restPutting it all Together
When it is all put together, we know more about Joshua’s long day than we know of most other events recorded in the Bible. The best date seems to be within four or five days either side of May 12, 1448 B.C., sometime between 8:30 and 9:30 a.m. This we may conclude from plotting all of the long day, long night, and the long sunset accounts on a globe. Such extensive observations preclude the conclusion that the event was an optical illusion restricted to the land of Israel. It also disallows the notion that Joshua’s long day is fictitious, for the testimony of the peoples around the world is entirely consistent with its reality. That some peoples have tales of a long night while others tell of a long day while none have both a long day and a long night tale signifies that Joshua’s long day is not one account, originating in the mid-East, which has migrated all over the world; for if such were the case, then all nations would tell of a long day and none would tell of a long night, let alone a perfectly-placed long sunset. So we must conclude that Joshua’s long day was a real, historical event and not some fiction.
Why, despite the testimonies of various peoples around the globe to the reality of an extremely long day or night, and despite the geographic consistency of the data in terms of day and night, why should the majority of scholars dismiss this wealth of evidence as mere superstition? How could there be more substantial evidence? On the other hand, we shall have occasion to document examples where modern science has accepted the testimony of one individual of dubious integrity. Actually, the heliocentric/geocentric debate is not new, nor is it secret, but the stakes are high and rarely mentioned; for authority is itself at stake. Just who is authoritative and in what? If doubt can be cast on the Bible as an authority in the area of science, then that leaves scientists as the final authority in that area. All too often science is merely another form of politics with little regard for truth if the truth be not expedient. Thus it can be said quite literally that today’s science is tomorrow’s superstition. That was as true in the sixth century B.C. as it is true today.
Witness Galileo Galilei, an early and vocal proponent of heliocentrism and regarded by many as the first true physicist. In 1613 he wrote in a letter to Castelli why Joshua’s long day should not be believed:
And first I ask the adversary if he knows by what motions the sun is moved? If he does know, he must reply that it is moved with two motions, that is, an annual motion from west to east and an opposite diurnal motion from east to west. Hence, in the second place, I ask if these two movements, so diverse and almost contrary to one another, both belong to the sun and are equally its own? They are forced to answer no; that one alone is its own and particular motion, which is the annual, while the other is not the sun’s at all, but that of the highest sky, called the Prime Mobile, which sweeps along with itself the sun and the other planets and also the starry sphere, constraining them to make one revolution around the earth in 24 hours, with a motion (as I said) almost contrary to their natural and proper motions.
So I come to the third question, and ask them by which of these two motions the sun produces day and night, that is, by its own or from the Prime Mobile? It is necessary to respond that day and night are the effects of motion of the Prime Mobile, while from the proper motion of the sun not day and night, but the different seasons, and the year itself are produced.
Now if the day depends not on the sun’s motion, but on that of the Prime Mobile, who can fail to see that in order to prolong the day it is necessary to stop the Prime Mobile, and not the sun? ... It being therefore absolutely impossible, in the arrangement of Ptolemy and Aristotle, to stop the motion of the sun and to lengthen the day, as the Scripture affirms to have happened.51
In his challenge, Galileo sets up a straw man and thus exemplifies the ignorance of the Bible which is so characteristic of humanity. True, if one ascribes the annual motion to the sun and the diurnal (daily) motion to the stars, then Galileo’s argument is correct; but the Bible does not fall into such simple traps. The Bible clearly indicates that the sun is to rule the day. This means that the daily motion is unique to the sun and has nothing to do with the annual motion. The sun’s period is exactly 24 hours. The stars’ daily motion nearly matches the sun’s period, being about 3 minutes 56 seconds less than the sun’s period. Over the course of one year this amounts to one extra revolution about the earth, namely, the annual effect. (The north-south annual motion of the sun can be shown to be due to the difference between the sun’s period of revolution and the rotation rate of the rest of the universe.) When viewed from that perspective, Galileo’s argument falls flat on its face. Both motions are from east to west, but the sun’s motion is roughly 1/365th slower than that of the cosmos. Thus the motions are not “almost contrary” but are almost identical. Yet no theologian has ever come up with a better argument against Joshua’s long day than has Galileo at this one point.
