The Bible and astronomy

Psalm 93:1 Yahweh reigns!

He is clothed with majesty!

Yahweh is armed with strength.

The world also is established.

It can’t be moved. (Scripture quotations from the World English Bible, public domain)

Joshua 10:12 Then Joshua spoke to Yahweh in the day when Yahweh delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel. He said in the sight of Israel, “Sun, stand still on Gibeon! You, moon, stop in the valley of Aijalon!”

13 The sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the nation had avenged themselves of their enemies. Isn’t this written in the book of Jashar? The sun stayed in the middle of the sky, and didn’t hurry to go down about a whole day. 14 There was no day like that before it or after it, that Yahweh listened to the voice of a man; for Yahweh fought for Israel. (I don't know what happened here, other than that it was a miracle.)

Isaiah 11:12 He will set up a banner for the nations, and will assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.

Jeremiah 49:36 On Elam will I bring the four winds from the four quarters of the sky,and will scatter them toward all those winds.
There will be no nation where the outcasts of Elam will not come. 

Revelation 11:1 After this, I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, so that no wind would blow on the earth, or on the sea, or on any tree.

How can the earth be globe-like if it has four corners, or if the sky has four quarters, or how can the earth be immovable if it is in orbit around the sun? It can’t, of course. But that doesn’t mean that the Bible was actually meant to teach us that the earth is not globe-like, or is fixed in space. The people of Bible times thought that these things were true, and had no good reason for doubting that they were. If the Psalmist had written something like “the earth is in a stable, predictable orbit, and will stay in it” no one would have understood this, including the Psalmist. Isaiah could have said “He will bring back the dispersed Israelites from all over the world,” but, as we do some times, he seems to have used an idiomatic expression. The descriptions given above would have been common to people contemporary with the appearance of the Psalms, Joshua, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Revelation. (By the way, we still say that the sun rises in the east, and sets in the west, when it actually does no such thing – it just appears to, because of the rotation of the earth on its axis.)

The Bible is not an astronomy or geology textbook. It describes the heavenly bodies, and the earth, in terms that would have been familiar to listeners and readers of that day. But the purposes of each of these passages wasn't to teach science, but to teach about God's power. That doesn’t mean that the Bible is in error, unless you have an unreasonable standard for correctness.

Joshua's Long Day: Some simple geography, and some difficult textual analysis

Joshua 10:11 As they fled from before Israel, while they were at the descent of Beth Horon, Yahweh hurled down great stones from the sky on them to Azekah, and they died. There were more who died from the hailstones than those whom the children of Israel killed with the sword. 12 Then Joshua spoke to Yahweh in the day when Yahweh delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel. He said in the sight of Israel, “Sun, stand still on Gibeon! You, moon, stop in the valley of Aijalon!”
13 The sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the nation had avenged themselves of their enemies. Isn’t this written in the book of Jashar? The sun stayed in the middle of the sky, and didn’t hurry to go down about a whole day. 14 There was no day like that before it or after it, that Yahweh listened to the voice of a man; for Yahweh fought for Israel. (World English Bible, public domain)

I recently read a penetrating essay on this story, by John Walton, an Old Testament scholar. (By story, I don't mean that we are dealing with fiction, and neither does Walton.) The difficult part of the essay is Walton's comparison of the story of Joshua 10 with similar tales from the surrounding cultures. He analyzes these stories, (most or all of them being fiction, but still an important part of the cultures of nations around Israel) and the language of the Old Testament, and believes that, to Joshua and the Israelites of that time, the story did not mean that Joshua prayed for, and God answered, with some sort of astronomical foundation. But you'd better read Walton to see what he is talking about, and he, himself, seems to not be absolutely sure just what is going on here. His claim, though, is that the story, in spite of the literal reading, is not speaking of some astronomical phenomenon.

The simple geography is in verse 12. According to Walton, Gibeon is in the East, and Aijalon in the West, of where Joshua was at the time. See this map, which shows that Gibeon is, indeed, East of Aijalon. The sun, then, would have been in the morning sky, with the moon near moonset. That is not the way I (and many others, I'm sure) had thought of this story. We supposed that Joshua prayed that the day be extended, because it was getting dark, and he wanted to finish the job. Well, he wanted to finish the job, but it must not have been near dark when he prayed. Walton uses this information to show that the story cannot be taken completely literally.

I'm not sure what happened back then, except that Joshua prayed, his prayer was answered, and God was glorified.

Thanks for reading. I have previously written about Joshua 10, here.

Added March 4, 2023: Here is a YouTube video, less than 12 minutes long, explaining Walton's interpretation. Whether he is right, I don't know.

Joshua's Long Day, again

I have previously posted on Joshua's long day, as recorded in Joshua 10. My belief is that this was a miracle, and that I have no idea of how it was done.

A recent post by He Lives dismisses arguments that such a miracle would have been impossible, because we know that the rotation of the earth can't be stopped, or because we know something else. Brief, combative, and a good job.

Thanks for reading. Read He Lives.

Joshua's Long Day

Joshua 10:11 And as they fled before Israel, while they were going down the ascent of Beth-horon, the Lord threw down large stones from heaven on them as far as Azekah, and they died. There were more who died because of the hailstones than the sons of Israel killed with the sword.

12 At that time Joshua spoke to the Lord in the day when the Lord gave the Amorites over to the sons of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel,

“Sun, stand still at Gibeon,
and moon, in the Valley of Aijalon.”
13 And the sun stood still, and the moon stopped,
until the nation took vengeance on their enemies.

Is this not written in the Book of Jashar? The sun stopped in the midst of heaven and did not hurry to set for about a whole day. (ESV)
This is going to be an easy post, because what I want to say has been said, in an article available from Answers in Genesis. To summarize it:

1. The event did occur.

2. This passage does not support a biblical argument for geocentrism (the sun going around the earth). I should point out that the beliefs of Answers in Genesis are such that, if they have to err, they will err on the side of overly literal interpretation of scripture.

3. However it happened, it was a miracle. (The article discusses some possible mechanisms.)

4. In spite of rumor, there is no evidence from NASA that confirms that this event happened, and no such evidence could have been found, "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." (same source)

I did a quick Google search for these words "Joshua long day NASA," and was happy to discover no web pages that claim that NASA confirmed the story in Joshua, and quite a few that say it is a rumor.

Someone, or more than one someone, started this rumor, and it's very difficult to see how they could have done it without knowing it to be false. The Bible shouldn't get, and doesn't need, that sort of defense. It is unfortunate that some people defend it by making things up and claiming they are true. (Another such rumor is that Russian scientists have discovered hell beneath the earth, but let's not get into that one.) No one should do that to the Bible, even on April Fools' Day.

It's been a pleasure to find myself in complete agreement with Answers in Genesis (their home page) on a subject. That doesn't always happen.

Thanks for reading.

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On January 3, 2013, David Heddle, of the He Lives blog, posted about this subject, in particular about arguments that stopping the earth would have been impossible because of the consequences.

On October 21, 2013, I posted, referring to an article by John Walton, an Old Testament scholar, who believes that Joshua wasn't praying for some sort of astronomical phenomenon at all. He is an expert on the cultures of Old Testament times.