Abrahamic religions
Judaism and Islam are the largest Abrahamic religions in terms of numbers of adherents. As of 2005, estimates classified 54% of the population as adherents of an Abrahamic religion, about 32% as adherents of other religions. Christianity claims 33% of the population, Islam has 21%, Judaism has 0. 2%. It has been suggested that the phrase, Abrahamic religion, may mean that all these religions come from one spiritual source. Christians refer to Abraham as a father in faith, there is an Islamic religious term, Millat Ibrahim, indicating that Islam sees itself as having practices tied to the traditions of Abraham. Jewish tradition claims descent from Abraham, and adherents follow his practices and it is the Islamic tradition that Muhammad, as an Arab, is descended from Abrahams son Ishmael. Jewish tradition equates the descendants of Ishmael, with Arabs, as the descendants of Isaac by Jacob, who was later known as Israel, are the Israelites. The Báb, regarded by Baháís as a predecessor to Baháulláh, was a Sayyid, or a descendant of Muhammad.
Tradition holds that Baháulláh is a descendant of Abraham through his third wife, while there is commonality among the religions, in large measure their shared ancestry is peripheral to their respective foundational beliefs and thus conceals crucial differences. For example, the common Christian beliefs of Incarnation, there are key beliefs in both Islam and Judaism that are not shared by most of Christianity, and key beliefs of Islam and the Baháí Faith not shared by Judaism. Judaism regards itself as the religion of the descendants of Jacob and it has a strictly unitary view of God, and the central holy book for almost all branches is the Masoretic Text as elucidated in the Oral Torah. In the 19th century and 20th centuries Judaism developed a number of branches, of which the most significant are Orthodox, Conservative. Christianity began as a sect of Judaism in the Mediterranean Basin of the first century CE and evolved into a separate religion—Christianity—with distinctive beliefs, Jesus is the central figure of Christianity, considered by almost all denominations to be God the Son, one person of the Trinity.
The Christian biblical canons are usually held to be the ultimate authority, over many centuries, Christianity divided into three main branches, dozens of significant denominations, and hundreds of smaller ones. Islam arose in the Arabian Peninsula in the 7th century CE with a unitary view of God. Muslims hold the Quran to be the authority, as revealed and elucidated through the teachings and practices of a central. The Islamic faith consider all prophets and messengers from Adam through the messenger to carry the same Islamic monotheistic principles. Soon after its founding Islam split into two branches, each of which now have a number of denominations
Summit
A summit is a point on a surface that is higher in elevation than all points immediately adjacent to it. Mathematically, a summit is a maximum in elevation. The topographic terms acme, apex and zenith are synonymous, the UIAA definition is that a summit is independent if it has a prominence of 30 metres or more, it is a mountain if it has a prominence of at least 300 metres. This can be summarised as follows, A pyramidal peak is an exaggerated form produced by ice erosion of a mountain top, Summit may refer to the highest point along a line, trail, or route. In many parts of the western United States, the term refers to the highest point along a road, highway. For example, the highest point along Interstate 80 in California is referred to as Donner Summit while the highest point on Interstate 5 is Siskiyou Mountain Summit, geoid Hill List of highest mountains Maxima and minima Nadir Summit accordance Peak finder
Biblical Mount Sinai
According to the Book of Exodus, Mount Sinai is the mountain at which the Ten Commandments were given to Moses by God. In the Book of Deuteronomy, these events are described as having transpired at Mount Horeb and Horeb are generally considered to refer to the same place, although there is a small body of opinion that the two names may refer to different locations. According to the Documentary hypothesis, the name Sinai is only used in the Torah by the Jahwist and Priestly source, whereas Horeb is only used by the Elohist and Deuteronomist. Regarding the Sumerian Sin deity assumption, William F. Albright and it has been recognized that it may somehow be connected with seneh, the name of a kind of bush where Moses is said to have first witnessed the theophany of Yahweh. Jabal Mūsa, is another term that appears in Islamic sources, in the biblical account, the fire and clouds are a direct consequence of the arrival of God upon the mountain. The biblical description of Gods descent seems to be in conflict with the statement shortly after that God spoke to the Israelites from Heaven, the heavens could be a metaphor for clouds and the lake of fire could be a metaphor for the lava-filled crater.
