JOSHUA S LONG DAY OR NOT? Jonathan Stahl, 26-jan-2013

Transcription

1 JOSHUA S LONG DAY OR NOT? Jonathan Stahl, 26-jan-2013

2 JOSHUA 10: As soon as Adoni-zedek, king of Jerusalem, heard how Joshua had captured Ai and had devoted it to destruction, doing to Ai and its king as he had done to Jericho and its king, and how the inhabitants of Gibeon had made peace with Israel and were among them, 2 he feared greatly, because Gibeon was a great city, like one of the royal cities, and because it was greater than Ai, and in the city of Gibeon all men were warriors. 3 So Adoni-zedek king of Jerusalem sent to Hoham king of Hebron, to Piram king of Jarmuth, to Japhia king of Lachish, and to Debir king of Eglon, saying,

3 JOSHUA 10: Come up to me and help me, and let us strike Gibeon. For it has made peace with Joshua and with the people of Israel. 5 Then the five kings of the Amorites, the king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmuth, the king of Lachish, and the king of Eglon, gathered their forces and went up with all their armies and encamped against Gibeon and made war against it.

4 JOSHUA 10: And the men of Gibeon sent to Joshua at the camp in Gilgal, saying, Do not relax your hand from your servants. Come up to us quickly and save us and help us, for all the kings of the Amorites who dwell in the hill country are gathered against us. 7 So Joshua went up from Gilgal, he and all the people of war with him, and all the mighty men of valor. 8 And YHWH said to Joshua, Do not fear them, for I have given them into your hands. Not a man of them shall stand before you.

5 JOSHUA 10: So Joshua came upon them suddenly, having marched up all night from Gilgal. 10 And YHWH threw them into a panic before Israel, who struck them with a great blow at Gibeon and chased them by the way of the ascent of Beth-horon and struck them as far as Azekah and Makkedah.

6 JOSHUA 10: And as they fled before Israel, while they were going down the ascent of Beth-horon, the LORD threw down large stones from heaven on them as far as Azekah, and they died. There were more who died because of the hailstones than the sons of Israel killed with the sword. 12 At that time Joshua spoke to YHWH in the day when the LORD gave the Amorites over to the sons of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, Sun, stand still at Gibeon, and moon, in the Valley of Aijalon. 13 And the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, until the nation took vengeance on their enemies. Is this not written in the Book of Jashar? The sun stopped in the midst of heaven and did not hurry to set for about a whole day.

7 JOSHUA 10: There has been no day like it before or since, when the LORD heeded the voice of a man, for the LORD fought for Israel. 15 So Joshua returned, and all Israel with him, back to the camp at Gilgal.

8 LET S LOOK AT THIS MORE CLOSELY Not that we have some context, 13 And the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, until the nation took vengeance on their enemies. Is this not written in the Book of Jashar? The sun stopped in the midst of heaven and did not hurry to set for about a whole day.

9 POSSIBLE INTERPRETATION OPTIONS Poetic Language Religious Literal Not Literal Partially literal Missed the entire point, mis-translated, mis-understood the passage.

10 POETIC? It s just poetry just ignore it It didn t happen It is just a happy story

11 RELIGIOUS It s not poetry It s not literal It s just religious

12 DONALD DE YOUNG Donald De Young in Astronomy and the Bible rejects poetic language, eclipse of the sun, and clouds as explanations for Joshua s long day because, All of these explanations fall far short of the statement that there has never been another day like the one described (Joshua 10:14). He adds: The details are unclear, but we know that God could have refracted the light, or slowed the earth's rotation, or stopped the entire universe all with equal ease! JWs similarly claim, If he chooses to, Jehovah can manipulate the movement of the earth so that the sun and the moon would seem motionless to an earthly observer. Or he can let the movement of the earth and the moon remain undisturbed while refracting the rays from the sun and the moon... (Watchtower 2004, December 1)

13 MAYBE WE ARE MISSING THE POINT? All of these explanations fall far short of the statement that there has never been another day like the one described (Joshua 10:14). Is the statement: has never been another day referring to the miracles or something else????

14 DONALD DE YOUNG Some Christian websites quote Immanuel Velikovsky s book Worlds in Collision (1950). Velikovsky argues that the Earth s rotation was either interrupted by a comet or its axis tilted by a strong magnetic field. Velikovsky s idea was widely discussed, but dismissed as pseudoscience by astronomers, geologists, physicists, archaeologists and historians.

15 RIMMER; TOTTEN; DIMBLEBY Christian evangelist Harry Rimmer in The Harmony of Science and Scripture (1936) writes: Professor Totten wrote of a fellow-professor, an accomplished astronomer, who made the strange discovery that the earth was twenty-four hours out of schedule! Rimmer says that Totten s fellow-professor calculated that one day is missing and therefore became convinced the Bible is inspired. Rimmer claims this story is established, beyond a shadow of a doubt. A Google search found Charles A.L. Totten ( ), Professor of Military Tactics at Yale University. Totten resigned in 1892 because he anticipated the imminent reign of Antichrist, and to publish Our Race a periodical (26 volumes) presenting his religious ideas. (He was an Adventist who believed in British Israelism.)

