Joshua's long day
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.
Joshua 10:1113 reads: And it came to pass, as they fled from before Israel, and were in the going down to Beth-horon, that the Lord cast down great stones from heaven upon them unto Azekah, and they died...Then spake Joshua to the Lord in the day when the Lord delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and He said in the sight of Israel, Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon. And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the book of Jasher?2 So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day.
It appears to have been midday or after (Hebrew: sun in the midst of the sky).3 And the author is telling us that the sun did not proceed to set for a period of a completed day, which many commentators take to be approximately a 24-hour period, rather than just a daylight period.
Many cultures have legends that seem to be based on this event. For example, there is a Greek myth of Apollos son, Phaethon, who disrupted the suns course for a day. Since Joshua 10 is historical, cultures on the opposite side of the world should have legends of a long night. In fact, the New Zealand Maori people have a myth about how their hero Maui slowed the sun before it rose, while the Mexican Annals of Cuauhtitlan (the history of the empire of Culhuacan and Mexico) records a night that continued for an extended time.4
It should also be noted that the Amorites were sun and moon worshippers. For these deities to have been forced to obey the God of Israel must have been a devasting experience for the Amorites, and this might well have been the reason why God performed this particular miracle at that time, i.e. near the beginning of the occupation of the land of Canaan by the Israelites.5
Geocentrism and the language of appearance
Joshuas command to the sun to stand still does not support geocentrism, i.e. the idea that the sun moves around the Earth. The Bible uses the language of appearance and observation.6
Today people do exactly the same thing. For example, scientists who prepare weather reports for TV announce the times of sunrise and sunset. In fact, the mention of the moon also standing still seems to confirm both the divine authorship of the account and the fact that it is the Earth which moves. Since all Joshua needed was extra sunlight, and most ancients believed the sun moves, not the Earth, a human author of a fictitious account would only have needed to refer to the sun stopping. (See also Q&A: Galileo, Geocentrism, and Joshuas long day.)
NASA and the missing day
A rumour surfaces from time to time that scientists using computers at NASA to check planetary positions discovered that a day was missing from history.
This story is an urban myth. The alleged research seems never to have been publishedno wonder, because to make such a calculation one would need to know the planets positions before any missing day, as well as after. This is impossible.
Similar considerations apply to the book Joshuas Long Day, written in 1890 by Charles Totten, purporting to prove that a day went missing, without reproducing his calculations. All such calculations can show only where the sun and moon should have been at any time in the past (based on where they are now, assuming the rates of movements have not changed), not where they actually were. (See also Q&A: Galileo, Geocentrism, and Joshuas long day.)
What actually happened?
Suggested answers may be divided into three main categories:
1. 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 in Canaan for about a whole day. Supporters of this view point out:7
Christianity is a religion of the miraculousfrom Gods creative acts of Genesis 1 to the wonderful events of Revelation 22. The Bible does not tell us how any of these happen, other than that God wills them to happen and they do. He may use (intensify) some existing natural law (as in Noahs Flood), or all participation of nature may be excluded (as in the Resurrection). Often the miraculous effect lies in the providential timing of natural events (as in Gods partition of the Red Sea by a strong wind that blew all nightExodus 14:21).
Miracles rest on testimony, not on scientific analyses. While it is interesting to speculate on how God might have performed any particular Biblical miracle, including Joshuas long day, ultimately those claiming to be disciples of Jesus Christ (who authenticated the divine record of the Bible) must accept them, by faith.9 There is not one logical, scientific reason to claim that, given a God powerful enough to create a universe in six days, Joshuas long day could not have happened. Those who balk at this account are almost invariably those who have already rejected 6-day creation through compromise with evolution s fictitious long ages, and have thus rejected the authority of the Bible.
From : http://www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v19/i3/longday.asp
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.
Joshua 10:1113 reads: And it came to pass, as they fled from before Israel, and were in the going down to Beth-horon, that the Lord cast down great stones from heaven upon them unto Azekah, and they died...Then spake Joshua to the Lord in the day when the Lord delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and He said in the sight of Israel, Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon. And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the book of Jasher?2 So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day.
