| Joshua 10:13 | People didn't have digital wrist watches back in those days. Time of day was
determined by the position of the Sun. Therefore they had no way of knowing if the
Sun was standing still or moving. It could only seem like time dragged on, like it
does when you're not having fun. Apparently they weren't having fun that day, which
is understandable since they were having a bloody war, as so much of the Bible is
full of bloody wars. The Book of Jasher is a "lost book" mentioned in the Bible (Joshua 10:13 & 2Sam. 1:18). There are several books which have come down to us by this title today. One is an ethhical treaty from the Middle Ages and to my knowledge has never been translated into English. This book begins with a section on the Mystery of the Creation of the World." It is clearly unrelated to the Biblical Book of Jasher. Another is a forgery published in 1829 supposedly translated by Flaccus Albinus Alcuinus. It opens with the Chapter 1 verse 1 reading: "Whilst it was the beginning, darkness overspread the face of nature." The third and most important is a Midrash first translated into English in 1840. It opens with chapter 1 verse 1 reading "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and God created man in his own image." A comparison of Joshua 10:13 with Jasher 88:63-64 and 2Sam. 1:18 with Jasher 56:9 makes it clear that this Book of Jasher at least claims to be the "lost" Book of Jasher mentioned in the Bible. (From The Society for the Advancement of Nazarene Judaism http://www.nazarene.net/jasher/about.htm) This Book of Jasher was suppressed in large part because of its obvious astrological imagery, Abraham's father Terah "had twelve gods of large size, made of wood and stone, after the twelve months of the year, and he served each one monthly" (Jas 9:8). Abram himself is also represented as first worshipping the sun, until it set, and then the moon: "And Abram served the sun in that day and he prayed to it . . . and Abram served the moon and prayed to it all that night" (Jas 9:14-17). Abram eventually realizes that "these are not the gods that made the earth and mankind but the servants of God . . ." This epiphany is no great thing, actually, as the intelligentsia of virtually all cultures viewed the planetary bodies as divine proxies or "limbs" of the Almightly Itself.[1,p137] |
 |
Back to Books of the Bible |
index | |
Back to Deley's Homepage | |