16 Totten also wrote Joshua s Long Day and the Dial of Ahaz: A Scientific Vindication (1890; revised 1891). Robert C. Newman (a Christian with an Astrophysics degree) obtained a copy and found that Rimmer s dramatic story of a skeptic convinced does not appear! ( You can confirm Newman s finding since Totten s book is now on the Internet. The story about an astronomer converted by calculations is not there. Rimmer apparently made this fairy tale up unless it appears in Totten s Our Race or in another book by Collet All About the Bible which are both unavailable to me. Totten s actual argument is that the world was created on Sunday, September 22, 4000 BC which the calendar dates as Monday therefore one day was extra long!

17 Totten got September 22, 4000 BC from the British Chronological Association, a Christian group led by Jabez B. Dimbleby. Dimbleby published an almanac titled All Past Time (first edition 1883) which calculated the date of creation by adding up Old Testament numbers. (Dimbleby was also a Pyramidologist he believed that the lengths of passages of the Great Pyramid reflect Bible chronology and that the word s end was imminent; he also vehemently criticised astronomers because they treated his writings as nonsense.) I lack Dimbleby s almanac. But it seems that the missing-day/long-day proof boils down to sectarian creationists disagreeing whether creation started on Sunday or Monday! The 5-page quote from The Scripture of Truth does mention a real astronomer E.W. Maunder of the Royal Observatory and his article in Sunday at Home (a Family magazine for Sabbath reading ). This astronomer, however, never calculated a missing day.

18 Edward Walter Maunder ( ), son of a minister, fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, and author of seven books, is remembered for researching sunspots and solar magnetism. Maunder s book Astronomy of the Bible (1908) has a chapter titled Joshua s Long Day, revised from Sunday at Home. Maunder argues that the Israelites decisively defeated the Amorites by doing a full day s march in one afternoon. Lacking watches and clocks they described their rapid pace, dramatically and poetically, as the sun standing still: [jws - scripture clearly indicates they marched at night though] the men of Israel, judging the events of the afternoon by the only standard within their reach, the eminently practical standard of the miles they had marched, the only conclusion of which they could arrive was The sun stayed in the midst of heaven and hasted not to go down about a whole day. (Maunder, 1908)

19 SECTION SUMMARY The claim that astronomy has verified Joshua s long day is false. Jabez Dimbleby (in the 1880s) claimed Day One of Creation was September 22, 4000 BC. Charles Totten (1890) naively accepted this and, after assuming Creation began Sunday whereas September 22 was Monday, he concluded a long day is confirmed. Sidney Collet (1920) repeated Totten s conclusion even though astronomer Edward Maunder disagreed with it. Harry Rimmer (1936) apparently added the tale about an astronomer converted by calculations. Harold Hill around 1970 modernized the myth and hoaxed countless Christians.

20 HAROLD HILL The tale concerning NASA computers and Joshua's long day originated with Harold Hill, an industrialist from Baltimore who gave lectures on science and the Bible. It was first published in October 1969 in Evening World, a newspaper in Spencer IN. From there it was picked up by numerous Christian publications. In 1974 Hill published the account in his book Living Like a King's Kid. The book is still being sold today, thus keeping the legend alive. The incident, as recounted in Hill's book, goes like this (pp ): The space scientists were checking the position of the sun, moon, and planets out in space, calculating where they would be 100 and 1,000 years from now. In addition, they were looking into the trajectories of known asteroids and meteors so we wouldn't send astronauts and satellites up only to have them bump into something. Satellite orbits have to be laid out in terms of where the heavenly bodies will be so that the whole thing won't become a head-on traffic collision. Well, as they ran the computer measurement back and forth over the centuries, it came to a halt. The computer stopped and put up a red flag, which meant that there was something wrong either with the information fed into the computer or with the results as compared to the standards. They called in the service department to check it out.

21 HAROLD HILL "Nothing's wrong with the computer," the technicians said. "It's operating perfectly. What makes you think something's wrong?" "Well, the computer shows there's a day missing somewhere in elapsed time," the operators said. They rechecked their data and scratched their Educated Idiot Boxes. There was no answer, no logical explanation. They were at a baffled standstill. Then one religious fellow on the team said, "You know, one time when I was in Sunday school, they talked about the day the sun stood still." He about got laughed out of the room, because nobody believed him, but they didn't have anything else to try, so they invited him to show them what he was talking about. He got a Bible and turned to the Book of Joshua where Joshua was called to battle against all the Kings of the Amorites, kind of a formidable array of enemies. In the account, they found a pretty ridiculous statement for anyone who has an ounce of common sense. They found the Lord saying to Joshua, "Fear them not, for I have delivered them into thine hand. There shall not a man of them stand before thee." The Bible went on to say that the Lord slew Joshua's enemies with a great slaughter, and they began to flee before Israel. And the Lord cast down great stones from heaven, and more of the enemy died from the hailstones than were slain by Joshua's troops. But there were some of the enemy left, and Joshua prayed for the sun and moon to stand still until the Israelites had finished avenging themselves upon their enemies. "And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, and hasted not to go down about a whole day."