Conclusion
The upshot is that there appears to be solid evidence from the Bible and from folklore around the world that there was one day which, depending upon geographical location, presented the inhabitants of the earth with an unusually long span of daylight or night. Attempts to explain this phenomenon by naturalistic means have all failed because no mechanism known to physics can absorb the earth’s spin energy and momentum (or the universe’s from a geocentric point of view) in such a short period of time without causing great upheavals such as the oceans spilling over the continents. Agnostic or atheistic scholars choose not to deal with the ancient witnesses. Such a phenomenon as Joshua’s long day can only happen with divine intervention. But then science does not claim to have all the answers: its authority is found wanting. Is the Bible, then, the final authority after all? Not if God said that the sun stopped when it was actually the earth which ceased to rotate. And that brings us to the heart of the matter.
Attempts to phenomenalize Joshua’s long day or to make it allegorical thus fail. Christians and Jewish people are presented with a real historical event in Joshua 10:12-14. The central issue from their perspective is that of inerrancy of the Bible. God wrote in verse 13 that the “sun stood still and the moon stayed.” God either meant what he wrote, or he did not. There is no excuse for God because he is the God of truth; therefore all things he says and does must reflect that fact. So God cannot utter an untruth and we must conclude that the Bible teaches, in Joshua 10:13 and else where, that the universe rotates around the earth once per day, carrying the sun, moon and stars with it, regardless of what introductory astronomy texts may say. We shall see later that the advanced texts belie the introductory texts on the matter of the rotation of the earth. For the time being, the choice is either the Bible or the introductory astronomy texts: which do you believe?
Joshua’s long day around the world: The solid black circles show locations with tales of a long night; open circles plot tales of a long day, and the half-white half-black circle in the Pacific shows the location of a long sunrise tale. Recently, after this figure was made, another long sunrise tale was reported in Hawaii.
http://www.geocentricity.com/astronomy_of_bible/jld/FOOTNOTES
1 Bouw, G. D. 1987. Bulletin of the Tychonian Society, No. 45, pp. 25-28.
2 Deane, Rev. W. J. Joshua, His Life and Times, (New York: Fleming H. Revell Co.), p.86.
3 Maunder, E. W., 1908. The Astronomy of the Bible, (New York: Mitchell Kennerly), pp. 375 ff.
4 Ramm, B., 1955. The Christian View of Science and Scripture, (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publ. Co.), pp. 156- 161.
5 Collett. 1933. All About the Bible, pp. 283-288.
6 Boling, R. G., 1982. “Joshua,” in The Anchor Bible, (New York: Doubleday and Co., Inc.)
7 Ibid., p. 274 versus p. 284.
8 James, 1917. “Hymn of Deborah,” in Biblical Antiquities of Philo.
9 Israel, R. Manasseh Ben, 1972. The Conciliator of R. Manasseh Ben Israel, (New York: Hermon Press). This edition contains both volumes of the mid-seventeenth century work. The section on Joshua’s long day is found in volume 2, question 10, pp. 12-18.
10 Wilson, R. D., 1930. “Understanding the Sun Stood Still,” in Classical Evangelical Essays in Old Testament Interpretation, Walter C. Kaiser, Jr., ed., pp.61-65.
11 Ibid., p. 63.
12 Ibid., p. 64.
13 Ibid., p. 64.
14 Bolling, Op. cit.
15 Bouw, Op. cit.
16 Faulstich, E. W., 1987. Joshua’s Long Day...or Joshua’s Miraculous Day?” Its About Time, January 1987-Shebat 5987, pp. 2-5.
