Wednesday, April 09, 2014

It makes sense

Speaking of the sun standing still in Joshua, Cooley says
This elevated display of the dead and their descent into the ground—that is, the cave—is not coincidental, nor is the timing of the event at sunset simply the fulfillment of the statute in Deut 21:22. Just as the kings’ corpses were suspended above the land, motionless on poles, so the sun and moon, divested of their sovereignty, stood suspended in the sky above the land. And, just as the kings were buried and their reigns in the land were ended, so also the sun (and moon?) set, descended into the earth, and its reign in the land was ended.—Poetic Astronomy in the Ancient Near East, page 296
<idle musing>
I've never even pretended to understand what to do with the sun standing still in Joshua, but this interpretation makes sense...
</idle musing>

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