22 HAROLD HILL "There," the Christian space man said. "There's your missing day. Go ahead and check it out." Well, they checked the computers, went all the way back to the time when Joshua defeated the kings, and found the explanation was close, but not close enough. The elapsed time in Joshua's day was only 23 hours and 20 minutes, not a whole day. There was still a discrepancy of 40 minutes to be accounted for. Consulting the Bible record again, they found that it did not say that the sun had stood still for a whole day, but for "about (approximately) a whole day." So they were still in trouble. Forty minutes become extremely significant when they are multiplied many times over in orbits. Then the religious fellow remembered somewhere else in the Bible where it said the sun went backward. Naturally, the other space men told him he was out of his mind, but once again, they had no real choice in the matter, so they went back to the Bible and read in 2 Kings, the 20th chapter, how Hezekiah on his deathbed was visited by the prophet Isaiah, who told him that he was not going to die, but that God would heal him so he would be well enough to go to the temple in three days. Furthermore, God promised to give him 15 more years of life on earth. That was such good news that Hezekiah couldn't believe it! He asked for a sign as proof that God's word was true.

23 HAROLD HILL "Do you want the sun to go ahead ten degrees?" Isaiah asked him. "No," Hezekiah said. "It's too easy for the sun to, go ahead ten degrees. It does that all the time. It goes ahead every day. But how about letting the shadow return backward ten degrees? That'll be a new thing, and then I can believe." And so Isaiah spoke to the Lord, and the Lord brought the shadow ten degrees backward. Ten degrees is exactly 40 minutes! Twenty-three hours and 20 minutes accounted for in Joshua's day, plus 40 minutes accounted for in Hezekiah's day--there was the whole 24 hours, the missing day that the space scientists had to make allowance for in the logbook.

24 NASA'S RESPONSE It is an intriguing tale, but is it true? We contacted NASA to see if they could substantiate the account. In May 1970 we received the following form letter from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt MD 20771: We know nothing of Mr. Harold Hill and in no way can corroborate the "lost day" reference in the article. The effects of epoch events such as leap year, Babylonian calendar sequential perturbations, etc., are considered in the development of long-term-running computer programs. We are limited somewhat in that many of our calculations terminate with Babylonian calendar events (4,000 years ago), but this has never given programmers any unexpected difficulties. Although we make use of planetary positions as necessary in the determination of spacecraft orbits on our computers, I have not found that any "astronauts and space scientists at Greenbelt" were involved in the "lost day" story attributed to Mr. Hill. Thank you for your interest. Sincerely, (signed) Edward Mason, Chief Office of Public Affairs

25 BLOG RESPONSES 5/17/2009 8:54 AM # Perhaps an alternate explanation for Joshua's long day and Hezekiah's backward clock might be that God simply changed the perception of time for those involved in the story. If God is eternal, he precedes the beginning of time and has already seen the end of time. Our concept of linear time to which we are bound is not really a big factor for an eternal being. I think Joshua and Hezekiah were given a glimpse of God's perspective. They temporarily stepped into a supernatural experience, where time became warped, or perhaps irrelevant. You would think that if the earth stopped spinning on it's axis, that every culture and civilization would have recorded this incredible occurrence, but only the Bible appears to mention it. This makes me lean toward the idea that it was an event that was observed only by the participants. ( consider the transfiguration on the mount of Olives, and Jesus is seen talking with Moses & Elijah...perhaps another experience where time for those involved became irrelevant, and eternity became vividly apparent. )

26 BLOG RESPONSES "With the moon in the west, the sun must have been in the east, making it morning. Since it was morning, there would have been no need for extended daylight (1994: 182). RESPONSE COMMENT...just because the moon was in the west doesn't mean the sun was necessarily in the east. That'd be dependent on the time of month. Jws comment: from what other direction would the sun come up?

27 JLD Joshua s long day - Did it really happen and how? by Russell Grigg - The key question in any discussion about the meaning of difficult Bible passages is: What did the author intend to convey? Joshua records in great detail the occupation of Canaan by Israel and the allotment of the land among the tribes, around 1400 BC, so the author is obviously writing a historical account of what happened. The occasion of the long day was during a battle between the combined armies of the five Amorite kings and the army of Israel, early in the campaign.1 With the help of God, the Israelites were winning the battle and needed more time on this day to complete the victory.

28 THEORY: LIGHT REFRACTION Some form of refraction (bending) of the light from the sun and the moon. According to this view, God miraculously caused the sunlight and moonlight to continue [as opposed to what] in Canaan for about a whole day. Supporters of this view point out:7 It was light that Joshua needed [jws are you sure], not a slowing of the Earth. God promised Noah that while the Earth remaineth day and night shall not cease (Genesis 8:22). This could be seen to mean that God promised that the Earth would not stop rotating on its axis until the end of human history. (However, it would not seem to preclude a temporary slowing down of the Earth s rotation.) Some form of light refraction appears to have been what happened in the reign of Hezekiah when the shadow on Ahaz s sundial retreated ten degrees (2 Kings 20:11) an event that appears to have occurred only in the land of Palestine (2 Chronicles 32:31). Jws no where does it say that Joshua pleaded for more light because he couldn t see in the dark.

