Why isn't the standing still of the sun and the moon not recorded by other cultures?

[Compassionist]

I am quoting from Joshua 10: 12 - 14, the Bible (English Standard Version)

"At that time Joshua spoke to the Lord in the day when the Lord gave the Amorites over to the sons of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel,

Sun, stand still at Gibeon,
and moon, in the Valley of Aijalon.”
And the sun stood still, and the moon stopped,
until the nation took vengeance on their enemies.

Is this not written in the Book of Jashar? The sun stopped in the midst of heaven and did not hurry to set for about a whole day. There has been no day like it before or since, when the Lord heeded the voice of a man, for the Lord fought for Israel."

Why isn't the standing still of the sun and the moon not recorded by other cultures that had invented writing?

The event described in Joshua 10:12–14, where the sun and moon are said to have stood still to allow the Israelites more time to defeat their enemies, would - if taken literally - constitute a global astronomical phenomenon. If the Earth’s rotation truly stopped or slowed (which is what "the sun stood still" would physically mean), it would have had catastrophic global consequences, including massive earthquakes, tsunamis, and changes in atmospheric motion due to sudden deceleration.

Such an event could not have gone unnoticed by other civilisations and would have been recorded by other literate cultures that kept astronomical or historical records.

At the time (around 13th to 15th century BCE, depending on the dating of the conquest narratives), several advanced civilisations with writing and astronomical records existed, including:

Egyptians
Babylonians
Chinese (Shang Dynasty)
Minoans/Mycenaeans
Sumerians
Indus Valley remnants

Yet none of these cultures, despite their meticulous sky observations, record a day when the sun and moon stood still or behaved abnormally. I conclude that this is because the Bible is lying about the Biblical God making the sun and the moon stand still.

[1213]

...Why isn't the standing still of the sun and the moon not recorded by other cultures that had invented writing?

Cloudy skies?

It is interesting that the Toltec or Aztec myths have similar idea of sun not moving.

"The present era for the Aztecs was that of the 5th and final sun, Tonatiuh. The god had been born from the sacrifice of Nanahuatzin who threw himself into a fire at Teotihuacan and thus became the new sun. There was an immediate problem that Tonatiuh could or would not set himself in motion across the sky without a blood sacrifice. Now stepped in Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli, for the Aztecs the planet Venus as the menacing morning star. He angrily threw his atl-atl dart at Tonatiuh in order to set him on his orbit, but the sun retaliated by throwing a dart right back. This missile hit Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli right in the forehead, instantly transforming him into stone and the god Itztlacoliuhqui, a deity associated with ice and cold. The rest of the gods realised that only a sacrifice would set the sun in motion and so Quetzalcoatl removed their hearts for that purpose. The offering worked and Tonatiuh was on his way."
https://www.worldhistory.org/Tonatiuh/

Also Japanese have similar idea:

"Amaterasu, known as the goddess of the sun, is one of the principal deities in the Shinto pantheon... ...One of the most famous myths involving Amaterasu is the tale of her retreat into the Heavenly Rock Cave, known as Ama-no-Iwato. In this myth, Amaterasu withdraws into the cave out of anger and despair, retreating from the world after a conflict with her brother, Susanoo, the storm god... ...The impact of her absence is catastrophic; without her light, the world descends into darkness and chaos. Crops fail, and the inhabitants suffer. This myth underscores the vital connection between the sun and life, as Amaterasu’s withdrawal symbolizes the loss of hope and nourishment. To restore balance, the other gods devise a plan to coax her out. They hold a festival outside the cave, celebrating her and creating a mirror that reflects her beauty. Intrigued by the commotion, Amaterasu eventually emerges, bringing light back to the world.
https://japanese.mythologyworldwide.com ... -and-life/

According to this site, there are many similar myths about sun being still.
https://sacred-texts.com/astro/slaa/slaa10.htm

The event described in Joshua 10:12–14, where the sun and moon are said to have stood still to allow the Israelites more time to defeat their enemies, would - if taken literally - constitute a global astronomical phenomenon. If the Earth’s rotation truly stopped or slowed (which is what "the sun stood still" would physically mean), it would have had catastrophic global consequences, including massive earthquakes, tsunamis, and changes in atmospheric motion due to sudden deceleration.

Hmmm... should I believe earth rotates?

If God can stop it, why would He not be able to do it so that it goes smoothly, without too much problems?

