Moriah is the name given to a mountainous region by the Book of Genesis, in which context it is the location of the sacrifice of Isaac. Through association with the biblical Mount Moriah, Mount Moriah has been interpreted as the name of the specific mountain at which this occurred, although this identification is typically rejected by scholarship. Muslimsbelieve the historical mount is Marwah in Arabic, as mentioned in the Qur'an, located close to the Kaaba in Mecca, Saudi Arabia; or Petra, Jordan. There has been an historical account of rams' horns preserved in the Kaaba until the year 683, which are believed to be the remains of the sacrifice of Ishmael.
Biblical references
In the Tanakh, the name Moriyya occurs twice. Tradition has interpreted these as the same place:
Genesis: "Then God said, 'Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriyya. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.'"
2 Chronicles: "Then Shlomo began to build the temple of the in Yerushalayim on Har Moriyya, where the had appeared to his father David. It was on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite, the place provided by David.."
Speculation and debate
Religious views
Whereas the mention of Moriah in Genesis could be referring to any mountainous region, the book of Chronicles says that the location of Araunah's threshing floor is on "Mount Moriah" and that the Temple of Solomon was built over Araunah's threshing floor. This has led to the classical rabbinical supposition that Moriah was in Jerusalem. In consequence of these traditions, Classical Rabbinical Literature theorised that the name was a reference to the Temple, suggesting translations like the teaching-place, the place of fear, the place of myrrh. On the other hand, some interpretations of a biblical passage concerning Melchizedek, king ofSalem, would indicate Jerusalem was already a city with a priest at the time of Abraham, and thus is unlikely to have been founded on the lonely spot where Abraham tried to sacrifice Isaac. However, the view that the wordSalem in this passage actually refers to Jerusalem and not peace is much debated between many sects of Jews and Christians. There is also debate as to whether the two references are correctly understood as the same word. Ancient translators seem to have interpreted them differently: whereas all ancient translations simply transliterated the name in Chronicles, in Genesis they tended to try to understand the literal meaning of the name and to translate it. For example, in the Greek Septuagint translation, these verses are translated as:
Genesis 22:2: "And he said, Take thy son, the beloved one, whom thou hast loved—Isaac, and go into the high land, and offer him there for a whole-burnt-offering on one of the mountains which I will tell thee of"
2 Chronicles 3:1: "And Solomon began to build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem in the mount of Amoria, where the Lord appeared to his father David, in the place which David had prepared in the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite."
Moreover, other ancient translations interpret the instance in Genesis in different ways from the Septuagint:
The Samaritan Pentateuch spells the name differently from the Hebrew-alphabet text, giving "’ereṣ hammôrā’āh", which seems to interpret the name as coming from the root rā’āh, and accordingly means "the land of vision". Correspondingly, Symmachus's Greek translation renders the Genesis place-name as "tês optasías" and Jerome's Latin Vulgate similarly says "in terram Visionis".
Some modern biblical scholars, however, regard the name as a reference to the Amorites, having lost the initial a via aphesis; the name is thus interpreted as meaning land of the Amorites. This agrees with the Septuagint, where, for example, 2 Chronicles 3:1 refers to the location as Ἀμωρία. Some scholars also identify it with Moreh, the location near Shechem at which Abraham built an altar, according to Genesis 12:6. Hence a number of scholars believe that Moriah refers to a hill near Shechem, supporting the Samaritan belief that the near-sacrifice of Isaac occurred on Mount Gerizim - a location near Shechem.