Have indicated that the smoke and fire reference from the Bible suggests that Mt Sinai was a volcano, other bible scholars have suggested that the description fits a storm especially as the Song of Deborah seems to allude to rain having occurred at the time. The biblical record notes the uniqueness of the event by stating that God spoke directly to the Israelite nation as a whole, some modern biblical scholars explain Mount Sinai as having been a sacred place dedicated to one of the Semitic deities, even before the Israelites encountered it. Modern scholars differ as to the geographical position of Mount Sinai. The earliest references to Jebel Musa as Mount Sinai or Mount Sinai being located in the present day Sinai Peninsula are inconclusive, there is evidence that prior to 100 CE, well before the Christian monastic period, Jewish sages had already identified Jebel Musa as Mount Sinai. R. K. Harrison states that, “Jebel Musa, seems to have enjoyed special sanctity long before Christian times, culminating in its identification with Mt.
Sinai. In the second and third centuries BCE Nabataeans were making pilgrimages there, josephus wrote that Moses went up to a mountain that lay between Egypt and Arabia, which was called Sinai. Etheria wrote, The whole mountain group looks as if it were a single peak, Mount Catherine and Jebel Musa are both much higher than any mountains in the Sinaitic desert, or in all of Midian. The highest tops in the Tih desert to the north are not much over 1,200 m and those in Midian, East of Elath, rise only to 1,300 m. Even Jebel Serbal,30 kilometres west of Sinai, is at its highest only 2,050 m above the sea, some scholars believe that Mount Sinai was of ancient sanctity prior to the ascent of Moses described in the Bible. Scholars have theorized that Sinai in part derived its name from the word for moon which was sin, antoninus Martyr provides some support for the ancient sanctity of Jebel Musa by writing that Arabian heathens were still celebrating moon feasts there in the 6th century. Lina Eckenstien states that some of the artifacts discovered indicate that the establishment of the moon-cult in the dates back to the pre-dynastic days of Egypt.
Groups of nawamis have been discovered in southern Sinai, creating a kind of ring around Jebel Musa, the nawamis were used over and over throughout the centuries for various purposes
Quran
The Quran is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims believe to be a revelation from God. It is widely regarded as the finest work in classical Arabic literature, the Quran is divided into chapters, which are divided into verses. The word Quran occurs some 70 times in the text of the Quran, although different names, according to the traditional narrative, several companions of Muhammad served as scribes and were responsible for writing down the revelations. Shortly after Muhammads death, the Quran was compiled by his companions who wrote down and these codices had differences that motivated the Caliph Uthman to establish a standard version now known as Uthmans codex, which is generally considered the archetype of the Quran known today. There are, variant readings, with minor differences in meaning. The Quran assumes familiarity with major narratives recounted in the Biblical scriptures and it summarizes some, dwells at length on others and, in some cases, presents alternative accounts and interpretations of events.
The Quran describes itself as a book of guidance and it sometimes offers detailed accounts of specific historical events, and it often emphasizes the moral significance of an event over its narrative sequence. The Quran is used along with the hadith to interpret sharia law, during prayers, the Quran is recited only in Arabic. Someone who has memorized the entire Quran is called a hafiz, some Muslims read Quranic ayah with elocution, which is often called tajwid. During the month of Ramadan, Muslims typically complete the recitation of the whole Quran during tarawih prayers, in order to extrapolate the meaning of a particular Quranic verse, most Muslims rely on the tafsir. The word qurʼān appears about 70 times in the Quran itself and it is a verbal noun of the Arabic verb qaraʼa, meaning he read or he recited. The Syriac equivalent is qeryānā, which refers to reading or lesson. While some Western scholars consider the word to be derived from the Syriac, regardless, it had become an Arabic term by Muhammads lifetime.
