[Footnote 122: Transactions of Victoria Institute, vol. xxviii., 1894, p. 268. It is vouched for by Major-General Tulloch, who was there on duty at the time.]
Another well known miracle, which probably belongs to this class, is the _'silence' (or standing still) of the sun and moon_.[124] This is often thought to mean that the earth's rotation was stopped, so that the sun and moon apparently stood still. But a miracle on so vast a scale, was quite needless for the destruction of a few Canaanites, and there is another, and far better explanation.
It is that the miracle, instead of being one of prolonged light, the sun remaining visible after it should have set, was really one of prolonged _darkness_. The sun, which had been hidden by thick clouds, was just about to shine forth, when Joshua prayed to the Lord that it might be _silent_, _i.e._, remain obscured behind the clouds, which it did during the rest of the day. The Hebrew seems capable of either meaning. For the important word translated _stand still_ is literally _be silent_ (see margin), both in verses 12 and 13; and while this would be most suitable to the sun's remaining obscured by clouds during the day, it could scarcely be used of its continuing to shine at night.
On the other hand, the rest of the passage seems to favour the ordinary view. But if we admit that this is what Joshua _prayed for_, that the sun and moon should remain _silent_ or obscured, the rest of the passage can only mean that this is what took place. And it may be mentioned that, as early as the fourteenth century, a Jewish writer Levi ben Gershon maintained that the words did not mean that the sun and moon literally _stood still_, or in any way altered their motion; though it is only fair to add that this was not the general view.[125]
[Footnote 125: Numerous quotations are given in 'A Misunderstood Miracle,' by Rev. A. S. Palmer, 1887, pp. 103-107.]
Moreover, even if the word did mean _stand still_, Joshua would only be likely to have asked for the sun and moon to stand still, if they were apparently _moving_. And they only move fast enough to be apparent when they are just coming out from behind a dense bank of clouds, due, of course, to the clouds really moving. And to _stand still_ in such a case, would mean to stay behind the clouds, and remain _obscured_, the same sense as before. And the words could then have had an _immediate_ effect; visible at once to all the people, which certainly seems implied in the narrative, and which would not have been the case on the ordinary view.