It is not written in the Book of Jasher? And the sun stayed in the half of the heaven, and set not hastily as when a day is done. And there was never a day like that day before or since, in respect to Jehovahs hearing the voice of a man.
According to this view, God granted Joshuas request for a favorable sign by causing an eclipse of the sun. Earth Literally Stopped Rotating Many have held that the earth actually stopped rotating for about twenty-four hours.
From the peoples vantage point the sun would have appeared to have stopped. Though this would give Joshua the time to win the battle, it would also cause terrible catastrophes on the planet. Those who believe in the power of God realize that He could have prevented these catastrophes from occurring. Slower Rotation Of Earth Some read the text to mean that a retardation of the movement of the earth is what happened.
Instead of taking twenty-four hours for one rotation, it took from thirty-six to forty-eight hours. This would have given Joshua and his armies sufficient daylight to win the battle over their enemies without causing the major disturbances that would have happened if the earth stopped rotating. Old Testament authority Gleason Archer writes: It has been objected that if in fact the earth was stopped for a period of twenty-four hours, inconceivable catastrophe would have befallen the entire planet and everything on its surface.
While those who believe in the omnipotence of God would hardly concede that Yahweh could not have prevented such catastrophe and held in abeyance the physical laws that might be brought to pass, it does not seem to be absolutely necessary on the basis of the Hebrew text itself to hold that the planet was suddenly halted in its rotation.
Verse 13 states that the sun "did not hasten to go down for about a whole day" NASB. The words "did not hasten" seem to point to a retardation of the movement so that the rotation required forty-eight hours rather than the usual twenty-four Gleason Archer, Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties , Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, , p. Donald K. Campbell concurs: The best explanation seems to be the view that in answer to Joshuas prayer God caused the rotation of the earth to slow down so that it made one full rotation in 48 hours rather than in It seems apparent that this view is supported by both the poem in verses 12ba and the prose in verse 13b Donald K.
God caused the rotation of the earth to slow down. The earth, therefore, made one full rotation around the sun in a longer period of time. This fits with verse 13 which says, "The sun. Miracle Of Refraction There are some who see this as a miracle of refraction.
This theory contends the earth continued to rotate at its normal speed while God supernaturally gave a mirage that made it appear that the sun and the moon were out of their regular place. Thus, God supernaturally provided more daylight so that Joshua could win the battle. This provides Joshua with the necessary light to fight the battle, yet to do so does not force us to accept any change in the rotation of the earth.
Stop Moving Or Stop Shining? Another view is that the prayer of Joshua was not for the prolongation of the day, but rather that the sun would cease pouring down its heat on him and his troops.
The prayer was actually for the cessation of light, not its prolongation. God answered by sending a hailstorm that allowed Joshuas weary troops to win the battle. Thus stand still means to keep from shining. Maunder explains: From what was it then that Joshua wished the sun to cease: from its moving or from its shining?
It is not possible that, engaged as he was in a desperate battle, he was even so much as thinking of the suns motion at all.
But its shining, its scorching heat, must have been most seriously felt by him. At noon, in high summer, southern Palestine is one of the hottest countries in the world. It is impossible to suppose Joshua wished for the sun to be fixed overhead, where it must have been distressing his men who had already been seventeen hours on foot.
A very arduous pursuit lay before them and the enemy must have been fresher than the Israelites. The suns heat therefore must have been a serious hindrance, and Joshua must have desired it to be tempered.
And the Lord hearkened to his voice and gave him this and much more. A great hailstorm swept up from the west, bringing with it a sudden lowering of temperature, and no doubt hiding the sun E. Lotz, M. Kyle, C. Armerding, eds. Eerdmans Publishing Company, , Vol.
Thus, the miracle was not a prolonging of the light but rather a cessation of it. Joshuas prayer was not at the end of the day asking for prolonged sunlight, rather it was at high noon asking for relief from the sun. The sun stopped shining in that it became dark.
It was the sun that stopped shining, not that the whole solar system was stopped. Night Prolonged There are those who say that it was not the day that was prolonged but actually the darkness from the previous night. Hugh J. Blair says: It has usually been assumed that Joshua prayed for the day to be prolonged.
But is it not possible that what Joshua needed even more, since, as is expressly stated in v. That it was early morning when he made his request is evident from the position of the moon in the valley of Aijalon to the west and the position of the sun over Gibeon to the east v. The answer came in a hailstorm which had the effect of prolonging the darkness. Blair, New Bible Commentary, p. This view would be make it Joshuas long night rather than a long day. Conclusion We have seen that there are a variety of explanations to Joshuas long day without having to admit to scientific error.
Although several of these views are possible, the theory that the sun actually slowed down its movement seems to be the best way of looking at the evidence. Leon Wood writes: The traditional view must be maintained, however, for these alternate explanations do not do justice to the language of the text.
Though it is true the verb dum translated stand still in Joshuas call means basically "be silent" and so could refer to being silent in other ways than retardation of movement, still the verb amadh is also used twice in v. Further, verse 13 closes with the expression "and hasted not to go down," where the word "hasted" uz again speaks of motion, and the phrase "to go down" labho is normally in reference to the sun setting.
Still further, verse 14 states that this day was unique in history which suggests a major miracle occurred such as to the prolongation of a natural day. The extent of the prolongation can also be estimated. Since the hour was noon when Joshua voiced the call, and it was stated that the sun did not go down for "about a whole day" keyom tamin , it is likely that the afternoon hours until sunset were prolonged twice their normal length.
Wood explains how this would have effected the universe: As to how this was effected, the closing words of vs. This means that the earth simply slowed, in its speed of rotation on its axis, approximately to half that of normal.