An important meaning of the word is the act of reciting, as reflected in an early Quranic passage, It is for Us to collect it, in other verses, the word refers to an individual passage recited. Its liturgical context is seen in a number of passages, for example, So when al-qurʼān is recited, listen to it, the word may assume the meaning of a codified scripture when mentioned with other scriptures such as the Torah and Gospel. The term has closely related synonyms that are employed throughout the Quran, each synonym possesses its own distinct meaning, but its use may converge with that of qurʼān in certain contexts. Such terms include kitāb, āyah, and sūrah, the latter two terms denote units of revelation. In the large majority of contexts, usually with an article, the word is referred to as the revelation
Saint Catherine, Egypt
Saint Catherine is a city in the South Sinai Governorate. It is located at the outskirts of El Tur Mountains at an elevation of 1,586 m,120 km away from Nuweiba, at the foot of Mount Sinai and the Saint Catherines Monastery. Although Saint Catherine wasnt established as a city at time, it was always part of the Egyptian Empire throughout history. In the 16th century BC, the Egyptian pharaohs built the way of Shur across Sinai to Beersheba and on to Jerusalem. They include temples from the 12th Dynasty, dedicated to Hathor, goddess of love and beauty, and from the New Kingdom dedicated to Sopdu, the god of the Eastern Desert. Located at the foot of Mount Sinai, Saint Catherines Monastery was the start of the city, the townships oldest settlement is Wadi El Sybaiya, east of the citys monastery, where the Roman soldiers, whose descendants the Jebeliya are, were accommodated. It started growing into a town after the road was completed in the 1980s. Many of the nomad Bedouins moved to settlements around the citys monastery.
There are settlements in Wadi Sheikh before town and other ones in the valleys. Saint Catherine is the capital of the Municipality of Saint Katherine, the towns monastery lies in Wadi el Deir, opposite Wadi Raha. Mount Sinai can be reached from the monastery or, from Wadi El Arbain where the Rock of Moses, köppen-Geiger climate classification system classifies its climate as cold desert. It has the coldest nights of any city in Egypt, the highest mountains ranges in Egypt surround the town with many smaller valleys leading from the basin to the mountains in all directions. The township is at an elevation of 1,600 metres, different sources give different average temperatures for Saint Catherines town. Saint Catherine is considered to be one of the coldest towns in Egypt with Nekhel, infrequent snowfalls in Saint Catherine take place during the winter months of December and February, however snow has occurred in autumn and spring. Saint Catherine Town lies at the foot of the Sinai high mountain region, the Roof of Egypt, some trekking groups however prefer especially the winter season as they find it more interesting and lovely to hike and climb in these conditions.
The town puts a pressure on the water resources. Today water has to be purchased and brought in by trucks, as of September 28,2011 water from the Nile is being transported to Saint Catherine via a pipe line, built with the help of the European Union. Bank Misr ATM, In mall, cash advances on Visa, Sun-Thu 9 AM -2 PM,6 PM -8 PM
Ten Commandments
The Ten Commandments, known as the Decalogue, are a set of biblical principles relating to ethics and worship, which play a fundamental role in Judaism and Islam. Different religious groups follow different traditions for interpreting and numbering them, the Ten Commandments are listed twice in the Hebrew Bible, first at Exodus 20, 1–17, and at Deuteronomy 5, 6–21. Both versions state that God inscribed them on two tablets, which he gave to Moses on Mount Sinai. Modern scholarship has found likely influences in Hittite and Mesopotamian laws and treaties, but is divided over exactly when the Ten Commandments were written and who wrote them. In biblical Hebrew, the Ten Commandments are called עשרת הדברים and in Rabbinical Hebrew עשרת הדברות, the Tyndale and Coverdale English translations used ten verses. The Geneva Bible used tenne commandements, which was followed by the Bishops Bible, Most major English versions use commandments. The stone tablets, as opposed to the commandments inscribed on them, are called לוחות הברית, Luchot HaBrit, the biblical narrative of the revelation at Sinai begins in Exodus 19 after the arrival of the children of Israel at Mount Sinai.
