Joshua's "Sun Stood Still" at Gibeon
In Joshua 10:12-14, Joshua commands the sun to stand still over Gibeon and the moon over the Valley of Aijalon so Israel can finish a battle, and "the sun stayed in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day." Read literally, it is a suspension of celestial motion with no natural account. Read poetically or idiomatically — the text itself quotes the lost poetic "Book of Jashar" — it may be elevated battle language. A 2017 Cambridge study (Humphreys & Waddington) argues the Hebrew describes the sun and moon "stopping shining," i.e., an annular solar eclipse on 30 October 1207 BC, which would be the oldest datable eclipse and help fix the reign of Ramesses II. Other Hebraists reject the eclipse reading on linguistic, calendrical, and physical grounds. The honest verdict: an intriguing, datable eclipse hypothesis alongside an unverifiable literal long-day — genuinely contested.
In Joshua 10:12-14, Joshua commands the sun to stand still over Gibeon and the moon over the Valley of Aijalon so Israel can finish a battle, and "the sun stayed in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day." Read literally, it is a suspension of celestial motion with no natural account. Read poetically or idiomatically — the text itself quotes the lost poetic "Book of Jashar" — it may be elevated battle language. A 2017 Cambridge study (Humphreys & Waddington) argues the Hebrew describes the sun and moon "stopping shining," i.e., an annular solar eclipse on 30 October 1207 BC, which would be the oldest datable eclipse and help fix the reign of Ramesses II. Other Hebraists reject the eclipse reading on linguistic, calendrical, and physical grounds. The honest verdict: an intriguing, datable eclipse hypothesis alongside an unverifiable literal long-day — genuinely contested.
A fuller write-up of the documentation and analysis is in progress.
Sources
Tagged by proximity to the event. Primary sources are direct or contemporaneous; tertiary are downstream retellings.
- 1.Primaryacademic
Official Cambridge press release on the Humphreys & Waddington study; states the 30 Oct 1207 BC annular eclipse claim, the Hebrew 'stopped shining' argument, and the Merneptah/Ramesses II dating consequence.
- 2.Primaryacademic
Peer-reviewed primary article. Vol 58, Issue 5, pp. 5.39-5.42. DOI 10.1093/astrogeo/atx178. Argues dom/'amad mean cessation of shining; identifies only annular eclipse over Canaan 1500-1050 BC as 30 Oct 1207 BC, 86% coverage.
- 3.Secondarywebsite
Don Stewart, "Did the Sun Actually Stand Still in Joshua's Long Day?", Blue Letter Bible, n.d.
Surveys the literal long-day, poetic/figurative, and local-light/refraction readings; notes the Book of Jashar citation and genre ambiguity; counsels suspending dogmatic judgment.
- 4.Secondaryacademic
Scholarly rebuttal arguing the eclipse interpretation is unacceptable on calendrical, philological, and physical grounds; dom/'amad mean 'be still/stop,' not 'grow dark.'
- 5.Secondarynews
Independent science-news report corroborating the study's specifics: only annular eclipse over Canaan 1500-1050 BC, afternoon of 30 Oct 1207 BC; notes the resulting Ramesses II dating of 1276-1210 BC.