Yet none of these cultures, despite their meticulous sky observations, record a day when the sun and moon stood still or behaved abnormally. I conclude that this is because the Bible is lying about the Biblical God making the sun and the moon stand still.

Interesting conspiracy theory. The problem with that is, why would they make such a lie? Surely they would know it will sound too unbelievable, and also there would be no good reason to lie about it.

In the end, this remains a matter of belief, sorry.

[Compassionist]

[Replying to 1213 in post #2]

Thank you for your reply. I’ll address your points one by one.

Cloudy skies?

Cloudy skies would not have prevented all ancient civilisations from seeing a global event of that magnitude. The Earth is vast, and clouds do not cover the entire planet simultaneously. Civilisations like the Egyptians, Babylonians, Chinese, and Mesoamericans had astronomer-priests who carefully documented celestial events. A literal halting of the sun and moon would have been a planetary-scale anomaly visible from many regions and recorded in multiple traditions. Yet, no contemporary records exist. Also, even when the sky is covered by clouds, we can tell it is daytime because some of the sun's light comes through the clouds.

Toltec or Aztec myths have similar ideas...

Those myths predate or are independent of the Hebrew Bible, and they are clearly symbolic, mythological accounts meant to explain natural cycles (day/night, seasons, life/death). They are not historical records of a specific astronomical event. Myths about the sun’s motion or stillness occur in many cultures — not because the event happened, but because humans everywhere tried to understand and personify the sun’s power. This shows a shared human imagination, not shared historical evidence.

If God can stop it, why would He not be able to do it smoothly?

That line of reasoning can justify any claimed miracle, no matter how physically impossible or internally inconsistent. The problem is not whether an omnipotent being could do it, but whether there’s any reason to believe it actually happened. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. The biblical text describes a literal astronomical event, but there is zero corroborating evidence — geological, astronomical, or cultural — to support it. Belief without evidence is faith, not fact.

Why would they make such a lie?

Ancient authors were conveying their worldview, mixing tribal propaganda, oral legend, and theological messaging. Ancient societies often depicted victories as divinely ordained to glorify their gods and strengthen group identity. The story of Joshua’s long day serves a theological purpose: to show that Israel’s God controlled nature to ensure victory. It was written centuries after the supposed event, long after any witnesses were gone.

In the end, this remains a matter of belief.

Agreed. But it’s important to distinguish belief from historical or scientific fact. One can believe the story symbolically without claiming it literally occurred. The moment we claim it’s factual, it must face the same evidentiary standards as any other historical or scientific claim — and by those standards, the event described in Joshua 10 certainly did not happen.

[1213]

...Those myths predate or are independent of the Hebrew Bible, and they are clearly symbolic, mythological accounts meant to explain natural cycles (day/night, seasons, life/death). They are not historical records of a specific astronomical event. Myths about the sun’s motion or stillness occur in many cultures — not because the event happened, but because humans everywhere tried to understand and personify the sun’s power. This shows a shared human imagination, not shared historical evidence.

How do you know they predate Biblical story?

Ancient authors were conveying their worldview, mixing tribal propaganda, oral legend, and theological messaging. Ancient societies often depicted victories as divinely ordained to glorify their gods and strengthen group identity. The story of Joshua’s long day serves a theological purpose: to show that Israel’s God controlled nature to ensure victory. It was written centuries after the supposed event, long after any witnesses were gone.

How do you know it was told long after the event?

I don't believe humans would makes such a claim, if it was not true, because it would not be useful.

[Compassionist]

[Replying to 1213 in post #4]

Thank you for your thoughtful reply. Let me address your questions one by one.

How do you know they predate the Biblical story?

We know this through textual chronology and archaeological evidence.
The Book of Joshua was written centuries after the events it claims to describe — most likely between 700 BCE (Before Common Era) to 600 BCE, during or shortly after the Babylonian exile (scholars call this the Deuteronomistic History, covering Deuteronomy through Kings).

However, myths about the sun’s movement or stillness appear in much older cultures:

Sumerian and Akkadian sun deities (Utu/Shamash) appear in texts as early as 2500 BCE.
Egyptian solar myths (e.g., Ra’s daily voyage through the underworld) are well-attested from the Pyramid Texts (~2400 BCE).
Vedic hymns in India (Rigveda, c. 1500–1200 BCE) also personify and address the sun long before the Hebrew Bible was compiled.
The Amaterasu myth in Japan and Aztec “Sun” eras arose independently as explanatory cosmologies.

