In Search of Mecca in the Bible and Elsewhere

Mecca – The city never mentioned in the Bible

We’ve all heard Muslims try to find Muhammad in the Bible.  They commonly use the Prophet like Moses in Deuteronomy 18 and the Paraclete of John’s Gospel; and let’s not forget my favorite prophecy of Muhammad, the Muhammadim in the Song of Solomon.  I think a better way to challenge them would be to ask where they find Mecca in the Bible.

Why is Mecca important to Muslims?  Because it contains the Sacred Mosque of course!  The mosque originally build by Abraham and Ishmael.  If you want more details, Surah 2 has plenty.  In verse 125 we read:

And We made the House a focal point for the people, and a sanctuary. Use the shrine of Abraham as a place of prayer. And We commissioned Abraham and Ishmael, “Sanctify My House for those who circle around it, and those who seclude themselves in it, and those who kneel and prostrate.”

In Genesis 25, Abraham dies.  So halfway through the first book of the Torah, the Holy Shrine has been established as a place of prayer and followers of Abraham are prostrating towards it.  Yet, the book of Genesis, the rest of the Torah, the Prophets, Jesus Christ, his blessed mother Mary and his apostles didn’t mention this even once.

Now, according to Islam, between the time of Abraham and Muhammad this shrine gets cluttered with idols as the people of Arabia descended into idolatry.  Since the Bible doesn’t mention the shrine, it doesn’t mention the idolatry either.  It’s a bit odd that a city as important to the Abrahamic faith as Jerusalem isn’t mentioned anywhere in the Bible or Rabbinic or Christian literature.

There is one mention of Mecca in the Quran and it’s a reference to the Valley of Mecca in Surah 48:24.  Even the Quran only mentions this city once.

In Psalm 84 we hear of a place called the valley of Becca.  It talks about people passing through this valley and ending up in Zion.  That doesn’t sound like Mecca at all.  There is also no mention of the shrine of Abraham and Ishmael.

In Ptolemy’s map of Arabia we find a city called Macoraba.  Is this Mecca?  I actually think it is.  Some historians say that it isn’t due to it being slightly off the coordinates but I don’t expect maps back then to be super accurate.  Besides, I don’t think Ptolemy specialized in maps anyway.

So this is the closest reference we have to Mecca.  It’s found on the map of an ancient Greek pagan.  There is so little knowledge of this city prior to Muhammad that people like Dan Gibson suggest alternative cities like Petra.  While I’m not convinced of this theory myself, I know why the theory exists.  It exists due to the scant references to this city prior Muhammad.

If this is the city of Abraham, why did it take the third Abrahamic religion to figure it out, with zero Biblical evidence to back it up?  The truth is that Mecca has no place in the Abrahamic tradition and neither does the building referred to as the Sacred Mosque.  The next time a Muslim tries to prove that Muhammad is in the Bible, simply ask them for Mecca in the Bible; or anywhere.