29 THEORY: EARTH AXIS WOBBLE This involves a precession8 of the axis of the Earth, wobbling slowly so as to trace an s -shaped or circular path in the sky. Such an event could have made it appear to an observer that the sun and the moon were standing still, but need not have involved any actual slowing of the rotation of the Earth. One suggestion was that this was caused by the orbits of the Earth and Mars being close together on this date.1 One problem is that these authors postulate an ancient orbit for Mars different from its present one, and there is no proof that this ever happened. Other suggested causes have included impacts of asteroids on the Earth.

30 THEORY: A SLOWING OF THE EARTH S ROTATION According to this view, God caused the rotation of the Earth to slow down so that it made one full revolution in about 48 hours rather than 24. Simultaneously God stopped the cataclysmic effects that would have naturally occurred, such as monstrous tidal waves. Some people have objected to this on the erroneous assumption that, if the Earth slowed down, people and loose objects would fly off into space. In fact, the apparent centrifugal force (tending to throw things off the Earth) is only about one-threehundredth of the gravitational force. If the Earth stopped rotating (whether suddenly or not), this outward force would cease and we would actually be held more firmly by gravity. Jws - So swords would be heavier? You can t run as fast? The Earth at the equator moves at about 1,600 km/h (1,000 mph). The velocity needed to escape from the Earth s gravity is about 40,000 km/h (25,000 mph). If the Earth was spinning as fast as this, we would all fly off into space anyway, regardless of whether the Earth stopped suddenly or not!

31 THEORY: A SLOWING OF THE EARTH S ROTATION. What about the momentum of people and objects travelling at 1,600 km/h on the Earth? Answer: A car travelling at 100 km/h can be stopped comfortably for the occupants in a few seconds; something travelling at 1,600 km/h could stop comfortably for passengers in a few minutes. This scenario need only imply that God slowed the rotation of the atmosphere, oceans, and Earth simultaneously to prevent any tidal-wave effect, and any heat build-up inside the Earth due to friction from still-rotating liquid layers of the Earth s core. And after the long day was over, the whole process would need to start up again. It is certainly not impossible for God to have done all this, despite representing a major interruption of the natural order of things with respect to the Earth set up by God in Genesis 1.

32 THEORY: SUN WAS DARKENED BY SOLAR ECLIPSE. Comparing the biblical terminology with that used in Babylonian astronomical texts, Robert D. Wilson has argued that Joshua s prayer should be translated, Be eclipsed, O sun, in Gibeon, and thou moon in the valley of Aijalon! 11 Thus, the miracle entailed a solar eclipse that darkened the sky and terrified the enemy. The linguistic parallels between the Hebrew and Babylonian texts lend validity to this view. But Wilson s strained exegesis of the last phrase in verse 13, and the absence of any scientific confirmation of a total solar eclipse at the time of this battle casts some doubt on this interpretation.

33 NOT A SOLAR ECLPISE The postulate of a solar eclipse has the further difficulty that astronomers know exactly when solar eclipses took place in Central Palestine between 1500 and 1000 b.c.: August 19, 1157 (8:35 a.m.), September 30, 1131 (12:53 p.m.), and November 23, 1041 (7:40 a.m.). None of these fits the dates assigned to Joshua, whether one adopts an early or a late date for the exodus See B. J. Beitzel, The Moody Atlas of the Bible (Chicago: Moody, 1985), 97, on this point. %0 Book%A Howard, David M., Jr.%D 1998%T Joshua%B The New American Commentary%C Nashville%I Broadman & Holman Publishers%V 5%P 247

34 LACK OF CONFIRMATION OF THE JOSHUA EVENT IN OTHER SCRIPTURES If the earth's rotation was halted in Joshua's time, why would it not be mentioned in, say, the faith chapter, Hebrews 11? Either the writer of Hebrews did not know about it, or perhaps he considered the story to be untrue. [OR, it was simply not an Earth altering event] There is no mention of this tale in the Psalms, either. Surely in Psalm 136, where some of the mighty works of God are listed, the stopping of the sun (or the earth's rotation) by Joshua would be mentioned, if it were true. But it is not there. The creation of the earth's crust on the second day is mentioned, the making of the great lights on the fourth day is mentioned, the Exodus is mentioned, the dividing of the Red Sea is mentioned, the victories of the Israelites are mentioned, but not the story of Joshua commanding the sun and moon to stand still!

35 THE PROMISE THAT DAY AND NIGHT WOULD NOT CEASE

36 GE 8:22 DAY AND NIGHT SHALL STAND In Genesis 8:22 God promised that "while the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease." This is a promise of the future continuity of day and night, as well as of the seasons. The assumption that the earth's rotation stopped in Joshua's time implies an interruption of the continuity of the earth's rotation, which would contradict the above scripture in Genesis as well as the principle of conservation of angular momentum of the earth. The promise of God recorded in Genesis 8:22 is that the continuity of day and night, and of the seasons, would not be interrupted. It precludes even a "pause"; every day ceases when night occurs, and night regularly gives way to day. So it is the continuity of the regular sequence of day and night that forms the essence of the promise God gave in Genesis 8:22. This promise would be violated if the earth's rotation stopped when Joshua ordered the sun and moon to stand still.

