Mount of Temptation

Mount of Temptation, in Palestinian Arabic Jebel Quruntul (Arabic: جبل لقرنطل), is a mountain over the city of Jericho in the West Bank, Palestine; ancient Christian tradition identifies it as the location of the temptation of Jesus described in the New Testament Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, in which it is said that, from "a high place", the Devil offered Jesus rule over all the kingdoms of the world.

The city of Jericho lies at the feet east of Mount Quruntul, at 258 m (846 ft) below sea level, with the nearby Jordan River and the Dead Sea at even lower elevations, further to the east and southeast. The mount has around 400 m (1,300 ft) of prominence over Jericho, which translates to an elevation of 138 m (453 ft) above sea level, and offers a commanding view of its fabled surroundings to the east.

Quruntul has been the location of a Seleucid and Maccabean fortress known as Dok (also Doq and Dagon). It was the scene of the assassination of Simon Maccabeus and two of his sons in 134 BC. Held by the last Maccabean ruler, Antigonus, during his war with Herod, the latter later improved the fort's water system.

Since at least the 4th century, Christian tradition has specifically associated the forty days of Jesus's fasting that preceded his temptation with a cave on Jebel Quruntul. Eventually, it came to be associated with the high mountain in the Gospel's description of temptation. Centuries after the death of Jesus, the mount became the site of a lavra-type monastery, turned into a Catholic monastery during Crusader rule over the Holy Land, and then into an Orthodox monastery since the late Ottoman period. Since 1998, the monastery halfway up the mountain has been connected with the tell holding the remains of ancient Jericho via a cable car and a center of religious tourism. In 2014, the mountain and monastery were made part of the State of Palestine's "Jericho Oasis Archaeological Park". It has also been nominated to the Tentative List for World Heritage status as part of religious traditions of El-Bariyah, the Judaean Desert.

The first time the place is mentioned is in the Bible. Ketef Jericho is part of Mount of Temptation and is known for its many caves. They are mentioned in the Book of Joshua, it is the location where Rahab sent the spies, while in the Book of Maccabees and "The Jewish War" it is noted as the refuge place to where Ptolemy son of Abubus fled after assassinating Simon son of Mattathias.

The standard Koine Greek texts of the New Testament state that, after his baptism in the Jordan River, Jesus went into a "solitary" or "desolate place" (Ancient Greek: εἰς τὴν ἔρημον, eis tḕn érēmon, or ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ, en tē̂ erḗmō). All three passages where this is mentioned are traditionally translated into English as "the wilderness", although the same term is variously rendered in other locations in the Bible as a "secluded place", a "solitary place", or "the desert". As the second temptation in Luke and the third in Matthew, from "a high mountain" (εἰς ὄρος ὑψηλὸν, eis óros hypsēlòn), the Devil offered Jesus "all the kingdoms of the world" (πάσας τὰς βασιλείας τοῦ κόσμου, pásas tàs basileías toû kósmou, or τῆς οἰκουμένης, tē̂s oikouménēs). On the Crusader-period Uppsala Map of Jerusalem, it appears as "mons excelsus", literally "high mountain" (see here, top right quadrant).

When this passage was connected to a specific hill in late Antiquity, it was eventually given the name Mount Quarantine (Latin: mons Quarantana, Quarantena, Quarennia, Quarantania, Querentius, etc), after the 40-day period mentioned in the biblical accounts, quarranta being a Late Latin form of classical quadraginta ("forty").

This was preserved in Arabic as Mount Quruntul (جبل لقرنطل, Jebel el-Qurunṭul), also transliterated Jabal al-Qurunṭul, Jebel Kuruntul, Jebel Kŭrŭntŭl, Jabal al-Quruntul, and Jabal al Qarantal, and eventually properly translated as Jebel el-Arba'in (جبل الأربعين, Jabal al-Arba'in, 'Mount of the Forty').