The people were afraid to hear more and moved afar off, and Moses responded with Fear not. And the LORD said unto Moses, Come up to me into the mount, and be there, and I will give thee tablets of stone, and a law, and commandments which I have written, that thou mayest teach them. 13 And Moses rose up, and his minister Joshua, the mount was covered by the cloud for six days, and on the seventh day Moses went into the midst of the cloud and was in the mount forty days and forty nights. The passages in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5 contain more than ten imperative statements, different religious traditions divide the seventeen verses of Exodus 20, 1–17 and their parallels at Deuteronomy 5, 4–21 into ten commandments or sayings in different ways, shown in the table below. Some suggest that the ten is a choice to aid memorization rather than a matter of theology. Traditions, LXX, generally followed by Orthodox Christians, P, same as the Septuagint, but with the prohibitions on killing and adultery reversed.
S, Samaritan Pentateuch, with an additional commandment about Mount Gerizim as 10th, T, Jewish Talmud, makes the prologue the first saying or matter and combines the prohibition on worshiping deities other than Yahweh with the prohibition on idolatry. C, Catechism of the Catholic Church, largely follows Augustine, R, Reformed Christians follow John Calvins Institutes of the Christian Religion, which follows the Septuagint, this system is used in the Anglican Book of Common Prayer. All scripture quotes above are from the King James Version, click on verses at top of columns for other versions. The Ten Commandments are written with room for varying interpretation, reflecting their role as a summary of fundamental principles and they are not as explicit or detailed as rules or many other biblical laws and commandments, because they provide guiding principles that apply universally, across changing circumstances. They do not specify punishments for their violation and their precise import must be worked out in each separate situation
Mosque
A mosque is a place of worship for followers of Islam. There are strict and detailed requirements in Sunni jurisprudence for a place of worship to be considered a mosque, many mosques have elaborate domes and prayer halls, in varying styles of architecture. Mosques originated on the Arabian Peninsula, but are now found in all inhabited continents, the mosque serves as a place where Muslims can come together for salat as well as a center for information, social welfare, and dispute settlement. The imam leads the congregation in prayer, the first mosque in the world is often considered to be the area around the Kaaba in Mecca now known as the Masjid al-Haram. Others regard the first mosque in history to be the Quba Mosque in present-day Medina since it was the first structure built by Muhammad upon his emigration from Mecca in 622. The Islamic Prophet Muhammad went on to another mosque in Medina. Built on the site of his home, Muhammad participated in the construction of the mosque himself and helped pioneer the concept of the mosque as the focal point of the Islamic city.
The Masjid al-Nabawi introduced some of the still common in todays mosques, including the niche at the front of the prayer space known as the mihrab. The Masjid al-Nabawi was constructed with a courtyard, a motif common among mosques built since then. Mosques had been built in Iraq and North Africa by the end of the 7th century, the Imam Husayn Shrine in Karbala is reportedly one of the oldest mosques in Iraq, although its present form – typical of Persian architecture – only goes back to the 11th century. The shrine, while operating as a mosque, remains one of the holiest sites for Shia Muslims, as it honors the death of the third Shia imam. The Mosque of Amr ibn al-As was reportedly the first mosque in Egypt, serving as a religious, like the Imam Husayn Shrine, nothing of its original structure remains. With the Shia Fatimid Caliphate, mosques throughout Egypt evolved to include schools, hospitals and it was the first to incorporate a square minaret and includes naves akin to a basilica. Those features can be found in Andalusian mosques, including the Grand Mosque of Cordoba, some elements of Visigothic architecture, like horseshoe arches, were infused into the mosque architecture of Spain and the Maghreb.