37 GE 8:22 DAY AND NIGHT SHALL STAND The prophet Jeremiah refers to God's promise about the continuity of day and night, mentioned in Genesis 8:22, in several passages. Jeremiah 31:35-37: Thus saith the LORD, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The LORD of hosts is his name: If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the LORD, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever. Thus saith the LORD; If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the LORD.

38 GE 8:22 DAY AND NIGHT SHALL STAND Jeremiah 33:19-21 speaks of the covenant of the continuity of day and night as unbreakable: And the word of the LORD came unto Jeremiah, saying, Thus saith the LORD; If ye can break my covenant of the day, and my covenant of the night, and that there should not be day and night in their season; Then may also my covenant be broken with David my servant, that he should not have a son to reign upon his throne; The reference here to day and night occurring "in their season" shows that continuity of day and night is considered to be the essence of God's covenant referred to here. Jeremiah 33:25-26:

39 GE 8:22 DAY AND NIGHT SHALL STAND Thus saith the LORD; If my covenant be not with day and night, and if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth; Then will I cast away the seed of Jacob, and David my servant, so that I will not take any of his seed to be rulers over the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: for I will cause their captivity to return, and have mercy on them. These prophetic scriptures all refer to God's covenant concerning the continuity of day and night as not having been broken. The story about Joshua telling the sun to stand still may be a late invention, inserted during the hellenistic period, perhaps in order to promote the geocentric cosmology of the Greeks.

40 THEORY: ADDED BY THE HELLENISTS? The story of the sun and moon standing still upon Joshua's command can be understood as a late interpolation, that was part of an elaborate revision of the cosmology of the Old Testament in hellenistic times. This is revealed by the prophecies of Daniel, especially chapter 8, which has an obvious cosmological significance. Antiochus IV of Syria, the little horn of Daniel's prophecy, initiated the revision of the cosmology of the Bible in the first half of the 2nd century BC, and this process was probably continued into the first century AD. In this article I have explained the origin and significance of the Joshua story. Properly understanding the nature of this tale removes an obstacle to belief for many people.

41 INTERPOLATION The proponents of the natural apogee and perigee consistently disqualify the use of the osculating ellipse; however, this "interpolated" approach to the lunar apogee or Black Moon, based on past and future coordinate points instead of instantaneous positions and geometrical projections, represents a mixture of temporal planes and contradicts how all other radical astronomical points in an astrological chart are calculated.

42 BOOK OF JASHER JASHER upright. The Book of Jasher, rendered in the LXX. the Book of the Upright One, by the Vulgate the Book of Just Ones, was probably a kind of national sacred song-book, a collection of songs in praise of the heroes of Israel, a book of golden deeds, a national anthology. We have only two specimens from the book, (1) the words of Joshua which he spake to the Lord at the crisis of the battle of Beth-horon (Josh. 10:12, 13); and (2) the Song of the Bow, that beautiful and touching mournful elegy which David composed on the occasion of the death of Saul and Jonathan (2 Sam. 1:18 27). 1996, Easton s Bible dictionary

43 QUOTATION FROM THE BOOK OF JASHAR [BOOK OF THE UPRIGHT] O sun, stand still over Gibeon (10:12) is a quotation from the Book of Jashar a collection of songs which is now lost to us but tells of the great deeds of Israel s early heroes. Joshua calls on God to hold the sun and moon in the sky, and so extend the daylight for the work of slaughter. Some people think it was the darkness of the hailstorm that merged day with night while the killing went on. %0 Book%A Knowles, Andrew%D 2001%T The Bible guide%c Minneapolis, MN%I Augsburg%P 112%7 1st Augsburg books ed.

44 ANOTHER QUOTE FROM BOOK OF JASHER 2 Sa 1: And David lamented with this lamentation over Saul and Jonathan his son, 18 and he said it should be taught to the people of Judah; behold, it is written in the Book of Jashar. He said: 19 - Your glory, O Israel, is slain on your high places! How the mighty have fallen!.

45 LET S LOOK AT THE PASSAGE

46 SUN, STAND STILL #1826 means multiple things. From perish to silence or quiet, wait How would you quiet a hot fire make it not so hot.

47 STAND STILL VS TO BE QUIET The long day may have been the result of other changes in the natural phenomena rather than the cessation of the earth s rotation. Some have noted that the Hebrew word translated stand still may mean to be quiet. When applied to the sun, the word would imply a quieting of the sun s activity, or a diminution of light. This would be an apt description of an eclipse of the sun. Such an occurrence would cause Israel s enemies to flee in terror. Still others see the account as a highly poetic description of Joshua s victory, not intended to be understood literally because it is a quotation from the book of Jashar. This book was probably a poetic work celebrating the exploits of Israel s heroes.