17 Keil and Delitzsch, 1870. Commentary on the Old Testament, (Wm. Eerdman Publ. Co.)
18 Gaussen, 1841. The Divine Interpretation of the Bible, pp. 246-251.
19 Velikovsky, I., 1950. Worlds in Collision, (New York: Dover Press).
20 Rand, H. B. 1968. When the Earth Turned Over (Merrimac Mass. 01860: Destiny Publishers).
21 Hanson, J. N. 1978. Creation Research Society Quarterly, 15(1):55.
22 Virgil. Æneid, Book IV, 1, 489. Page 105 of Rofe Humphries, translator, 1951. (NYC: Scribners).
23 Totten, C. A. L., 1891. Joshua’s Long Day and the Dial of Ahaz, A Scientific Vindication and A Midnight Cry, 3rd Edition, (New Haven: Our Race Publ. Co.) Reprinted in 1968 by Destiny Publishers, Merrimac, Mass.
24 Olden, R. L., 1970. “The Lost Day of Joshua,” Ministry, (November/December). The publication is put out by the Seventh Day Adventists.
25 The translation that follows came from the Cercle Scientifique et Historique, France and Belgium. It is presumably taken from among Crombette’s three volumes of Verdique Historique de l’Egypte Antique.
26 Aardema, V., 1975. Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears, (New York: Dial Press).
27 Martin. Sinie. Histor. I., 1. p. 25.
28 Gill, John. 1810. An Exposition of the Old Testament (London: Matthews and Leigh), vol. 2, p. 831. Gill’s work was reprinted in 1979 under the title Gill’s Expositor, (Streamwood, Ill. 60103: Primitive Baptist Library).
29 Bouw, Op. cit.
30 Hübner, J., 1733. Kurtze Fragen aus der Politischen Historia.
31 Olcott, W. T., 1914. Sun Lore of all Ages: A Collection of Myths and Legends Concerning the Sun and its Worship, (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons).
32 Ibid., p. 212.
33 Ibid., p. 215.
34 Ibid., p. 216.
35 Ibid., p. 217.
36 Ibid., p. 218.
37 Caso, A. 1937. The Religion of the Aztecs, (Mexico City: Popular Library of Mexican Culture, Central News Co.), pp. 15-16.
38 Goetz, D. and S. G. Morley, translators, 1972. Popul Vuh: The Sacred Book of the Quiche Maya, (Norman, Oklahoma), Part III, Chapters 4-7, pp. 172-190.
39 Bancroft, H. H., 1883. Native Races of the Pacific States, (5 volumes), Vol. 3, pp. 58-62.
40 Montesinos, F., 1882. Memorias Antiguas Historiales de Peru. The manuscript for that book dates from 1648. A translation of it was done by P. A. Means for the Habluyt Society of London in 1920. Notes from Z. Sitchin, The Lost Realms, (New York: Avon Books), Ch. 7.
41 Frazer, J. G., 1914. “The Magical Control of the Sun,” Golden Bough, 3rd ed., 1:316.
42 Olcott, Op. cit., pp. 86, 96, 98, and 206.
43 Hill, H. “How to Find a Missing Day,” How to Live Like a King’s Kid, (Baltimore: Logos), Chapter 13, pp. 65-77.
44 Hill, H. 1984. Private correspondence. Letter dated October 1.
45 Hill, How to Live Like a King’s Kid, p. 66.
46 1978. “Five Minutes With the Bible and Science,” Bible- Science Newsletter, 8(5):1-2.
47 Hill, in the 1984 letter.
48 Brosche, P., & J. Sundermann, eds., 1978. Tidal Friction and the Earth’s Rotation, (New York: Springer-Verlag), p. 12.
49 Lang, Walter, 1991. Job and Science, (7232 Morgan Ave. S, Richfield, MN 55423, pp. 5-6.
50 Based on computer calculations by the author.
51 Drake, S. 1978. Galileo at Work - His Scientific Biography, (Chicago & London: Univ. of Chicago Press), p. 228.
