The Difficulty
At Gibeon, Joshua commands, “Sun, stand still,” and “the sun stopped in the midst of heaven, and did not hurry to set for about a whole day” (Josh 10:12–13). Taken literally, the verse seems to assume a geocentric universe in which the sun moves around a stationary earth — the very view Galileo was condemned for denying. And the physics of an actually halted earth (oceans hurled from their basins, atmosphere stripped away) would be catastrophic. Was the author simply wrong about how the cosmos works?
Responses
Phenomenological Language
Tradition: Traditional / Evangelical Summary: Scripture describes the world as it appears to an observer, not as a treatise on celestial mechanics.
We still say “sunrise” and “sunset” without committing to geocentrism. The text reports the experience of a prolonged day from the standpoint of soldiers on the ground; it makes no claim about which body is in motion. The point is the answered prayer, not the astronomy.
Strengths
- Matches how all people, ancient and modern, ordinarily speak of the sky
- Avoids reading modern scientific questions back into an ancient narrative
Weaknesses
- Can feel like special pleading if applied selectively to rescue difficult texts
- Does not by itself settle whether a literal cosmic event is being claimed
Further Reading
- John Calvin, Commentary on Joshua, on 10:12–14
- Kenton Sparks, God’s Word in Human Words (Baker Academic, 2008)
Ancient Poem Embedded in Prose
Tradition: Academic / Historical Summary: Verses 12b–13a are a quotation from the lost Book of Jashar — poetry, not a meteorological log.
The narrator explicitly cites a poetic source (“Is this not written in the Book of Jashar?”). Hebrew poetry routinely uses cosmic, hyperbolic imagery for decisive victories (cf. Judges 5:20, “the stars fought”). The prose frame in v. 13b–14 then reads the poem with wonder. Some scholars (e.g., John Walton) argue the request concerns omens — the sun “ceasing” to shine at midday, a portent against Israel’s enemies — rather than the earth’s rotation stopping.
Strengths
- Takes seriously the text’s own signal that it is quoting a poem
- Fits the conventions of ANE victory songs
Weaknesses
- The prose comment (“the sun stayed… about a whole day”) seems to press toward a literal duration
- The omen reading is contested
Further Reading
- John H. Walton, Ancient Near Eastern Thought and the Old Testament (Baker Academic, 2006)
- John Walton, “Joshua 10:12–15 and Mesopotamian Celestial Omen Texts,” in Faith, Tradition, and History (Eisenbrauns, 1994)
- Robert Alter, The Art of Biblical Poetry (Basic Books, rev. 2011)
Literal Miracle
Tradition: Conservative / Supernaturalist Summary: God genuinely extended the day; the “how” is left to omnipotence.
If God can part a sea, sustaining a longer period of daylight (whether by halting rotation, refracting light, or means unknown) is not beyond him. The narrative treats it as unprecedented — “There has been no day like it before or since” (10:14) — precisely because it was a singular act of God answering a man’s prayer.
Strengths
- Honors the narrator’s sense of unrepeatable wonder
- Internally consistent for a theology of an interventionist God
Weaknesses
- Invites unanswerable physical questions the text never raises
- Risks turning a worship-text into a problem to be defended
Further Reading
- David Howard, Joshua (New American Commentary, 1998)
- C. S. Lewis, Miracles (1947), on the grammar of the miraculous