48 STAND STILL VS TO BE QUIET Examination of the account of the shadow s movement on Ahaz s sundial (as a sign to Hezekiah) shows that the event was purely local, since envoys came from Babylon to learn about it (2 Chr 32:31). It is possible that both the long day and retrogression of the shadow were local phenomena, perhaps caused by abnormal refraction of light. Atmospheric disturbances could have occurred at the time; the account of Joshua s battle specifically mentions hailstones (Jos 10:11). %0 Book%A Elwell, Walter A.%A Beitzel, Barry J.%D 1988%T Baker encyclopedia of the Bible%C Grand Rapids, MI%I Baker Book House%P 228

49 C A N A A N I T E S W E R E A L R E A DY B E I N G D E S T ROY E D B Y H A I L The Bible Knowledge Commentary - An important fact that should not be overlooked is that the sun and moon were principal deities among the Canaanites. [5 highlights] At the prayer of Israel s leader Canaan s gods were compelled to obey. This disturbance to their gods must have been terribly upsetting and frightening to the Canaanites. The secret of Israel s triumph over the coalition of Canaanites is found in the words, Surely the Lord was fighting for Israel! %0 Book%A Walvoord, John F.%A Zuck, Roy B.%A Dallas Theological Seminary%D 1985%T The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures%C Wheaton, IL%I Victor Books%P Jos 10:1315

50 THE BATTLE PLAN

51 THE NEW AMERICAN COMMENTARY, PA G E :12 The second section describing the battle of Gibeon is introduced with the disjunctive adverb ʾāz, translated then (meaning at that time ). It introduces important action that took place at the same time as that of vv. 6 11, not something that happened later. 191 This is the function of ʾāz when it is followed by a prefixed (imperfect) verb form, as it is here.192 That is, somehow the hailstorm of v. 11 and the phenomena of vv either were one and the same thing or (more probably) they happened at the same time, as part of the same larger miracle of deliverance for Israel. 191 אָז means then, at that time, but not in the sense of sequentially, [i.e.] next (DCH 1:167).

52 THE NEW AMERICAN COMMENTARY, PA G E The action introduced by אָז is to be thought of as having taken place before the completion of the preceding action, and in this sense the nonperfective describes relative action (IBHS º b). See further I. Rabinowitz, ʾāz Followed by Imperfect Verb-Form in Preterite Contexts: A Redactional Device in Biblical Hebrew, VT 34 (1984): Rabinowitz states that referring to the foregoing context of narrated past events, ʾāz + imperfect indicates this context as approximately the time when, the time or circumstances in the course of which, or the occasion upon which the action went forward, and he translates it as this was when (p. 54; see p. 60 on Josh 10:12 specifically). P

53 THE NEW AMERICAN COMMENTARY, PA G E The Sun s Light Was Blocked. Others argue that there was less light, not more, and that a solar eclipse [which only lasts ~2 minutes] is in view here, basing their argument in part on understanding the verb dmm (in vv. 12b and 13a) as to be dark, rather than its more common translation, to cease or to be quiet. The idea is that the sun ceased from shining, not from moving in its course across the sky. 208 A related proposal states that Joshua s request was for relief from the heat of the sun, in order that the battle might be fought to its conclusion. Thus, the sun ceased from shining due to the cloud cover associated with the hailstorm (v. 11), which at the same time killed many of the enemy and gave welcome relief from the sun s heat to the Israelites.209 However, these views do not explain how the cloud cover would not have refreshed the Amorites as well as the Israelites. Furthermore, they do not adequately account for the parallelism of the verbs in these two verses, dmm and ʿmd ( stand ; see below). Jws - Remember that Joshua had made a hard, climbing 25 mile march I would argue that having the sun beat down on you would not be preferred to occur.

54 From Gilgal, a hard fast, uphill march during night from EAST to WEST

55 ASCENT Hard fast, uphill march during night 7-10 miles with descent 7-10 miles with descent miles + 4,000 climb Suddenly engaged in battle at Gibeon near / before daybreak YHWH creates great confusion in enemy Hot pursuit continues as enemy retreats EAST, downhill There is no time for rest, the pursuit continues Hailstones from great storm begin to fall on enemy Massive storm / hail throughout day to keep sun quiet (remember exhaustion, hot sun) descent

56 THE SUN WAS DARKENED BY A HAILSTORM... Since the then introducing verse 12 does not necessarily indicate temporal sequence, it s possible that the hailstorm of verse 11 was actually the answer to Joshua s prayer. The Hebrew words translated stood still ( ( דמם and stopped ( ( דום may refer to the cessation of brightness, rather than the cessation of movement (cf. Hab 3:11). The language of verse 13 may be phenomenal and simply mean that the sun was not seen to traverse the sky as usual. Having traveled through the night in order to catch the enemy by surprise (v. 9), Joshua called for an extension of darkness rather than light.