In other words, solar mythology is thousands of years older and widespread across civilisations. The story in Joshua 10 belongs to that broader mythological pattern — a divine being controlling the sun to aid humans — but emerges much later in written form.

How do you know it was told long after the event?

Because the linguistic and historical context of the Book of Joshua shows it was written using Hebrew styles and theological ideas that didn’t exist at the time it supposedly happened (~13th century BCE). The earliest Hebrew writing dates to around 1000 BCE, and the Pentateuch (Genesis–Deuteronomy) wasn’t finalised until 6th – 5th centuries BCE.

So, the conquest narratives were written hundreds of years after the alleged conquest, based on oral traditions reshaped for religious and political purposes — to claim divine entitlement to the land and glorify Yahweh’s power. This pattern is common in ancient literature (for example, Homer’s "Iliad" was written centuries after the supposed Trojan War).

I don't believe humans would make such a claim if it was not true, because it would not be useful.

Actually, history shows humans often create myths that serve symbolic, political, or unifying purposes, regardless of factual accuracy. Examples include:

Egyptian Pharaohs claimed to be gods.
Mesopotamian kings claimed the gods made them invincible.
Roman emperors claimed divine ancestry.
These weren’t “useful” because they were true - they were useful because they strengthened group identity and loyalty.

Likewise, the story of Joshua’s long day wasn’t written as a scientific report. It was theological propaganda designed to show that Israel’s God could command the cosmos to ensure victory. Its usefulness lay in inspiring faith, not in documenting a real astronomical event.

[1213]

[Replying to 1213 in post #4]

Thank you for your thoughtful reply. Let me address your questions one by one.

How do you know they predate the Biblical story?

We know this through textual chronology and archaeological evidence.
The Book of Joshua was written centuries after the events it claims to describe....

Is the date based on what is the earliest found writing of Joshua, not to what was the original writing, or when it was first told orally?

Sumerian and Akkadian sun deities (Utu/Shamash) appear in texts as early as 2500 BCE.
Egyptian solar myths (e.g., Ra’s daily voyage through the underworld) are well-attested from the Pyramid Texts (~2400 BCE).
Vedic hymns in India (Rigveda, c. 1500–1200 BCE) also personify and address the sun long before the Hebrew Bible was compiled.

How can we know those are dated correctly?

Also, the time when the books in the Bible were collected to one book, is not the same as when the collected books were originally written.

How do you know it was told long after the event?

Because the linguistic and historical context of the Book of Joshua shows it was written using Hebrew styles and theological ideas that didn’t exist at the time it supposedly happened...

Sorry, I have no good reason to believe that.

So, the conquest narratives were written hundreds of years after the alleged conquest, based on oral traditions reshaped for religious and political purposes — to claim divine entitlement to the land and glorify Yahweh’s power. This pattern is common in ancient literature (for example, Homer’s "Iliad" was written centuries after the supposed Trojan War).

How could we know that the written story was modified meaningfully from oral traditions? Without being there, it is impossible. And I just don't believe you were there.

Actually, history shows humans often create myths that serve symbolic, political, or unifying purposes, regardless of factual accuracy. Examples include:

Egyptian Pharaohs claimed to be gods.
Mesopotamian kings claimed the gods made them invincible.
Roman emperors claimed divine ancestry.
These weren’t “useful” because they were true - they were useful because they strengthened group identity and loyalty.

Difficult to know what pharaohs really claimed, when one doesn't know are the images interpreted correctly. But, I don't think claiming to be a god is the same, because it is basically a title, similar to king, but higher. However, it can be understood, if someone would call himself a god, because it can be beneficial for the person in that time. Claiming sun stood still means nothing beneficial for the one who just won a war. If one won a war, it would have been enough winning, no need to make up story about sun standing still, because it really makes no difference, except the win then also sounds less credible.

Likewise, the story of Joshua’s long day wasn’t written as a scientific report. It was theological propaganda designed to show that Israel’s God could command the cosmos to ensure victory. Its usefulness lay in inspiring faith, not in documenting a real astronomical event.

It makes reader to doubt the whole story, so I don't believe it was developed as theological propaganda. Also, I don't think we have any evidence that someone designed it as propaganda.

[Compassionist]

[Replying to 1213 in post #6]

Thank you for engaging so thoughtfully with what I wrote. I appreciate that you’re asking fair questions about how we know these things. Let me respond carefully.

