Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Peter Kirk" <Peter_Kirk AT sil.org>]

Interesting if true. But this should be testable. Can anyone give a date for
an eclipse visible from this spot? That could be of major interest to
chronology researchers.

Peter Kirk

----- Original Message -----
From: "Banyai Michael" <banyai AT t-online.de>
To: "Biblical Hebrew" <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, July 12, 2000 9:54 AM
Subject: Re: Locating Gibeon & Aijalon


> 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
>
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