Hard passagesDraft · awaiting advisor review
Did the sun really stand still for Joshua?
In short
Joshua 10 quotes a poem from the Book of Jashar in which Joshua asks the sun and moon to stand still, and says God fought for Israel. Christians differ on whether this was a lengthened day, a miracle of light, or poetic language for an overwhelming victory.
The Objection
If the sun stood still the earth would have stopped spinning, with catastrophic effects. The story can’t be literally true, and the famous NASA “missing day” proves nothing.
Put as its strongest advocates would put it.
The Christian Case
- Scripture
The words come in a poem, quoted from the Book of Jashar, a collection of songs. Poetry describes events vividly, and the surrounding prose stresses that God fought for Israel.
- Christians differ
Some Christians read a literal lengthening of the day by miracle; some, noting that the Hebrew word can mean “be silent” or “stop”, read it as the sun’s heat being stopped (a hailstorm fell that day); some read it as language about signs and omens familiar in the ancient world.
- Philosophical argument
A God who made the world could do far more than this; the real question is what the text intends to say, not whether God is able.
Where the Evidence Is Weaker
No explanation is certain, and the text says plainly that there was no day like it before or after.
Arguments to Avoid
- Repeating the story that NASA computers found a “missing day”: it is an urban legend.
Read for Yourself
Joshua 10:6–14
6And the men of Gibeon sent unto Joshua to the camp to Gilgal, saying, Slack not thy hand from thy servants; come up to us quickly, and save us, and help us: for all the kings of the Amorites that dwell in the mountains are gathered together against us. 7So Joshua ascended from Gilgal, he, and all the people of war with him, and all the mighty men of valour. 8And the LORD said unto Joshua, Fear them not: for I have delivered them into thine hand; there shall not a man of them stand before thee. 9Joshua therefore came unto them suddenly, and went up from Gilgal all night. 10And the LORD discomfited them before Israel, and slew them with a great slaughter at Gibeon, and chased them along the way that goeth up to Beth-horon, and smote them to Azekah, and unto Makkedah. 11And it came to pass, as they fled from before Israel, and were in the going down to Beth-horon, that the LORD cast down great stones from heaven upon them unto Azekah, and they died: they were more which died with hailstones than they whom the children of Israel slew with the sword. 12Then spake Joshua to the LORD in the day when the LORD delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon. 13And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day. 14And there was no day like that before it or after it, that the LORD hearkened unto the voice of a man: for the LORD fought for Israel.
Further Reading
- The Lost World of the Israelite Conquest · John H. Walton and J. Harvey Walton (2017)
- Hard Sayings of the Bible · Walter C. Kaiser Jr., Peter H. Davids, F. F. Bruce and Manfred T. Brauch (1996)
Drafted with Opened AI and awaiting review by Opened’s apologetics advisors. Labels show the kind of support each point has: Scripture is what the Bible says; historical evidence and philosophical arguments can be checked by anyone; “Christians differ” marks questions on which faithful Christians disagree.
Next QuestionDon’t the resurrection accounts contradict each other?