How do I interpret Joshua 10?
score:2
We don't know
The only scriptural interpretation of that is that the Bible states that it happened. ESV Quote:
The sun stopped in the midst of heaven and did not hurry to set for about a whole day. 14 There has been no day like it before or since[...]
There have been plenty of guesses on how that miracle occurred, but it is all speculation. These include, but are not limited to:
Some commentators say that God locked the entirety of the Universe in place, others say just the Earth stopped rotating.
Still others say that this was caused by the planet's rotation was slowed, or that the earth continued to rotate, but there was an S-shaped wobble on the axis, so the sun did not actually set in that area (similar to a summer day in the far north). This is referencing the "did not hurry to set" verbage.
Other state there was some sort of reflection or refraction so it only looked like the sun moved over that specific area.
The scholar Robert Dick Wilson in 1920 translated the previous verses as "Be eclipsed, O sun, in Gibeon, and thou moon in the valley of Aijalon! And the sun was eclipsed and the moon turned back", indicating it was a ancient understanding of the rare and then-misunderstood solar eclipse as a sign from God, although the "has been no day like it before or since..." portion would then be referencing the 2nd half of the verse "...when the Lord heeded the voice of a man, for the Lord fought for Israel." This translation writes the entire miracle out of the text.
Lastly, some believe that it was sheer perception and poetic license, that the Israelites simply vanquished their enemies with such incredible speed it was 'as though' the day had stood still. That view is undoubtedly based that they had no other ways to arbitrarily measure time outside of the position of celestial bodies, thus thinking that some sort of time dilation had occurred when it actually had not. This camp notes that Israel's enemies at the time, the Amorites, worshipped the sun and moon, and thus the incident was Jehovah's display of dominance over that region's deities.
This isn't the only reference to the God of Israel playing with time - time goes backwards for a bit with Hezekiah (reflected in 2nd Kings 20, Isaiah 38), which is also referenced in 2 Chronicles 32:31, where:
envoys of the princes of Babylon, who had been sent to him to inquire about the sign that had been done in the land
which many believe to reference the time reversal from 2nd Kings 20 and Isaiah 38.
There isn't any reference in the rest of the scripture, to my knowledge, of the Joshua incident; however, there is a passing illustration within a prayer in Habakkuk 3:11 that references the sun and moon standing still. Some have pointed to a similar story in Greek, Babylonian, Persian, Aztec, Incas, Chinese and Egyptian mythos, although approximate dates for those possibly-related miracles vary wildly, and are thought to be unrelated.
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Source: stackoverflow.com
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