This did not affect the speed of movement around the sun of the rest of the solar system, which complicating factors have been mentioned in criticism by those advocating other explanations Leon Wood, A Survey of Israels History , p. Though this may be the best view, several of the others are certainly possible. Madvig writes: Reverence for Gods Word should encourage us to suspend judgment until more evidence is available. In the meantime no single explanation can be made a test of orthodoxy Donald H.
There have been stories circulating about reports of a "missing day" in ancient Egyptian, Chinese, and Hindu sources. There is also the story of a Yale astronomer who found that the earth was twenty-four hours out of schedule: Another professor at Yale, Dr. Totten, suggested the astronomer read the Bible starting at the beginning and going as far as necessary, to see if the Bible could account for the missing time. When he came to the account of the long day of Joshua, the astronomer rechecked the figures and found that at the time of Joshua there were only twenty-three hours and twenty minutes lost.
His skepticism justified, he decided that the Bible was not the Word of God because there was a mistake by forty minutes. Professor Totten showed him that the Bible account does not say twenty-four hours, but rather about the space of a whole day. On reading farther the astronomer found that God, through the prophet Isaiah and in answer to Hezekiahs prayer, promised to add fifteen years to his life II Kings ; Isaiah To confirm this promise, the shadow of the sundial was turned back ten degrees.
Ten degrees on a sundial is forty minutes on the face of a clock. When he found his day of missing time accounted for in the Bible, the astronomer bowed his head in worship of its Author, saying, "Lord, I believe! It is unfortunate that these often-told stories lack any documentation. Bernard Ramm explains: There are two other matters that have been urged as evidence for a lengthened day and this material the author has not been able to track down nor confirm to his own satisfaction as to their accuracy or validity.
First, there are Egyptian, Chinese, and Hindu reports of a long day. Second, there is the claim. Pickering of the Harvard Observatory traced it back to the time of Joshua. Maunder of Greenwich and Totten of Yale are then supposed to have taken it right back to the time of Joshua, practically to the year and day. Donate Contact. If this is the case, then the earth would soon be overcrowded.
Warnings To Adam The warning to Adam is that he would die, not that animals would begin to die. Romans refers to human beings, not plants and animals. Animal death before the Fall is biblically possible. It merely says God rested. And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done.
So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation Genesis They contend that the seventh day is something that has not been completed. The first six ages of creation have been finished while the seventh remains incomplete. God is still resting from His creation. Cannot Be Solar Days Therefore, the six days cannot be solar days because the seventh day is not.
If the seventh day is ongoing, then God's rest from creation has gone on for thousands of years, up until the present. Thus, from the length of the seventh day we have a clue to the age of the earth. Events Of The Sixth Day The events of the sixth day of creation do not seem to be able to be fit into a twenty-four hour period. The Bible says the following things happened upon the sixth day. God created all the land animals and then created Adam.
After He created Adam God put him into the Garden of Eden to keep it, and then him gave directions about the tree of good and evil. God then brought all of the animals to Adam to be named. After naming the animals, Adam realized that he was alone without a helper. God then put Adam into a deep sleep and then created Eve.
Even a human being in an unfallen state could not have named all the animals in a few short hours of one day. Would a normal reading of this passage cause the reader to assume that all this happened in one day? It seems logical to believe that a normal reading of this passage would cause the reader to assume that all these events took place in more than one day. If the sixth days was not limited to twenty-four hours in length, then neither were the other days. The prophet Habakkuk wrote: He stood and measured the earth; He looked and startled the nations.
And the everlasting mountains were scattered, the perpetual hills bowed. His ways are everlasting Habakkuk For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water 2 Peter These passages speak of the earth being very ancient, not merely a few thousand years of age. Evening And Morning Although the phrase evening and morning implies a solar day, it may simply mean the end of one creative period and the beginning of another.
It could signify the end of a period of time - not necessarily a solar day. In addition, this particular phrase is used nowhere else in the Old Testament. Therefore it was not a common way of speaking of a solar day. No Sun If the sun was not created until the fourth day, there could not have been evening and morning in the normal sense of the term.
Therefore the days were not normal days. Exodus Does Not Solve The Issue While it is true that Exodus speaks of six literal days that people are to work based upon a six day plus one pattern in Genesis, it does not necessarily follow that God's days are the same as ours.
Remember that there was no human observer when God created the heavens and the earth in six days. They Understood Many Meanings Of Yom While it is true that there were other, more specific, Hebrew words available for the author to use if he wanted to indicate a long period of time, if his original readers knew that yom could also have this meaning, then it would be appropriate to use it in Genesis. This is particularly true because of the emphasis of the six successive periods of work and then a time of rest.
This six plus one pattern was set for the people to work six days and then rest on the seventh. Permits Reading We, therefore, see from the context of Genesis, and the common usage of yom , that the term could mean something other than a literal day.
Conclusion The word Hebrew word translated day does mean period of time in parts of the Old Testament. This includes the context of Genesis. Since science has shown the earth and universe to be billions of years of age, this is the best way to understand the term in Genesis 1. These arguments have convinced many that the best way to look at the days in Genesis are long periods of time, not solar days. They believe creation took millions of years, not hours of one week.
Donate Contact. Blue Letter Bible is a c 3 nonprofit organization. APA Format. Chicago Format. SBL Format. Share This Page. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.
The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. They shall not be lamented, or gathered, or buried; they shall be dung on the surface of the ground. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.
These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it.
From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done.
Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle; their number is like the sand of the sea.
And they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven and consumed them,. And threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he might not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were ended.
Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind.
And to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might,.
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