Two Miracles which Shouldn’t be in the Bible

There are two miracles in the Bible which shouldn’t be there because they are so unlikely. They are the narrative of the sun standing still in Joshua 10, and the shadow on the sundial of Hezekiah which went backwards by ten degrees, in 2 Kings 20 and Isaah 38.

Hezekiah’s sundial goes back 10 degrees

In 2 Kings 20:1-11 we’re told that King Hezekiah of Judah had contracted a boil which was threatening his life. God sent the prophet Isaiah to him instructing him to get his house in order because he was going to die. Hezekiah wept bitterly and earnestly prayed to the Lord and reminded him of his faithfulness in serving God and his people.

In response to Hezekiah’s prayer, God gave Isaiah another message in which he told Hezekiah that he would grant him another fifteen years of life, and that he would defend Jerusalem against the Assyrians who were surrounding it. He then told Isaiah to make a poultice of boiled figs and apply it to the boil, and Hezekiah would be healed.

Hezekiah then, foolishly in my opinion, asked Isaiah what the sign would be that God was going to do this. I say foolishly because God through Isaiah had told him this would happen; why would a God-fearing man need a sign which confirmed that God was telling the truth?

Be that as it many, we’re told: “Isaiah said, ‘This is the sign to you from the Lord, that the Lord will do the thing that he has promised: the shadow has now advanced ten intervals; shall it retreat ten intervals?’ Hezekiah answered, ‘It is normal for the shadow to lengthen ten intervals; rather let the shadow retreat ten intervals.’ The prophet Isaiah cried to the Lord; and he brought the shadow back the ten intervals, by which the sun had declined on the dial of Ahaz” (2 Kings 20:9-11 NRSV).

This narrative is repeated almost word-for-word in the book of the prophecies of Isaiah; the key verse for this article, however, is, “’See, I will make the shadow cast by the declining sun on the dial of Ahaz turn back ten steps.’ So the sun turned back on the dial the ten steps by which it had declined” (Isa 38:8 NRSV).

The massive implications

The first problem that comes to mind is that, although God can do anything, it’s extremely unlikely that he would disrupt the solar system in its workings. If the sun, which was the cause of the shadow on the sundial, went backwards, then the earth would have stopped on its axis. I have no idea of the extent of the chaos which the shadow of the sundial going backwards would do to the solar system other than that the planets revolving around the sun must also have reversed their orbits; and whether or not the whole galaxy would be affected; and if so, how? Where would the knock-on effects stop? And all this to make the shadow of the sundial go backwards just to remove a human being’s doubt?

The time between each degree of a sundial is approx. 4 minutes; so the solar system would have been set backwards in its motion by 40 minutes. However, according to some bible versions, the shadow was cast on a series of steps, by which Hezekiah measured time. But it doesn’t really natter because the principle is the same.

So, after this cosmic miracle and Hezekiah’s subsequent healing, did God return the sun to its course before it was interrupted, or did he leave it in its new course? Whichever option, there is not a peep of it in the historical records. But nobody in any culture or nation, no Assyrian or Babylonian or Egyptian or Greek or Persian or South American, or Chinese astrologer, all of whom closely observed the heavens, mentions this cosmic event. Therefore, it must be concluded that it never actually happened. And in that case, it should not be in the Bible.

Was it meant to be history? It is recorded in the historical book of 2 Kings as a real event, and confirmed by repetition in a book of prophecy, which recorded historical events; so, it can’t be passed off as poetry or symbolism – it was “recorded” as an historical event in real time. But was it the actual sun which went back, or only its shadow? The text says the “shadow” went back, but because of the nature of this passage, it was most likely that the word “shade” stood for both sun and shadow.

The comment on 2 Kings 20:11 (LXX) in “The Orthodox Study Bible agrees, saying: “Here the Lord, to answer the prayer of Isaiah for the sake of Hezekiah, overcomes the laws of nature by turning back time, as measured on the sun dial” (p. 447 – emphasis mine).

And the next miracle under consideration is the stopping of the sun and the moon in mid-heaven. This is definitely stated to be literal, so it is not unreasonable to expect that the sun going backwards by ten degrees is also to be understood as a literal event.

The Sun and the Moon Stood Still for Joshua

“On the day when the Lord gave the Amorites over to the Israelites, Joshua spoke to the Lord; and he said in the sight of Israel, ‘Sun, stand still at Gibeon, and Moon, in the valley of Aijalon.’ And the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, until the nation took vengeance on their enemies. Is this not written in the Book of Jashar? The sun stopped in midheaven, and did not hurry to set for about a whole day. There has been no day like it before or since, when the Lord heeded a human voice; for the Lord fought for Israel” (Josh 10:12-14).

Most of the implications of this cosmic event, commonly known as “Joshua’s long day”, are the same as for the miracle on Hezekiah’s behalf; only, instead of the sun going backwards, both the sun and the moon stood still in the heavens for a whole day (10:13).

But another implication for this event which might not have been quite as significant as for Hezekiah’s miracle would have been that on the earth, time itself would be affected, as would the tides. Those parts of the world where the tide was low at the time God stopped the sun and moon would have stayed like that, and perhaps in these areas, the marine life – small crabs, worms, anemones, starfish, and other inhabitants of rock pools and the expanse between high and low tide, which depended on the changing tides to refresh the water, would have perished.

Is it likely that God would have stopped the motion of the solar system and perhaps even the galaxy to do such a thing at the behest of a man? The passage assures us that God did exactly that (10:14); and the Hebrew non-canonical Book of Jashar confirms the cosmic event. Numerous evangelical study bibles and commentaries insist that it literally happened as the bible narrative says, whereas liberal commentaries describe it as Hebrew poetry.

But the only records of it are the Book of Joshua and the Book of Jashar, both of which are Hebrew writings. No other nation or culture has recorded it; but such a massive cosmic event, which would have been experienced around the globe, demands that somebody, somewhere, would have recorded it. One can only assume that it never happened. And in that case, it should not be in the Bible because it isn’t true.

References

“The Scripture quotations contained herein are made from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright, 1989, by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. Used by permission. All rights reserved.”