YAHWEH's COVENANT ON SINAI

YAHWEH granted to HIS Chosen People the SET APART pact which the Scriptures calls the Covenant

To the south of the Sinai peninsula, which tapers off like an arrowhead towards the Red Sea, stands a mountain range of savage beauty; a forest of peaks spreads out against the intense blue of the sky with all the clarity of an etching. Which exactly of these peaks is the Sinai of the Scripture? Geographers and historians have long argued the point. This rocky citadel sends out a series of spurs towards the gulf of Suez with Jebel Serbal (6769 feet). In the centre, standing back slightly to the south, stands the rose-coloured mountain Jebel Musa (the mountain of Mosheh) whose summit reaches 7449 feet. To the south-west is the highest point of the range, Jebel Katerin (8600 feet). In the present state of the question there is almost general agreement in regarding Jebel Musa as the mountain on which YAHWEH granted to his Chosen People the set apart pact which the Scriptures calls the Covenant.

Three months after they came out of the land of Egypt. ..the sons of Yisrael came to the wilderness of Sinai. ..there in the wilderness they pitched their camp; there facing the mountain Yisrael pitched camp. Mosheh then went up to YAHWEH, and YAHWEH called to him from the mountain, saying, ‘Say this to the House of Yacob, declare this to the sons of Yisrael. ..

Shemoth19:1-3

The Covenant of Sinai: the Covenants of Scripture, Old and Renewed

With the Covenant of Sinai we come to a fundamental chapter of Scriptural history. It should be added here that in the great Semitic family every personal or social commitment of a certain importance had to take a ritual form, an oath before the altar, the exchange of garments or a offering followed by a meal taken in common in which the use of salt was obligatory.

In the Old as in the Renewed Covenant when YAHWEH revealed HIS plan to HIS creature HE marked HIS intervention by the establishment of a Covenant. Thus in what might be called the prehistoric period of the spiritual adventure of humanity we can already find the conclusion of two covenants. At the beginning there was a sort of covenant with Adam, but the first human couple broke the Law; later, at the Flood there is a kind of second covenant between YAHWEH and Noah; subsequently the result was disappointing. Nevertheless, the promises made by YAHWEH remained.

With Abraham we come into the historical period of the History of yeshua. In the course of this long period of evolution, which this time went on continuously, three stages can be distinguished, or, three Covenants, each of them heralding and conditioning fresh starting points at the set apart spiritual level. The first Covenant was between YAHWEH and Abraham. The second took place on Sinai. The third was instituted by MESSIYAH, on the day before HE suffered, at the Last Supper; HE uttered these OFFERING words: This cup [which HE had just filled with wine] is the New Covenant in MY BLOOD which will be poured out for you.’

The three phases of Sinai; YAHWEH’s Covenant established, broken and Renewed

Before we start on the events which took place on Sinai it is important to have a clear idea of the general plan of the events which took place sometimes at the foot and sometimes on the slopes of Sinai. The following three phases can be distinguished:

1. The Covenant of YAHWEH with his people. Central to this is the Law, which originated with the Elohistic tradition; hence the high moral tone of these passages. It forms Yisrael’s charter and is illustrated by a commentary that shows how the Law is to be applied by the people in their lives (the Book of the Covenant).

2. Breaking of the Covenant, Yisrael’s apostasy, the Golden Calf. During a time of aberration Yisrael represented YAHWEH the Almighty in the form of a golden calf.

It was not in this instance idolatry, strictly speaking, but an infraction of the second commandment. The punishment for it was terrible but indispensable; the people had to understand that the majesty and will of YAHWEH allowed no compromise.

3. The code of the renewal of the Covenant. Mosheh intervened with YAHWEH WHO finally consented to grant HIS forgiveness. YAHWEH then drew up the second Law  (Yahwistic tradition). This code is of a particularly ritual nature, and gives full details about the set apart festivals to be observed.

First phase on Sinai: the Covenant encounter in the imposing solitude the ONE WHO had revealed HIS NAME 

The Yisraelites had just arrived at the meeting fixed for them; there they pitched their camp facing the mountain. At once Mosheh climbed up the rocky slopes to encounter in the imposing solitude the ONE WHO had revealed HIS NAME as ‘I am’. Then began the various episodes, related in a rather complicated way in the Scriptures, concerning the Covenant.

