ABSTRACT
Mount Sinai holds a key place in the spiritual imagination as divine meeting place, and a site of God’s self-revelation, for Christians, Jews, and Muslims alike. Sinai was a place where the worthy learned God’s name (Exod. 3:14), heard his “still soft” voice, and even saw his glory so far as it can be seen by human eyes (Exod. 34:5–8). God commissioned Moses from the burning bush at the mountain’s base (Exod. 3:1–4:19), gave the Israelites his Law on its peak (Exod. 19–34), and later for forty days and nights communed there with Elijah (1 Kings 19:8–13). 1 This mythic mountain of Israelite history came, at an uncertain date, to be associated with what is now the site of St Catherine’s Monastery at the foot of Gebel Musa. As long as Christians have traveled or dwelt there, Gebel Musa has been Sinai. This chapter will briefly trace Sinai’s history and importance for Orthodox Christianity. I will then discuss her most famous son, John Climacus, giving a biography and a brief introduction to his influential work, the Ladder of Divine Ascent.