The first mosque in East Asia was reportedly established in the 8th century in Xian, the Great Mosque of Xian, whose current building dates from the 18th century, does not replicate the features often associated with mosques elsewhere. Indeed, minarets were initially prohibited by the state, mosques in western China were more likely to incorporate elements, like domes and minarets, traditionally seen in mosques elsewhere. In turn, the Javanese style influenced the styles of mosques in Indonesias Austronesian neighbors—Malaysia, Muslim empires were instrumental in the evolution and spread of mosques. Although mosques were first established in India during the 7th century, reflecting their Timurid origins, Mughal-style mosques included onion domes, pointed arches, and elaborate circular minarets, features common in the Persian and Central Asian styles
Bible
The Bible is a collection of sacred texts or scriptures that Jews and Christians consider to be a product of divine inspiration and a record of the relationship between God and humans. Many different authors contributed to the Bible, what is regarded as canonical text differs depending on traditions and groups, a number of Bible canons have evolved, with overlapping and diverging contents. The Christian Old Testament overlaps with the Hebrew Bible and the Greek Septuagint, the New Testament is a collection of writings by early Christians, believed to be mostly Jewish disciples of Christ, written in first-century Koine Greek. These early Christian Greek writings consist of narratives, among Christian denominations there is some disagreement about the contents of the canon, primarily the Apocrypha, a list of works that are regarded with varying levels of respect. Attitudes towards the Bible differ amongst Christian groups and this concept arose during the Protestant Reformation, and many denominations today support the use of the Bible as the only source of Christian teaching.
With estimated total sales of over 5 billion copies, the Bible is widely considered to be the book of all time. It has estimated sales of 100 million copies, and has been a major influence on literature and history, especially in the West. The English word Bible is from the Latin biblia, from the word in Medieval Latin and Late Latin. Medieval Latin biblia is short for biblia sacra holy book, while biblia in Greek and it gradually came to be regarded as a feminine singular noun in medieval Latin, and so the word was loaned as a singular into the vernaculars of Western Europe. Latin biblia sacra holy books translates Greek τὰ βιβλία τὰ ἅγια ta biblia ta hagia, the word βιβλίον itself had the literal meaning of paper or scroll and came to be used as the ordinary word for book. It is the diminutive of βύβλος byblos, Egyptian papyrus, possibly so called from the name of the Phoenician sea port Byblos from whence Egyptian papyrus was exported to Greece, the Greek ta biblia was an expression Hellenistic Jews used to describe their sacred books.
Christian use of the term can be traced to c.223 CE, bruce notes that Chrysostom appears to be the first writer to use the Greek phrase ta biblia to describe both the Old and New Testaments together. The division of the Hebrew Bible into verses is based on the sof passuk cantillation mark used by the 10th-century Masoretes to record the verse divisions used in oral traditions. The oldest extant copy of a complete Bible is an early 4th-century parchment book preserved in the Vatican Library, the oldest copy of the Tanakh in Hebrew and Aramaic dates from the 10th century CE. The oldest copy of a complete Latin Bible is the Codex Amiatinus and he states that it is not a magical book, nor was it literally written by God and passed to mankind. In Christian Bibles, the New Testament Gospels were derived from traditions in the second half of the first century CE. Riches says that, Scholars have attempted to reconstruct something of the history of the oral traditions behind the Gospels, the period of transmission is short, less than 40 years passed between the death of Jesus and the writing of Marks Gospel.
