Aantekeningen bij de Bijbel: Jozua 10:13

Bijbelvers
Context
Vertalingen

Jozua 10:13

Vertaling Bijbel, Kanttekeningen SV, [], En de zon stond stil, en de maan bleef staan, totdat zich het volk aan zijn vijanden gewroken had. Is dit niet geschreven in het boek [16]des oprechten? De zon nu stond stil in het midden des hemels, en haastte niet onder te gaan omtrent een volkomen dag.
16. Of, des vromen of desgenen die recht is. Sommigen behouden het
Hebreeuwse woord Jaschar in den tekst. Dit boek, gelijk meer
andere historische boeken, van welke in de Heilige Schrift melding
gemaakt wordt, zijn nu niet meer voorhanden. Zie Num.21:14.

Dr Claude Mariottini, Blog, [], June 19, 2006 Rereading Joshua 10:12-13: The Long Day of Joshua

NASA, NASA (website), [], Padi Boyd and Laura Whitlock, "Can Science Confirm the Missing Day Referred to in the Bible?"
Tijdschrift, Astronomical Register, [], 186-187 1863; Bird, Alfred, "Joshua commanding the sun to stand still" ... Now le us apply this rule to the narrative as recorded in the tenth chapter of the book of Joshua. The words uttered by him were "Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon", and the writer adds, "the Sun stood still, and the Moon stayed."
Now the main fact here recorded is the stoppage of the Sun's motion, the secondary fact is the stoppage of the Moon's motion; the time of the day when the supposed miracle took place was about five p.m.; the time of the year probably March or September. The sun was rapidly sinking in the west, and the crescent moon, probably five days old, was low in the south-west, and from the point where Joshua stood might appear between two mountains, being viewed along the valley of Ajalon. Joshua now pronounces the words, the sole object of which was, that the day might be lengthened, in order that sufficient light might be afforded to complete the discomfiture of the retreating enemy.
I pause here to notice, that it has been conceded on all sides that Joshua had no suspicion that what took place was a stoppage of the diurnal rotation, or that he was acquainted with that fact at all. To him the Sun and Moon would appear to revolv round the Earth every day, the Sun going condsiderable faster than the Moon; and if anyone had suggested to him that their "setting in the west" was due to one and the same cause, Joshua would have pointed to the nightly later setting of the Moon as a convincing proof of the more rapid daily motion of the Sun, and consequently of his totally independent motion from that of the Moon. Now, if Joshua was unacquainted with the diurnal motion, he would be equally ignorant that the Moon's rising and setting was caused by that motion; when, therefore, he says --- "Sun stand thou still" as his main fact, and the writer adds as a secondary circumstance, "and the Moon stayed", he mentiones the very result which would occur from a stoppage of the diurnal motion.
If he had said--- "Sun stand thou still, and thou Moon go on," I for one would not have believed a word of the story; but when the result which followed Joshua's words was true to nature, though not to appearance, we have a right to ask the objectors how it was that the writer of the book of Joshua should, with such precision, mention as a secondary fact the very appearance which would take place with regard to the Moon's motion, notwithstanding he was totally ignorant of the diurnal motion.
As to the monthly motion of the Moon from west to east, supposing that to be continued, the difference in the Moon's retrograde position wold be too trifling to be mentioned, or perhaps observed, in a space of ten or twelve hours, as the main fact--- the standing still of the Sun for the purpose of extending the day-light till the rout of the enemy was completed-- was all that the writer laid stress upon.
With regard to the centrifugal motion at the equator, we are not told that the stoppage was instanter; but, without going into that part of the question, we may safely conclude that, if by the power of God the diurnal motion was arrested, He that made the world could well provide for all contingencies. ...
Tijdschrift, Knowledge, [], 331-332 1883; Garrett, E.L. Joshua and the Sun; The total silance of the New Testament as to the sun miracle, especially that of the writer to the Hebrew (xi.) is most signal and decisive; and hardly less notable is that of Philo, who had many occasions for allusion to it. There is a very apocryphal book (which Whiston, however, thought genuine) called the "Eighteen Psalms of Solomon". It ends with this remark on the heavenly bodies: ---"They have not erred, from the day that He created them; they have not left their way, from ancient generations; except when God enjoined them by the command of His servants." Now Philo, in his voluminous works, often insisted on this constancy of celestial motions; and notably in his two "Dialogues on Providence", almost verbally repeats the above, but without a hint at any excerption.