Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Banyai Michael" <banyai AT t-online.de>]

Walter Mattfeld wrote:
>
> Is Callaway correctly translating and understanding Joshua 10:12 ? Are there
> other readings of this verse ?
>
> "Joshua is quoted as saying "Sun, stand thou still (literally, be silent,
> don't shine) at Gibeon, and thou moon in the valley of Aijalon" (Joshua
> 10:12). If the sun was over Gibeon and the moon over Aijalon, the sun was
> rising in the east and the moon was setting in the west, and Joshua was
> asking for a prolongation of the night. The biblical interpreter, however,
> was not as sensitive to geography in this account as he was in the Ai
> account, so he claimed that the day was prolonged. Did he not know that
> Gibeon was east of the valley of Aijalon ?"
> (p.69, Joseph A. Callaway, "Was my Excavation of Ai Worthwhile ?," Biblical
> Archaeological Review, March/April 1985, Vol. XI No.2 )

Dear Walter, so we meet again... May I have your attention for a longer 
moment?

Fisrt: I don´t see any problem from the part of Joshua 10:12. Callaway 
forgets
to clear some important detail. Which is the position of the observer 
relating
Joshua 10:12.
We should for ease suppose he is describing the situation from the view 
point of
Joshuas troops. This would be a sound assumption without presupposing the 
story
would be a first-hand account.
Now the Israelites were approaching Gibeon et al. coming from the East, so 
they
would have during the morning the sun behind their backs all the while. 
The
position of the moon is at this point not important for the argumentation.
Now for Joshua to return and say: "Sun, stand thou still (literally, be 
silent,
> don't shine) at Gibeon, and thou moon in the valley of Aijalon" would mean 
> he
left Gibeon behind his back too, bringing us closer to the very situation
described for the point of time he spoke the words. 
That is after he already left the Aijalon valley behind, at a late stage of 
the
battle.
His position is now so that moon and sun are aligning (Ajalon and Gibeon 
are on
the same latitude), the sun being behind the moon.
Isn´t this a situation suggesting a solar eclipse at a morning hour (BTW we 
have
Sun don´t shine at Gibeon)?
Joshua apparently assumes the sun is going to set again so short before he 
could
win a great victory. He is however reliefed as it shines again, thus 
"making the
daytime longer" by a whole day.
 
One could thus take Joshua 10:12 as reporting about a total solar eclipse 
at
early morning.


Best regards,

Banyai Michael