This means that there was time for oral traditions to assume fixed form
Sinai Peninsula
The Sinai Peninsula or simply Sinai is a peninsula in Egypt, situated between the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Red Sea to the south, serving as a land bridge between Asia and Africa. It is the part of Egyptian territory located in Asia. Sinai has an area of about 60,000 km2. The bulk of the peninsula is divided administratively into two of Egypts 27 governorates, the Sinai Peninsula has been a part of Egypt from the First Dynasty of ancient Egypt. In periods of occupation, the Sinai was, like the rest of Egypt and controlled by foreign empires, in more recent history the Ottoman Empire. Israel invaded and occupied Sinai during the Suez Crisis of 1956, on 6 October 1973, Egypt launched the Yom Kippur War to retake the peninsula, which was the site of fierce fighting between Egyptian and Israeli forces. Today, Sinai has become a tourist destination due to its setting, rich coral reefs. Mount Sinai is one of the most religiously significant places in Abrahamic faiths, in addition to its formal name, Egyptians refer to it as Arḍ ul-Fairūz.
The ancient Egyptians called it Ta Mefkat, or land of turquoise, Sinai is triangular in shape, with northern shore lying on the southern Mediterranean Sea, and southwest and southeast shores on Gulf of Suez and Gulf of Aqaba of the Red Sea. It is linked to the African continent by the Isthmus of Suez,125 kilometres wide strip of land, the eastern isthmus, linking it to the Asian mainland, is around 200 kilometres wide. The peninsulas eastern shore separates the Arabian plate from the African plate, the southernmost tip is the Ras Muhammad National Park. Most of the Sinai Peninsula is divided among the two governorates of Egypt, South Sinai and North Sinai, they comprise around 60,000 square kilometres and have a population of 597,000. Three more governates span the Suez Canal, crossing into African Egypt, Suez is on the end of the Suez Canal, Ismailia in the centre. The largest city of Sinai is Arish, capital of the North Sinai, other larger settlements include Sharm el-Sheikh and El-Tor, on the southern coast.
Inland Sinai is arid and sparsely populated, the largest settlements being Saint Catherine, Sinai is one of the coldest provinces in Egypt because of its high altitudes and mountainous topographies. Winter temperatures in some of Sinais cities and towns reach −16 °C, the mines were worked intermittently and on a seasonal basis for thousands of years. Modern attempts to exploit the deposits have been unprofitable and these may be the first historically attested mines. According to the Hebrew Bible, the peninsula was crossed by the Israelites during the Exodus from Egypt and this included numerous halts over a 40-year period of travel sometime towards the end of the Bronze Age
Book of Exodus
The Book of Exodus or, Exodus, is the second book of the Torah and the Hebrew Bible. The book tells how the Israelites leave slavery in Egypt through the strength of Yahweh, led by their prophet Moses they journey through the wilderness to Mount Sinai, where Yahweh promises them the land of Canaan in return for their faithfulness. There is no agreement among scholars on the structure of Exodus. One strong possibility is that it is a diptych, with the division between parts 1 and 2 at the crossing of the Red Sea or at the beginning of the theophany in chapter 19. On this plan, the first part tells of Gods rescue of his people from Egypt and their journey under his care to Sinai, jacobs sons and their families join their brother, Joseph, in Egypt. Once there, the Israelites begin to grow in number, several generations later, Egypts Pharaoh, fearful that the Israelites could be a fifth column, orders that all newborn boys be thrown into the Nile. A Levite woman saves her baby by setting him adrift on the river Nile in an ark of bulrushes, the Pharaohs daughter finds the child, names him Moses, and brings him up as her own.
