Sun in Gibeon...

     An article cited on Paleojudaica blog recently by Mark Chavalas presents an interesting perspective on the verse in Joshua 10:12-15.  The author suggests that Joshua's order to the sun and moon to stand still was not to lengthen the day so as to allow more time for a complete military victory.  This is the traditional understanding.  He says that the verse refers to the position of the sun and moon in an astrological context.  Chavalas' field of expertise is Mesopotamia.  He says the Babylonians were a very superstitious lot and the position of the sun and the moon were omens - either good or bad .  He posits the the sun over Gibeon (east) and the moon over the valley of Ayalon (west) might have had significance to the combatants.

     His argument is unlikely for a number of points.  The first is obvious.  The Canaanites are not Babylonians and we have very little in the way of a record of literacy let alone astrology for the Canaanites. ( This is not to say Canaanites were illiterate.  Certainly there exists correspondence with Egypt during the Amarna age, and the Ugaritic archives reveal a rich literature. The northern Canaanites- the Phoenicians were skilled sailors and presumably knew how to navigate by the stars  but the Canaanites in Eretz Yisrael did not leave much evidence of their writings.   Maybe future finds will change that). But more significantly the verses are clearly poetic and probably taken from an epic in the now lost Book of Yashar.  It is speculative but either the author of Joshua used the verses because they were well known and fit nicely with the story, or the book of Yashar actually contained an account of this battle.  My opinion is the former because the account already show God crushing the enemy with (hail) stones.  Usually one miracle at a time is the norm in the Bible.