57 THE SUN WAS DARKENED BY A HAILSTORM... As John Rea observes, God answered above all that Joshua could ask or think by sending not only the desired shade to refresh His army but also a devastating hailstorm to crush and delay His enemies. 12 And as Maunders insightfully notes, the real miracle was that Joshua had spoken, not in prayer or supplication, but in command, as if all Nature was at his disposal; and the Lord had hearkened and had, as it were, obeyed a human voice: an anticipation of the time when a greater Joshua should command even the winds and the sea, and they should obey Him (Mt 8:23-27). 13 9:23).16

58 THE SUN WAS DARKENED BY A HAILSTORM. Conclusion Of all the interpretations, the hailstorm view seems to do justice to the text without requiring the chain of cosmic and terrestrial miracles demanded by the altering of the earth s rotation. If this is the correct interpretation, we should rename the miracle, as Kaiser suggests, Joshua s long night. 14 Nevertheless, the Christian s belief in an omnipotent God and real miracles, as well the limitations of scientific knowledge, should caution him against the need to find a rational explanation for every miracle recorded in Scripture.15 God may very well have altered the rotation of the earth since miracles of gigantic proportions present no problem for omnipotence (Gen 18:14; Jer 32:17, 27; Matt 19:26; Mark 9:23).16

59 THE SUN WAS DARKENED BY A HAILSTORM... B.G. Luther, Table Talk, pp ; cf. Calvin, Genesis, p. 61. [ ] Gleason Archer, Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties (1983), p [ ] Patten, The Long Day of Joshua and Six Other Catastrophes (1973), pp [ ] Rimmer, The Harmony of Science and Scripture (1936), pp ; Torrey, Difficulties in the Bible (1907), p. 54. [ ] Bernard Ramm, The Christian View of Science and Scripture (1954), p [ ] Fay, The Book of Joshua in A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, ed. Peter Lange (1872), p. 97. [ ] Boling, Joshua in The Anchor Bible (1982), p [ ] Joshua, in The Abingdon Bible Commentary (1929), p [ ] Joshua, Judges, Ruth (reprint, 1986), p. 110 [ ] Bush, Notes on Joshua (reprint, 1976), p. 119 [ ] Wilson, Understanding The Sun Stood Still, in Classical Evangelical Essays in Old Testament Interpretation (1972), pp [ ] Joshua, in The Wycliffe Bible Commentary (1963), p [ ] Maunders, The Battle of Beth-Horon, International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1939), 1:448 [ ] More Hard Sayings of the Old Testament (1992), [ ] cf. Wiersbe, Be Strong (1993), p. 116; Woudstra, The Book of Joshua (1981), p. 176 [ ] For further research, the reader may consult the following works: Gleason Archer, Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties (1983); Robert Boling, Joshua in The Anchor Bible (1982), ; Hugh Blair, Joshua, in The New Bible Commentary (1967), 231; George Bush, Notes on Joshua (reprint, 1976), ; John Calvin, Genesis (reprint, 1972), 1:57-66; Ralph Davis, No Falling Words (1988), 84-86; F. R. Fay, The Book of Joshua in A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, ed. Peter Lange (1872), 96-98; Walter Kaiser Jr., More Hard Sayings of the Old Testament (1992), ; C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, Joshua, Judges, Ruth (reprint, 1986), ; Lindsay Longacre, Joshua, in The Abingdon Bible Commentary (1929), 351; Martin Luther, Table Talk, vol. 54 of Luther s Works (1967), ; E. W. Maunder, The Battle of Beth-Horon, International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1939), 1:446-49; Donald Patten et. al, The Long Day of Joshua and Six Other Catastrophes (1973), ; Bernard Ramm, The Christian View of Science and Scripture (1954), ; John Rea, Joshua, in The Wycliffe Bible Commentary (1963), 218; Harry Rimmer, The Harmony of Science and Scripture (1936), ; Rendle Short, Modern Discovery and the Bible (1947), ; R. A. Torrey, Difficulties in the Bible (1907), 5255; Robert D. Wilson, Understanding The Sun Stood Still, in Classical Evangelical Essays in Old Testament Interpretation (1972), 61-65; Warren Wiersbe, Be Strong (1993), ; Marten Woudstra, The Book of Joshua (1981),

60 WHAT KIND OF HAILSTORM? Hail falls along paths scientists call hail swaths. These vary from a few square acres to large 10 miles wide and 100 miles long. The hail storm of Joshua 10 went between Beth-horon to Azekah, approximately 15 miles. Swaths can leave hail piled so deep it has to be removed with a snow plow. In Orient, Iowa, in August 1980, hail drifts were reported to be 6 feet deep.

61 HAILSTONE VS EGG

62 HAILSTONE VS EGG One of the larger hailstones ever documented weighed 1.67 pounds and spans 5.67 inches, this famous September 3, 1970 Coffeyville hailstone as shown below is compared to an egg. Hailstones weighing between 4 and 5 pounds have been reported. One of the deadliest modern history hailstorms ever recorded was in northern India in 1888, when hailstones the size of a cricket ball reportedly killed 246 people and also 1,600 sheep and goats. Some of the victims were hit directly, others perished in drifts several feet deep, and some died from exposure. In 1932 in the western Hunan Province, China, 200 people were killed and thousands injured.

