArchivedParan Is Not Mecca ... DiscussionParan is 1,000km away from Mecca; evident from the narrative of the Israelites’ wanderings (Dt 1:1). How could the Israelite spies leave Paran (Nu 13:3), explore the whole of Canaan (21-22), cut some grapes (23) and bring them back to Paran fresh (27) in a mere 40 days if they were really on a 2,000km round trip from Mecca? According to my understanding Egypt is seperated by the Red Sea on the left hand side. However, some problems persist here ... Mecca is, of course, a city, not a mountain, and is actually located in a valley. Deuteronomy 33:2 explicitly states that the LORD is coming from mount Paran, indicating a single peak, not a chain or group of mountains. A man named Abu Abdallah Muhammad Ibn Muhammad Ibn Abdallah Ibn Idris al-Qurtubi al-Hasani, hereafter known as Al-Idrisi, produced a much more systematic and in-depth geography of the Muslim world of his time, this one written around 1154 AD (or roughly 70 years before Yaqut). In it, he speaks also of Paran, which he refers to as “Faran Ahrun“ (Paran of Aaron) "This district lies 40 miles from Al Kulzum, and along the sea coast. The city of Faran stands at the bottom of a gulf. It is a small town where certain of the Arabs have their camping ground. Over against Faran is a place where the sea has formed a bay, and beside it is a mountain of very hard rock. The waters surge round this and encircle it, and when the winds rise, the passage thereof is difficult, and no one can accomplish it, except with great effort. Travelers are frequently lost there, unless Allah save and guard them. According to the common saying, this is the sea wherein Pharaoh - Allah curse him! - was drowned."3 Al-Idrisi’s identification seems little plausible if one tries to apply it to Mecca. He states that Paran stands at the bottom of a gulf, and indicates that the sea forms a bay next to the city. Mecca is around 80 km inland from the Red Sea. He further states that it is a “small town” where “the Arabs have their camping ground”. At the time of his writing, Mecca was certainly not a small town, and certainly would not have been referred to as a “camping ground” by a Muslim! Further, Al-Idrisi positively nails down the location of Paran in the Sinai peninsula. from http://www.studytoanswer.net/islam/osama1.html Further, internal evidence from the Bible itself firmly places Paran in the Sinai peninsula. Paran is mentioned on a handful of occasions in the Old Testament, most of which are inconclusive for giving a positive location, but a few of which prove very informative. In I Kings 11:15-18, we see a parenthetical aside detailing the escape of an Edomite royal heir named Hadad to Egypt during the time when David and Joab killed the males of Edom in a campaign. They fled to Egypt for protection with the Pharaoh, and their route is said in this passage to have been from Midian (a region south of Israel around the headwaters of the Gulf of Aqaba, the other finger of the Red Sea) to Paran, and then on to Egypt. Now, it would seem to make little sense for them to flee from Midian to a place 1000 km south, then return by the same route5 so as to go to Egypt. However, the placement of Paran near the headwater of the Gulf of Suez would make perfect sense for this passage. The other passage of interest is Genesis 21:21, which describes the circumstance of Ishmael after he and his mother Hagar were expelled from Abraham’s household. This verse states that he dwelt in the wilderness of Paran, and that his mother took for him a wife from the women of Egypt. This gives additional evidence for placing Paran in Sinai over towards Egypt. As Hagar herself was Egyptian, it would seem natural that after her expulsion, she would return to the people of her nativity, and thus would approach Egypt. That she took a wife for Ishmael from the Egyptians also suggests proximity to Egypt, as she (being an expelled slave woman) would not have had the resources to send for a woman in a land over 1200 km away, which the populated parts of Egypt would have been from Mecca. As such, the biblical testimony which touches on the location of Paran also contradicts the attempt to locate Paran at Mecca. Paran = "place of caverns" wilderness area bounded on the north by Palestine, on the west by the wilderness of Etham, on the south by the desert of Sinai, and on the east by the valley of Arabah; the exodus was through this area and probably all 18 stops were in this area According to Strongs 6290 here http://www.bju.edu/resources/strongs/hebrew/6290.inc Paran, which included the desert and mountainous space lying between the wilderness of Shur westward, or towards Egypt and mount Seir, or the land of Edom eastwards; between the land of Canaan northwards, and the Red Sea southwards; and thus it appears to have comprehended really the wilderness of Sin and Sinai [FISK]. It is called by the Arabs El Tih, "the wandering." It is a dreary waste of rock and of calcareous soil covered with black sharp flints; all travellers, from a feeling of its complete isolation from the world, describe it as a great and terrible wilderness. from http://mydevotion.com/logos/htmljfb/Deuteronomy1.htm We must remember ... That Paran is a regional Territory, Mecca ... Is a City, not a Territory. Ishmael settled in the land of Paran, a region lying between Canaan and the mountains of Sinai; and "God was with him, and he became a great archer" (Gen. 21:9-21). From http://www.christiananswers.net/dictionary/ishmael.html Modern Day Wilderness Of Paran - Mecca Is A City, Not A Territory A big problem is of course that (the Wilderness of) Paran in the Bible is not Arabia. The traditional view is that Paran is in the Sinai Peninsula, starting at Kadesh Barnea, which is south of Israel. Consider the following: Hadad the Edomite, during the reign of Solomon, escaped to Egypt when he was a boy (1 Kings 11:17). "They set out from Midian and went to Paran. Then taking men from Paran with them, they went to Egypt..." (1 Kings 11:8-19). To think that Hadad set out from Midian (which is south east (SE) of Israel, near the Sinai in the Arabian Peninsula, go up north east east (NEE) to "Paran" (Mecca), then somehow end up in Egypt (south west of Mecca) is unthinkable. The Israelites left Sinai (after receiving the Law) for the Desert of Paran (Numbers 10:12), on the way passing through Kibroth Hattavah (Numbers 11:34), Hazeroth (Numbers 12:16), and settling at Kadesh [Barnea] of Paran (Numbers 13:26), which is the northern part of the desert. From Paran, spies were sent to Canaan to check out the land (Numbers 13:3). The spies' exploration took them from Paran through the Desert of Zin (south of Israel), Rehob, Lebo Hamath, Negev, Hebron (Numbers 13:21-22). The southern boundary of the Israelite promised land is given as "Your southern side will include some of the Desert of Zin along the border of Edom. On the east, your southern boundary wll start from the end of the Salt Sea [i.e. Dead Sea], cross south of the Scorpion Pass, continue on to Zin and go south of Kadesh Barnea. Then it will go to Hazar Addar and over to Azmon, where it will turn, join the Wadi of Egypt and end at the Sea [i.e., Mediterranean]" (Numbers 34:3-5). Zin and Kadesh are clearly to the south of Israel, so to demand that Paran is on the east of Israel requies an impossible boundary. The above verses also show that Moses and the Israelites were at Paran. But if Paran is Mecca, and that Moses is a prophet of Islam, then the obvious conclusion is that Moses was at Mecca and that he must have worshipped at the Ka'aba. Nothing of this sort is ever suggested by any Muslim. It also means that the whole group of Israelites (many thousands of them) passed through Mecca. Ishmael married an Egyptian. Mecca is more than 700 miles away from Egypt, and getting an Egyptian wife seems a little too far. Although this is not conclusive, getting an Egyptian wife from the Sinai Peninsula is more probable. Deuteronomy 33:2. Moses in blessing the sons of Israel before his death said “ The Lord came from Sinai, And dawned on them from Seir; He shone forth from Mount Paran, And He came from the midst of ten thousand holy ones;..”. Many Islamic scholars believe this to be three separate visitations from God.. 1) On ‘Sinai’ to Moses. 2) In ‘Seir’ through Jesus. 3) In ‘Paran’ through Muhammad who came to Mecca with an army of “ten thousand”. However ‘Seir’ is near Egypt in the Sinai Peninsula not in Palestine where Jesus ministered. ‘Paran’ is in North Eastern Sinai, hundreds of miles from Mecca. Additionally the verse says that the “Lord” is coming, not a prophet and that he is coming with “ten thousand saints” not soldiers. This verse is Moses “blessing” on the children of Israel, and could not have been a prophecy about Islam, which has been their constant enemy. Paran was the Israelites FIRST stop after Sinai (Numbers 10:12) - If People make such silly claims that Paran is Mecca ... That cant be right, because it wouldn't make sense for the Israelites first stop to be 1,000km away! Seir is The territory of Esau (Genesis 14:6, 32:4, 36:8) - Mount Paran ... Near Seir (see Genesis 14:6). This was Ishmael's territory (Genesis 21:21). To say Paran is Mecca would mean that Seir would be in the Vacinity of it too, when it actualy fact its over 920km away, Seir is Near Egypt, Hagar was from Egypt too, Ishmael's wife was Egyption too, it wouldn't make sense for Ishmael to travel some 1,000km to Mecca to find a wife and travel 1,000km back into Beersheba or Paran. Paran is near Egypt in the Sinai peninsula and Seir is in Old Testament Edom. This whole contetion can stop if people would care to just look at a Biblical Map, i have one in my KJV Bible right now, a perfect map ... I'll see if i can scan it in or find one online. Kadesh-Barnea and Beersheba are very near to Paran, to say Paran is Mecca would mean that Beersheba and Kadesh-Barnea would be there too, That would make them roughly 1,000km away, which again ... Does not sound right. Kadesh-barnea is located in the Wilderness of Paran, not in Mecca. Mecca is a city, not a wilderness or a regional territory like i said. Also ... Mt. Sinai is NOT in Saudi Arabia, this also is a misinterpreation which can be solved by some Archeology ... See these websites here ... They have lots of Details on why Mt. Sinai cannot be Saudi Arabia ... http://www.biblicalchronologist.org/ans ... arabia.php http://www.christiananswers.net/abr/sin ... rabia.html - Detailed Archeology Also, Strongs Concordance is right when it says Paran is a Desert in Arabia ... because ... In Paul's Time "Arabia" Included Sinai Peninsula In Apostle Paul's time, "ARABIA" covered a wide area that "INCLUDED THE SINAI PENINSULA" as well as what we now call Saudi Arabia, according to Cambridge scholar Graham Davies. (27) A glance at most Bible atlases will show this. Thus, Paul's remark in Galatians 4:25 is quite consistent with Mt. Sinai's traditional placement on the Sinai Peninsula. Thanks. Paran is not Mecca. |
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