But Moses is aware of his origins, and one day, there he marries Zipporah, the daughter of Midianite priest Jethro, and encounters God in a burning bush. Moses asks God for his name, God replies, I AM that I AM, God tells Moses to return to Egypt and lead the Hebrews into Canaan, the land promised to Abraham. Moses returns to Egypt and fails to convince the Pharaoh to release the Israelites, God smites the Egyptians with 10 terrible plagues including a river of blood, many frogs, and the death of first-born sons. Moses leads the Israelites out of bondage after a chase when the Pharaoh reneges on his coerced consent. The desert proves arduous, and the Israelites complain and long for Egypt, the Israelites arrive at the mountain of God, where Moses father-in-law Jethro visits Moses, at his suggestion Moses appoints judges over Israel. God asks whether they agree to be his people. Moses is told to ascend the mountain, God pronounces the Ten Commandments in the hearing of all Israel. Moses goes up the mountain into the presence of God, who pronounces the Covenant Code, Moses comes down the mountain and writes down Gods words and the people agree to keep them.
God calls Moses up the mountain where he remains for 40 days and 40 nights, at the conclusion of the 40 days and 40 nights, Moses returns holding the set of stone tablets. Aaron is appointed as the first hereditary high priest, God gives Moses the two tablets of stone containing the words of the ten commandments, written with the finger of God. While Moses is with God, Aaron makes a golden calf, God informs Moses of their apostasy and threatens to kill them all, but relents when Moses pleads for them
Israelites
The Israelites were a Semitic-speaking people of the ancient Near East, who inhabited a part of Canaan during the tribal and monarchic periods. The ancient Israelites are considered to be an outgrowth of the indigenous Canaanite populations that inhabited the Southern Levant, ancient Israel. In the period of the monarchy it was only used to refer to the inhabitants of the northern kingdom. The Israelites were known as the Hebrews and the Twelve Tribes of Israel, the Jews are named after and descended from the southern Israelite Kingdom of Judah, particularly the tribes of Judah and partially Levi. The word Jews is found in 2 Kings, and in passages in the Book of Jeremiah, the Book of Zechariah. The Kingdom of Israel, often called the Northern Kingdom of Israel, contained all the tribes except for the tribes of Judah, following its conquest by Assyria, these ten tribes were allegedly dispersed and lost to history, and they are henceforth known as the Ten Lost Tribes. Jewish tradition holds that Samaria was so named because the mountainous terrain was used to keep Guard for incoming enemy attacks.
According to Samaritan tradition, the Samaritan ethnonym is not derived from the region of Samaria, according to Samaritan tradition, the region was named Samaria after them, not vice versa. In Modern Hebrew, the Samaritans are called Shomronim, while in Samaritan Hebrew they call themselves Shamerim, in Judaism, an Israelite is, broadly speaking, a lay member of the Jewish ethnoreligious group, as opposed to the priestly orders of Kohanim and Levites. In texts of Jewish law such as the Mishnah and Gemara, the term יהודי, meaning Jew, is rarely used, Samaritans commonly refer to themselves and to Jews collectively as Israelites, and they describe themselves as the Israelite Samaritans. The name Israel first appears in the Hebrew Bible in Genesis 32,29, the Hebrew Bible etymologizes the name as from yisra to prevail over or to struggle/wrestle with, and el, the divine. The name Israel first appears in non-biblical sources c.1209 BCE, the inscription is very brief and says simply, Israel is laid waste and his seed is not.
The inscription refers to a people, not to an individual or a nation-state, in modern Hebrew, bnei yisrael can denote the Jewish people at any time in history, it is typically used to emphasize Jewish religious identity. From the period of the Mishna the term Yisrael acquired a narrower meaning of Jews of legitimate birth other than Levites. In modern Hebrew this contrasts with the term Yisraeli, a citizen of the modern State of Israel, the term Hebrew has Eber as an eponymous ancestor. It is used synonymously with Israelites, or as a term for historical speakers of the Hebrew language in general. Today and Samaritans both recognize each other as communities with an authentic Israelite origin, the terms Jews and Samaritans largely replaced the title Children of Israel as the commonly used ethnonym for each respective community. The name Yahweh, the god of the Israelites, may indicate connections with the region of Mount Seir in Edom, the Canaanites were the first people, as far as is known, to have used an alphabet
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Mount Sinai travel guide from Wikivoyage
