Time Stood Still

[JB]

In the Old Testament book of Joshua, verses 1- 27, it talks about how Joshua's army faced the 5 Amorite kings; kings of Jerusalem, Hebron, Jarmuth, Lachish, and Eglon. I was just wondering if there are any facts that we know today to coincide with the Biblical account. There is a Professor who proved that the day was prolonged. He went through a process and declared that the battle started on Tues. July 22 and it ended on Wed. July 22. I can send you the article if you'd like. But I'd like to know things like where the cave that the 5 Amorite kings hid in during the battle or if there are any digs on that particular battle site. I'd just like to get a deeper understanding of it. It seems like a great account to know more about. I haven't researched it on my own yet. I thought I'd get some answers on here first. Thanks!!

JB

[Alexey]

JB,
I don't wish to be disrespectful but, most of the biblical accounts has been largely disproved by archeology. I live and dig in Israel and I must say that most accounts, about excavations supporting biblical stories, are bending the truth. And thats true of even the most respectful of archaeologists. Take for example the finding of Herods tomb that was announced last year, they had only a piece of marble which they reconstructed into a whole coffin.
I don't think anyone even tried to locate the area you speak of, and although it would be an amazing find to discover this ancient battlefield, I'm highly skeptic it will ever be found.

[JB]

That's not disrespectful to me. It's just your opinion :) thanks for writing though! I kind of doubt that they will find the battle field too simply because there's not much significance to the story. Other than, of course, the fact that God performed a miracle but slowing down time by, about, a whole day and the fact that the Israelites conquered 5 Amorite enemies in 1 battle!!

[Alexey]

You said at the beginning that "There is a Professor who proved that the day was prolonged. He went through a process and declared that the battle started on Tues. July 22 and it ended on Wed. July 22. I can send you the article if you'd like". Could you send me the article by any chance or tell me where i can find it?

[JB]

Sure, I'm teaching a lesson on it in my church's sunday school and it's in the background notes to the lesson. So I'll copy it from the paper. It's a little to complicated for me to understand how he came up with the dates so if you read it and find some issues with it feel free to let me know what the problems are. I'm really happy someone wants to talk about it! Do you want me to send it to you via email or here on archaeonet? I might not get a chance to send it to you until a couple of days because I'm studying for a college placement exam so it's taking up the majority of me day. Is that ok or do you need me to send it soon?

[Alexey]

No thats fine do it when you have the time, you can send it to [e-mail] . Good luck with the exam

[JB]

Thanks! I'm going to need it lol I'll send it to you as soon as I can.

[JB]

Hi, I just wanted to let you know I haven't forgotten about the article. It's rather long and I've been swamped with things the past week or so. I'll get working on it when I can.

JB

[Ross]

perhaps if you could cite the journal where this has been published, and who the professor is? I can't envisage a problem in stating what it is here, if it's a credible article by a credible academic. :)

[JB]

It's not any kind of journal or anything. It's just an article, background notes, on a lesson for a class I was teaching. Would you like me to send you a copy of it when I'm done copying it onto the computer? I can tell you that it's all speculation. The name I got the most from it was Prof. Totten. That being said at the beginning of the passage this is what is written, "The following quotation is taken from the 'The harmony of Science and Scripture' by Harry Rimmer- Pages 264-283. I have not googled it because I have the article in paper. It might be worth it to look it up. You might find it!

[Ross]

If that's your source I'd be highly sceptical of anything within it, for these reasons... (and I should point out that this has taken literally 2 minutes to find this information online)

For a start it's going to be very out of date, but judging by his biographical details, Harry Rimmer died in 1952, and the Professor Totten (who wrote the paper you reference) was Charles Totten, a Military Scientist from Yale University. He was mostly published in the 1890s. To give you an idea of the kind of thing he published, he was apparently convinced "that the second coming of Christ was to occur at or near the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth century". I'm pretty sure that one didn't work out!

JB, i think it's excellent that you are so interested and enthusiastic in archaeology at only 15 (I didn't even start properly getting into it until I was in my early 20s), and I'm sure you're at the beginning of a very long and enjoyable journey in the subject. One thing you'll learn pretty quickly though, is that it's very important to check out your sources, and in general this is very easy to do (a simple google search will normally point you in the right direction without even needing to go to sites like JSTOR or the archaeological data service to find journal entries, etc...).

Unfortunately, if you're using an article from the 1890s, it's probably safe to say that you're barking up the wrong tree (in the vast majority of cases anyway). Taking a few minutes to check this kind of thing out will definately prove itself useful in the future!

:)

i'd recommend the archaeology section on here (http://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/forum/index.php?showforum=87) though if you like alternative histories and weird unusual (or unprovable) theories! lol

[JB]

Wow, I didn't know that!! I guess I should have looked it up a little bit. Thanks for telling me! Next time I have any questions I'll look it up first!! Is it possible at all for someone to figure out the dates?