Firstly YAHWEH told Mosheh, the promise of the Covenant (Shemoth 19:1-8)

In the cloud covering the heights of Horeb YAHWEH told Mosheh that HE desired to conclude a Covenant with HIS people; and HE delivered to Mosheh the message that he was to take down to the ‘House of Yacob’. ‘Now, if you obey MY voice and hold fast to MY Covenant’ added YAHWEH, ‘you of all nations shall be MY very OWN. ...I will count you a kingdom of kohen.‘2  ‘Those are the words you are to speak to the sons of Yisrael. , Mosheh then went down the mountain and put before the elders what was YAHWEH’s will. The people’s acceptance was immediate and enthusiastic: ‘All that YAHWEH has said, we will do.’ It was easier said than done, and that indeed sums up the whole history of Yisrael.

2 In Semitic civilizations a ‘kohen’ was a mediator between YAHWEH and the people A ‘kingdom of kohen’ therefore would be a mediator between YAHWEH and other people.

The theophany; YAHWEH once again manifests HIMSELF to HIS people  (Shemoth 19:16-20)

‘I am coming to you in a dense cloud so that the people may hear when I speak to you and trust you always,’ said YAHWEH.

In this mountain range the thunderstorms are really terrifying. Flashes light up the sky over a period of hours, lightning strikes continually and the thunder-claps echo and re-echo deafeningly along the ravines and gorges. At daybreak there were peals of thunder on the mountain and lightning flashes, a dense cloud, and loud trumpet blast 3 and inside the camp all the people trembled. ... The mountain of Sinai was entirely wrapped in smoke. ... Like smoke from a furnace the smoke went up, and the whole mountain shook violently. Mosheh stood in the midst of the terrified Hebrews and spoke to YAHWEH WHO answered him with peals of thunder. YAHWEH made use here of fear, but it was only to show, shortly afterwards, HIS tender care. The senses and imagination must first be impressed before the heart is touched and men’s minds are transformed. After forbidding anyone to follow him Mosheh took the path leading up to the mountain.

At this point there is a break in the narrative with a whole series of obscure phrases whose meaning it is impossible to determine exactly (Shemoth 19:23 does not link up with Shemoth 19:24). In any case, up on the mountain, with the storm still raging and in the blinding light of the lightning flashes, Mosheh received the promises and made note of YAHWEH’s demands.

3 A thunderstorm was an almost unknown phenomenon in Egypt; these former shepherds of the Wadi Tumilat were panic-stricken at the rumbling and thunderclaps coming from the sky. Rather ingenuously they compared them to the set apart signal given by the kohen who blew a note on the horn of a ram or ibex. Here, of course, it was the noise made by the storm, giving warning of YAHWEH’s coming and intended to make plain HIS dominion over the whole of creation.

Mosheh face to face with YAHWEH: the promises and demands of YAHWEH (Shemoth 20; Devarim 5:6-21)

YAHWEH declared solemnly to Mosheh that HE remained faithful to HIS promises. HE had kept them in the past, HE would keep them in the future.

In return for HIS protection and goodwill YAHWEH required of Yisrael obedience to HIS commandments which were contained and stated precisely in the Law . It was, therefore, on the slopes of Horeb (or Sinai) amid the storm and tempest that Mosheh received from YAHWEH the ‘Ten Words’. 4 Shortly we shall find Mosheh taking this message to the people. But at this point a pause must be made in the narrative in order to examine the text of the Law a little more closely.

4 In passing it should be noticed that the term ‘Decalogue‘ (Law), accepted through use and adopted by Scriptural scholars on account of its convenience, does not appear in the text of the Scriptures.

The two versions of the Law, the set apart and moral charter of the Sinai Covenant

The ‘Ten Words’ constitute the set apart and moral charter of the Sinai Covenant. The reader of the Scriptures may well be surprised to find two somewhat different versions of the Law. One appears in Shemoth (Exodus) (28 2-17), the second, a rather later version, in Devarim (5:6-22). Which of these two versions is the more authentic? Hebrew scholars believe that we have here two developed versions in which authors of later periods have endeavoured to make the various articles quite clear; the primitive text, it is thought, has been absorbed by the formulas which we now possess.

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