Joshua's long day. 



131 



Israelites to Gilgal and the battle of Beth-horon cannot have been 

 spread over several months, but must have occupied at most 

 only a few weeks. It is therefore impossible that Joshua, when 

 he spoke, saw the sun rising over Gibeon, or the moon setting 

 over Aijalon. 



Have we therefore proved that the narrative is in error ? 

 No. We have simply stopped short in reading it. If instead of 

 ending our quotation with the twelfth verse of the chapter, we 

 had gone on to the thirteenth, we should have found that the 

 position of the sun was stated in definite astronomical language : 



So the sun ceased in the midst of heaven " (A.V., " stood still "). 



The midst of heaven " signifies the halving, the bi-section of 

 the heavens, and means that the sun was on the meridian. It 

 was noon. The two positions of the sun and moon that we have 

 already tested and rejected are the only two in which the two 

 " great lights " can appear in England as being closely connected 

 with terrestrial objects. But there is a position which the sun 

 can occupy in tropical countries — not in England — in which it 

 is in the fullest and most literal sense " in the midst of heaven." 

 That is, when it is right overhead, in the zenith, when a man's 

 foot will cover his entire shadow. This could not take place 

 exactly in Palestine, but at Gibeon, within six weeks of mid- 

 summer, the sun at -noon will never be more than 14° from the 

 zenith, and anyone on whom its rays were beating down could 

 only describe it as " overhead " and as " upon " the place where 

 he himself stood. Therefore, when Joshua spoke, he was at 

 Gibeon ; it was summer time, and high noon. 



Knowing this, we can make important use of the information 

 given us about the moon. With Joshua at Gibeon and the 

 time of day, noon, and the moon low down over the valley 

 of Aijalon, i.e., some 17° north of west, the moon must have 

 been almost exactly in her " third quarter," i.e., " half full," 

 and the date must have been the twenty-first day of the fourth 

 month of the year in the Jewish reckoning. But the moon 

 cannot be so far as 17° north of west in the latitude of Gibeon 

 (31° 51' N.) on the twenty-first day of the month earlier than the 

 fourth month in the Jewish year, or later than the seventh month. 

 Now the twenty-first day of the fourth month is some six and a half 

 weeks after the Day of Pentecost, when the reading of the Law 

 took place, while the twenty-first day of the fifth month would be 

 eleven weeks after. Remembering how close Gilgal, Gibeon and 

 Jerusalem were to each other, and how vital to all the three 



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