Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Sun and moon in Joshua 10 (was "Silver Scrolls")
Date: Mon, 26 Jan 2009 16:02:56 -0800
Hi George,
The idiom I refer to is restricted to "The moon stopped still in the
midst of the sky," the context of this being the great storm of the
poem. Yes, the storm described in the lamentation almost certainly is
a metaphor for (usually) a devastation caused by a hostile army of one
sort or another. Yet the specific idiom "moon stopped still" is
present as a storm-related idiom.
Likewise, another important element about the Joshua 10 passage is the
unremarked appearance of the hailstones, absolutely storm-related.
These are not mentioned as anything unexpected or separate from the
"sun/moon stopping," though their size is extraordinary.
We needn't provide a bridge to the gap between Sumerian and Hebrew
cultures. Several identical proverbs are present in both the Hebrew
Proverbs and the Sumerian corpora. There are two options: 1.) the
proverbs and other bits of Sumerian cultural heritage continued to be
traditioned; or 2.) the Sumerian "matches" are actually only
representative of wider cultural usages which persevered longer than
the Sumerians did. We needn't force a direct chain of transmission at
all. That is, the identical idiom and proverbs and so on may simply
have been part of the general ANE heritage and worldview.
Relatedly, the narrative doesn't waste words being amazed over the
type of miracle, but rather that God acted at the request of Joshua:
exactly what he asked for, God promptly sent (10.14): "There has been
no day like it before or since, **when the LORD heeded a human
voice**; for the LORD fought for Israel" (NRSV).
I realize that this has been read consistently as an astronomical
miracle of some sort. That doesn't mean the authors intended to
depict such a thing. If this is a severe weather-related idiom, it
makes better sense of the nearly unremarked hailstones (did Joshua ask
for those, too, anywhere?). The focus of the story is certainly the
victory, but the approbation of the miracle is not of its nature, but
of its timing. That is, God did what Joshua asked, something that
*never* happens, the author exclaims.
Anyhow, I think it's more than suggestive. It certainly makes sense
of the passage better than the traditional reading.