63 DESCENT 7-10 miles with descent 7-10 miles with descent miles + 4,000 climb The Shephelah constitutes a kind of midlands, intermediate between the lowlands of the coastal plain and the highlands of the Western Plateau, with an elevation of about 500 to 1000 feet and a width of only a few miles. It is said to extend from about the Valley of Ajalon to Beersheba. These low hills are cut through by four principal passes which give access to the Western Plateau: the Valley of Ajalon (Wadi Selman), (Jos 10:12); Elwell, Walter A., Beitzel, Barry J., 1988, Baker encyclopedia of the Bible, p descent

64 ADDED WORDS TO PASSAGE?

65 THE LEXHAM GREEK-ENGLISH INTERLINEAR SEPTUAGINT

66 WORDS ADDED "The Interlinear Bible" (1986) by J. P. Green, p196 the word "still" is put in parentheses to properly indicated that it is an added word. "stood" is in parentheses and not "still", Final time neither is so designated, thus confusing options for reader / translator.

67 SAME PREFIX = AS Same prefix: for should be as As they fled As a day could easily be used instead of for a day

68 TRANSLATION: THE SCRIPTURES Note what seems important here: not the sun or moon, but that YHWH listened to the voice of a man.

69 10:14 This is the climax of the section, where the author leaves off describing the events and gives his own evaluation of them. The author of Joshua marvels that the Lord listened to the voice of one man and fought on Israel s behalf as a result. Just as the sun and moon obeyed the Lord s commands, so here the Lord obeyed Joshua s request. In what way was it true that the Lord had never listened to a man before this or since? After all, Moses had spoken with the Lord, and the Lord had listened to him. In the wilderness, for example, the Lord told Moses that he was going to destroy the Israelites and make a great nation out of Moses, but he was dissuaded by Moses prayerful intervention (Num 14:11 21). Also, Moses himself claimed that the Lord had listened to him (Deut 9:19; 10:10). The New American Commentary, page 250 YHWH OBEYED MAN

70 YHWH OBEYED MAN The answer lies in the precise wording used here, which is šāmaʿ bĕqôl, meaning to listen to or to obey (lit., to listen [to] the voice ). This is a much stronger way of expressing obedience than merely to say that someone listened to or heard someone else (i.e., without qôl, voice ). The wording used here is only found three times in the Old Testament with the LORD as the subject. In the first instance, the context is similar to that here, but the object is the nation of Israel, not an individual (Num 21:3: The LORD listened to [šāmaʿ bĕqôl] Israel s plea and gave the Canaanites over to them ).

71 YHWH OBEYED MAN The second instance is here in Josh 10:14, the first time this precise wording is found with reference to an individual s voice. In the third instance, the Lord did listen to the voice of a man, as he had to Joshua s, but it was many centuries later, after the writing of the material here in Joshua 10. It involved another great individual, Elijah, when the Lord restored the life of a young boy on the basis of Elijah s plea (1 Kgs 17:22).229

72 YHWH OBEYED MAN This response on the Lord s part was indeed remarkable. He obeyed Joshua s request. Not even Moses, the great leader whose shoes Joshua was attempting to fill, had received such an honor. The Lord honored Joshua in many ways throughout his tenure as Israel s leader, but this was one of the most remarkable.

73

74 SO, WHAT DO WE HAVE HERE? 25 mile, fast-paced, hard [hauling weapons], uphill, all night march Engage enemy before / at daybreak Already exhausted (maybe not though) did they stop for breakfast? Nope. They came upon the enemy suddenly YHWH creates great confusion in the enemy ranks (remember you have 5 armies surrounding city of Gibeon so there is plenty of opportunity for confusion) GREAT storm sets in. Remember storms roll in and a great storm would have been noticed! You don t want the sun beating down on you so you ask for shade! (like Jonah)

75 SO, WHAT DO WE HAVE HERE? Remember: enemy had been marching all all night so they were not nearly so tired They continued to pursue throughout the day (they didn t need more time as the hailstones were doing a better job than they were) They didn t need more light there was plenty Pursuing another miles down and around rough terrain There is no indication that light was needed. i.e. this scripture does not exist: Now the day was waning and Joshua required additional light to finish destroying the enemy and commanded the sun to stay right where it was so he could fight another day in the night. Then they went back home to Gilgal miles.

76 CONCLUSION It starts with a night battle The storm moves in as enemy flees Gibeon at daybreak from confusion and routing by Joshua The sun clearly rises, but to avoid its heat, etc. Joshua asks for it to stay dumb / quiet / still. Joshua clearly does not need lots of light for battle they had just had great success at night / near daybreak A great storm with large hail clearly is in play and could easily last for hours or as a day to continue to quiet / still / dumb the sun. Moon is irrelevant at this point since you would have some light even during a large storm The battle ends in the night Perhaps indeed many have missed the entire point, mis-translated, mis-understood the passage.

77 BETTER TRANSLATION? and he said; Before the eyes of Israel, sun, on city of Gibeon be dumb / silent / quiet), and moon, in the valley of Aijalon. And the sun stayed dumb / silent / quiet, and the moon stood, until the nation was avenged on the enemy. Is it not written in the Book of the Upright? And quiet was the sun in the midst of the heavens, and stayed quiet as on a full day. And never has been a day that before it or after it; For YHWH listened to the voice of a man. For YHWH fought for Israel."

78 THEREFORE, PERHAPS WE SHOULD RENAME THE STORY TO BE MORE ACCURATE: Joshua s Long Night, the Day YHWH Obeyed a Man

79 JOSHUA S LONG NIGHT THE DAY YHWH OBEYED A MAN

80