It appears to have been midday or after (Hebrew: sun in the midst of the sky).3 And the author is telling us that the sun did not proceed to set for a period of a completed day, which many commentators take to be approximately a 24-hour period, rather than just a daylight period.
Many cultures have legends that seem to be based on this event. For example, there is a Greek myth of Apollos son, Phaethon, who disrupted the suns course for a day. Since Joshua 10 is historical, cultures on the opposite side of the world should have legends of a long night. In fact, the New Zealand Maori people have a myth about how their hero Maui slowed the sun before it rose, while the Mexican Annals of Cuauhtitlan (the history of the empire of Culhuacan and Mexico) records a night that continued for an extended time.4
It should also be noted that the Amorites were sun and moon worshippers. For these deities to have been forced to obey the God of Israel must have been a devasting experience for the Amorites, and this might well have been the reason why God performed this particular miracle at that time, i.e. near the beginning of the occupation of the land of Canaan by the Israelites.5
Geocentrism and the language of appearance
Joshuas command to the sun to stand still does not support geocentrism, i.e. the idea that the sun moves around the Earth. The Bible uses the language of appearance and observation.6
Today people do exactly the same thing. For example, scientists who prepare weather reports for TV announce the times of sunrise and sunset. In fact, the mention of the moon also standing still seems to confirm both the divine authorship of the account and the fact that it is the Earth which moves. Since all Joshua needed was extra sunlight, and most ancients believed the sun moves, not the Earth, a human author of a fictitious account would only have needed to refer to the sun stopping. (See also Q&A: Galileo, Geocentrism, and Joshuas long day.)
NASA and the missing day
A rumour surfaces from time to time that scientists using computers at NASA to check planetary positions discovered that a day was missing from history.
This story is an urban myth. The alleged research seems never to have been publishedno wonder, because to make such a calculation one would need to know the planets positions before any missing day, as well as after. This is impossible.
Similar considerations apply to the book Joshuas Long Day, written in 1890 by Charles Totten, purporting to prove that a day went missing, without reproducing his calculations. All such calculations can show only where the sun and moon should have been at any time in the past (based on where they are now, assuming the rates of movements have not changed), not where they actually were. (See also Q&A: Galileo, Geocentrism, and Joshuas long day.)
What actually happened?
Suggested answers may be divided into three main categories:
1. 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 in Canaan for about a whole day. Supporters of this view point out:7
a. It was light that Joshua needed, not a slowing of the Earth.
b. 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.)
c. Some form of light refraction appears to have been what happened in the reign of Hezekiah when the shadow on Ahazs 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).
2. A wobble in the direction of the Earths axis of rotation.b. 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.)
c. Some form of light refraction appears to have been what happened in the reign of Hezekiah when the shadow on Ahazs 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).
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.
3. A slowing of the Earths rotation. 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.
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-three-hundredth 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.
The Earth at the equator moves at about 1,600 km/h (1,000 mph). The velocity needed to escape from the Earths 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!
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 Earths 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.
ConclusionThe Earth at the equator moves at about 1,600 km/h (1,000 mph). The velocity needed to escape from the Earths 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!
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 Earths 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.
Christianity is a religion of the miraculousfrom Gods creative acts of Genesis 1 to the wonderful events of Revelation 22. The Bible does not tell us how any of these happen, other than that God wills them to happen and they do. He may use (intensify) some existing natural law (as in Noahs Flood), or all participation of nature may be excluded (as in the Resurrection). Often the miraculous effect lies in the providential timing of natural events (as in Gods partition of the Red Sea by a strong wind that blew all nightExodus 14:21).
Miracles rest on testimony, not on scientific analyses. While it is interesting to speculate on how God might have performed any particular Biblical miracle, including Joshuas long day, ultimately those claiming to be disciples of Jesus Christ (who authenticated the divine record of the Bible) must accept them, by faith.9 There is not one logical, scientific reason to claim that, given a God powerful enough to create a universe in six days, Joshuas long day could not have happened. Those who balk at this account are almost invariably those who have already rejected 6-day creation through compromise with evolution s fictitious long ages, and have thus rejected the authority of the Bible.
From : http://www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v19/i3/longday.asp