1. Dating ancient texts and myths:
The dates I mentioned (e.g., Sumerian, Egyptian, Vedic) aren’t arbitrary guesses. They come from archaeological layers, linguistic evolution, and carbon-dating of artifacts that contain or reference those texts.

Example: The Pyramid Texts are carved inside pyramids built for Pharaohs Unas and Teti (c. 2400 BCE). We can date the pyramids from inscriptions, radiocarbon analysis of mortar, and historical king lists.
The Sumerian and Akkadian solar hymns appear on clay tablets found in stratified ruins securely dated by the same archaeological methods.
The Rig Veda’s linguistic form represents an early Indo-Aryan dialect that predates Classical Sanskrit, fitting linguistic chronologies of roughly 1500–1200 BCE.

Of course, oral traditions existed before writing, but written evidence gives us the *latest possible* date when those ideas were already established.

2. How scholars estimate when a biblical book was written:
The Book of Joshua uses Late Biblical Hebrew and reflects theological themes (centralized worship, land promises, Yahweh-as-warrior) characteristic of the 7th–6th century BCE, long after the events it describes (13th century BCE if taken literally).
These linguistic and cultural features don’t appear in earlier Hebrew inscriptions. That’s why mainstream historians place its composition in the monarchic or early exilic period.

3. On oral tradition and later redaction:
You’re right - we can’t watch the process directly. But textual criticism compares multiple layers within the text itself: repetitions, contradictions, and anachronisms reveal composite authorship.
For example, Joshua 10’s style differs from the surrounding prose, suggesting an older poetic fragment inserted into later narrative.
Archaeology also contradicts a sudden, unified “conquest,” showing gradual settlement patterns. This implies the story later theologised real but slower historical processes.

4. Why invent a miracle like the sun standing still?
Ancient authors often added cosmic signs to victories to emphasize divine favor. We see parallels in:

Egyptian stelae describing the sun shining for Pharaohs in battle.
Mesopotamian omens linking celestial events with royal success.
Greco-Roman accounts of eclipses interpreted as divine intervention.

The goal wasn’t to deceive scientifically but to frame victory as divinely ordained. To their audience, that increased the story’s credibility, not reduced it - because miracles signified God’s power.

5. On propaganda:
“Propaganda” here doesn’t imply a modern conspiracy but a didactic purpose: to shape communal identity and faith. Nearly every ancient state used sacred narrative this way. It’s not an accusation of bad faith - just a recognition that such texts served theological and political functions beyond reportage.

We can’t achieve absolute certainty about any ancient event, but archaeology, linguistics, and comparative literature together make a strong cumulative case:

a) Solar-deity myths long predate the Hebrew story,
b) Joshua’s account reflects later Hebrew language and ideology, and
c) Miracle motifs were culturally typical as signs of divine support.

That’s why historians interpret the “sun stood still” story as symbolic theology, not an astronomical record.

[Haven]

I was literally just about to post this as a thread (but in regards to the legendary crucifixion darkness mentioned in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and the “rising of the dead” from Matthew).

Certainly if these (along with the even-more-notorious Joshua 10 example [which would imply the Earth stopped rotating, which would cause some pretty devastating consequences: https://www.space.com/what-would-happen ... d-spinning]) were real events, other cultures would have recorded them.

In fact, if other cultures had recorded these alleged celestial events, apologists would shout it from the rooftops! They would be star evidence for the Christian literalist worldview. But instead, no such evidence exists, which is exactly what we would expect if the accounts were mythological. Knowing that new religious movements and cataclysmic, religiously driven events (such as holy wars) often spawn rapid legendary accretion provides further evidence against the literalist view.

(And before someone says it - argument from silence is only a fallacy where no statement would be reasonably expected to exist. This is not the case for the alleged events described in Joshua 10 or the crucifixion darkness).

[Haven]

Thanks for your response! Apologists usually ignore this question or handwave it away on faith, so I appreciate your input here.

Is the date based on what is the earliest found writing of Joshua, not to what was the original writing, or when it was first told orally?

You’re trying to make the dating of Joshua unfalsifiable, which doesn’t provide any support for your case. We cannot know when the was first told orally, but the scholarly consensus is that Joshua 2-11 (which includes the fantastical tale of the Sun standing still) was written during the reign of Josiah, during the 7th century BCE. The earliest textual fragments of Joshua, from the Dead Sea Scrolls, date to the mid 1st century BCE (so 600 years later).

