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sages in the Scriptures which , from being misunderstood and then misrepresented , have led commentators into a maze of error , and bewildered their readers . Suriy stand thou still upon Gibeon , and thou moon , in the valley ofAjalon *
The sun in the firmament could not have appeared to stop in its daily course without creating disturbance and confusion in the regular revolution of the earth and planets in the solar system , and as one system is probably connected with and dependant on another , the universe must hare been subjected to a disturbance for which the event of a battle , favourable even to the children of Israel , does not appear of sufficient importatice .
Some may say it is recorded in the Sacred Volume , we dare not question the fact : some may rest satisfied in calling it a stupendous miracle , beyond the power of man to explain : otiiers consider the account too fabulous for the greatest credulity to admit .
Whilst the astronomical philosopher meditates on the extraordinary phenomenon in awful silence , and the theological orator declaims on the wonderful proof of divine agency ; we may find satisfactory reasons for our belief , that neither the sun nor the moon appeared to stand still .
Your readers will find in Mr . Jacob Bryant ' s " Observations on some Passages in Scripture" several chapters on this subject . As the work is probably not in the hands of many of your readers , I send you an abridged account of his arguments .
The batf-le was ended before Joshua ' s exclamation . Some of the enemy had been slain by the hail-stones , and others by the sword . Gibeon and Ajalon were so nearly situated , that if the sun stood over one , the moon could not have been perceptible over the other . For the luminaries to have remained above the horizon after the overthrow of the enemy , could not have been of any advantage .
[ f your readers attentively examine Joshua x . 13 , they will perceive that it is no part of the original book ; it is an extract from the Book of Jasher , * it was
* The Book of Jasher Dr . Geddes thinks ' * to have been a book of songs . It seems to have been a collection of historical ballads , in which the great achievements of the nation were narrated with all the embellishments of
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probably at first written on the margin , and afterward copied into the text . The Book of Jasher is stated not to have been written till after the time of David , consequently a quotation from it must have been inserted in the Book of Joshua by some transcriber . The interrogation , « ' Is it not written in the Book of Jashery and the sun stood still ? &c , will appear to your readers to be the language of some writer long after the time of Joshua .
M r . Bryant accurately observes , that stand still might , with equal correctness , have been translated be still , be dumb , or be silent . " This I am persuaded , " says Mr . Bryant , i ( did not relate to the orb of day , but to the worship of Gibeon and < djalon , where we have reason to think were two idolatrous temples of the stm
and moon , which were now to be silenced . The like worship prevailed in other parts of Canaan . "— ( e As I have before mentioned , the true meaning is , let the stm upon Gibeon be dumb , and the moon in the valley of Aia-Lun be silent , for their worshipers have been miraculously defeated , and others who joined the standard of Israel have been in a most wonderful manner preserved . "—
P . 191 . We do honour to the Sacred Writings by removing difficulties which may harden men ' s minds in their unbelief ; for , to countenance the narrative of a miracle when we have reason to believe the report to be ill-founded , is to injure the cause we seek to serve . I wish to be understood that 1 am
ready to admit that interpolations , misconstructions , and unwarrantable additions , may also have been made to the Koran . A CHRISTIAN MOSLEM .
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636 Miscellaneous Correspondence .
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On the Miraculous Conception , To the Editor . Sir , Bury St . Edmunds . If the following argument against the miraculous conception has never been stated before , it may be worth submitting to your readers . It has been remarked in most controversies that no allusion has been made to the fact in any other part of the gospel than in the very part where it was first narrated ; but I believe there is in the Gospel of Mark the record of an incident which , if
reoriental poetry , and sometimes , as may be imagined , with partial exaggeration . " Dr . Geddes , note .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1830, page 636, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2588/page/52/
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