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To the Editor . s Sttty ; ¦ ' ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦¦ ¦ ¦ '* " ¦*( * Thie intention of the present pajfer is to point out to your readers Mr . Bellamy ' s elucidation of that singular passage in Joshua x . 12 and 13 , respecting the sun and moon standing still , a passage which Has at onqe called forth the sneers of the infidel and the sighs of the devout Christian ,
which has baffled the ingenuity of a Michaelis , and only served to confirm the daring conjectures of an Eichhorn , and to which , in short , no fair or legitimate sense has ( to my knowledge at least ) been given by any other commentator , although Maimonides and other learned Rabbis inform tis that no such miracle as that which is here alluded to was ever understood by the ancients to have been performed *
Before I proceed to give the new translation proposed by Mr . Bellamy , and which the reader will find in the last number of his Bible , it may not be amiss briefl y to allude to the situation in which Joshua was , when he is described as performing the singular miracle of causing , at his own command , " the sun to stand still in the midst of heaven , and the moon to stay . " " The writer , " observes an author no ways favourable to the sacred
Scriptures , but whose remarks in this case are sufficiently correct , " describes the battle between . the Israelites and the Amorites , in the 8 th , 9 th , 10 th and 1 lth , verses , and concludes the paragraph with the total overthrow of the id ^ Jatrpu ^ enemies of the Hebrews under Joshua , whom they pursued , and drove thena , into their fenced cities . It is absurd , therefore , to suppose that after t ] ie fyattle and conquest are described , and the remaining part of the Amqrites Had fled , the writer should return to give a fresh account of the
same transactions , or that there was a necessity for a miracle to be wrought to cqnqu ^ r the Amorites , when the account states that it was already done before the sun and moon are said to have stood still . " Independently of the absurdity here noticed , it maybe fairly asked , with Mr . Bellamy , of what occasion the light of the moon might be—or even of what effectwhen tjie sun was shining " in the midst of heaven" ? " And we may
( urjtfier inquire with him , what influence the miracle may have had on all the hills and all the valleys of half the world , besides Mount Gibeon and the Valley pf Ajajon , and also what was doing during the corresponding hours of darkness in the other half of the world , in the absence of the sun ? Besides the objections here made to the miracle of the sun and moon standing still , or rather to the rendering of this passage in the authorized versions , there is one circumstance in the narrative which has gendered ; it
extremely suspicious in the minds of many who do not otherwise trouble themselves with critical niceties , although frequently unwilling to think for themselves , and trusting too much to the authority of others . The circurastance j to , which I allude , and which I know has puzzled many devout Chri ^ H tians , w ^ lq for the sake of peace would rather continue in uncertainty , as / far as they are personally concerned , than unsettle the minds of their neighbours by ca ^ ng ^ beni to doubt , is , that in the performance of a miracle of no less magnitude than that of arresting the course of the sun and the moon ( the reader will always pardon me for adhering to an expression as
unphilosophical as it is repugnant to the whole tenour of the Scriptures , *^ Jewish ? As I take ~< my stnnd oft tfhe immutability Qf God , and t ^ e £ or ^ cque ^ t ) jrajgutebility of those laws by which he governs the Vnlvcrse ^ « W aia , therefore * , fmpefN
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t ) N MR . BELLAMY ' S TRANSLATION OP TflE COMMAND < & '' ' && !! & ' '
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1827, page 573, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1799/page/21/
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