Furthermore, the scholarly consensus is that the wars described in Joshua were mythological and meant to aggrandize Israel. There is not a shred of physical evidence for the events of Joshua 10, or for most of the events described in Joshua.

How can we know those are dated correctly?

Carbon dating of text fragments, mention in ancient sources, linguistic styles dating to a certain time and place (the same way we know Shakespeare was written in the late 16th century), description of historical events (those with fewer fantastical elements are likely to date closer to the events in question), chronisms (cultural aspects mentioned in the text that date to a certain time, for instance, stories mentioning Xerox likely date to between 1950 and 2005 CE).

Also, the time when the books in the Bible were collected to one book, is not the same as when the collected books were originally written.

This is true, and it weakens your position. Do you know how the canon was determined? It was through a very late (3rd century CE) and ideologically driven process.

Because the linguistic and historical context of the Book of Joshua shows it was written using Hebrew styles and theological ideas that didn’t exist at the time it supposedly happened...

Sorry, I have no good reason to believe that.

There you go with the denialism again. Have you studied Biblical Hebrew? You can clearly tell that the way it was written (and therefore spoken) varies from the earliest writings to the latest ones from the second temple period.

You can’t just dismiss any evidence that you don’t like or that is inconvenient for you. That’s not a path to truth.

So, the conquest narratives were written hundreds of years after the alleged conquest, based on oral traditions reshaped for religious and political purposes — to claim divine entitlement to the land and glorify Yahweh’s power. This pattern is common in ancient literature (for example, Homer’s "Iliad" was written centuries after the supposed Trojan War).

How could we know that the written story was modified meaningfully from oral traditions? Without being there, it is impossible. And I just don't believe you were there.

The same way we can know that the Iliad was modified in a similar way. Most ancient writings start off as oral traditions (which change greatly, similar to a game of telephone), and since the writings of Joshua describe a figure who would have lived hundreds of years prior to the author, it seems reasonable to conclude the author worked from existing oral traditions (myths), writings that are no longer extant and his/her own political motivations.

By the way, are you familiar with the concept of probability? You seem to be under the impression that propositions are either certain (“you were there*!”) or undeterminable (“we have no way to know that”). In reality, certainty is a spectrum and proportioned to the amount of evidence for and against a claim. We have a reasonably high degree of certainty that the author of Joshua worked from oral tradition.

*eyewitness accounts are notoriously unreliable, so even if you and I were both physically there, we still wouldn’t have certainty as to what happened without outside evidence!

[1213]

1. Dating ancient texts and myths:
The dates I mentioned (e.g., Sumerian, Egyptian, Vedic) aren’t arbitrary guesses. They come from archaeological layers, linguistic evolution, and carbon-dating of artifacts that contain or reference those texts.

Example: The Pyramid Texts are carved inside pyramids built for Pharaohs Unas and Teti (c. 2400 BCE). We can date the pyramids from inscriptions, radiocarbon analysis of mortar, and historical king lists.
The Sumerian and Akkadian solar hymns appear on clay tablets found in stratified ruins securely dated by the same archaeological methods.
The Rig Veda’s linguistic form represents an early Indo-Aryan dialect that predates Classical Sanskrit, fitting linguistic chronologies of roughly 1500–1200 BCE.

Of course, oral traditions existed before writing, but written evidence gives us the *latest possible* date when those ideas were already established....

Thanks for your explanations. Very nicely done. Unfortunately, for me the problem is that I think there is too much assumptions. I can't say something is not true just on basis of assumptions.

4. Why invent a miracle like the sun standing still?
Ancient authors often added cosmic signs to victories to emphasize divine favor. We see parallels in:

Egyptian stelae describing the sun shining for Pharaohs in battle.
Mesopotamian omens linking celestial events with royal success.
Greco-Roman accounts of eclipses interpreted as divine intervention.

The goal wasn’t to deceive scientifically but to frame victory as divinely ordained. To their audience, that increased the story’s credibility, not reduced it - because miracles signified God’s power.

The examples you give could have happened. That people took them as divine signs can be wrong, but I don't think it makes the phenomena necessary not true. Same could be said about the Biblical sun miracle. Even if it happened, it would not necessary mean God made it happen.

I don't think people would have made up the sun stood still story, if it did not really happen. But, obviously I can't prove it happened, so this remains a matter of belief.