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intended to notice " had no connexion with verbal criticism . " Independently of my shewing * from Mr . 'Beiktoay that the words , <* And Joshua said to the Lord , " are erroneously rendered in the Common Version , I have
expressly added that one of my strong objections to this miracle is the absence of' the wonder-working Hebrew formula which precedes every other miracle effected through the agency of man-, in the books of the Old Testament , prior to Joshua , namely niiT IDN' 1 , and by this I must of necessity make say stand * thereby still expressing my conviction that the supposed miracle not being commanded by Jehovah , it rested solely with Joshua , and consequently could not take place .
f But J . C . M . attacks me ( I had almost said with a degree of pleasant bonhommie ) on my objecting to the " unphilosophical" manner in which the historian describes the miracle of the sun and moon standing still * He then proceeds to say , that " the account is in conformity with the astronomical system of that day , " and thinks that " the moon ' s standing sitH is a
grave argument for the reality of the miracle , " ( I thought it had'formed chief part of the miracle itself , ) " inasmuch as , although there was no o& ~ casionfor it when the sun was shining > it was , according to the modern and true theory of the celestial bodies , a necessary consequence of the cessation of the earths 'diurnal rotation , in which , " he presumes , " the miracle existed . "
Good-humour and pleasantry may in many cases suffice to cover a multitude of sins , and in this instance they may be permitted to shroud what severer critics might honour with no very dignified appellation in your correspondent J . G « M . ; but it is necessary for the information of others into whose hands this essay may fall , to point out the inconsistencies of the foregoing assertions . ; We have in the book of Job and the Pentateuch , ( I mention these only , on account of their being of an earlier date than the book of Joshua , ) direct
evidence to shew that the Israelites were intimately versed in astronomical science ; and from a mass of collateral evidence which has recently been established by one of the nto&t learned men of the present age , this is further confirmed beyond the shadow of a doubt ; ? the argument , therefore , of J « C . M ., thai the description of the sun and moon standing still , in Joshua , is in conformity with the astronomical system of that ( fe y , is not only wholly futile , but little better than a libel on the sacred writings which he attemps in so injudicious a manner to defend . I have no doubt but J * C . M * considers the writer of the book of Joshua to have been inspired : 'baL if it
be admitted , as J . C . M . wishes us to do , that by the sun and moon standing fctill , he meant to record that the earth and moon stood BtiM , what is this else than adinitting that the author of the book of Joshua is guilty of a gross mistake ,- and what then becomes of the divine inspiration in his case , with which error and falsehood are surely incompatible > And if we once begin to account ( for the absurdities of our own and other modern versions ^ by attributing them to the ignorance and mistakes of the original Hebrew writers ., to what fearful and appalling results will not this procedure eventually lead ? Surely every serious Christian must tremble for the
consequences * "As'to J * C . M / s assertion that the moon standing still is a grave argument for the earth's standing still also , I confess myself utterly unable to cotnpre-» ¦ ' »»> ¦* ' » ¦ 'I it m ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ i «¦ ¦ ; " I i t »» ' ii « i f .. ¦ -r ¦< i i . ' »¦¦<¦ i i i i ' - ' ¦ » ' y * " ¦ «» ¦ ' . '' * i i * For a , great variety of informatjipn on this head , the reader is referred to the Dissertations of Sir ' William Bruiriniond on the Zodiacs of Esneh and Dendra , in Nos . XLVII . *— L . of the Classical Journal , and to Vol . II . Book iv . Ch . vi . of 0 Wgines , recently pfibliwhcd by the same author ;
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$ 82 On the C < mMmd of Joshua .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1827, page 882, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1803/page/26/
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