The new work points to the unusually good accuracy of the Old Testament in describing the events of the Trojan War.
Researchers from Great Britain, based on the analysis of the ancient Hebrew text, proposed an alternative interpretation of a passage from the Book of Joshua (Old Testament). According to scientists, Joshua did not stop the movement of the Sun and Moon across the firmament, but only took advantage of the annular eclipse. Astronomers determined the moment when such an eclipse could occur - and it turned out that it was 1207 BC. New data will make it possible to significantly clarify the chronology of the history of the ancient Near East. A related article was published in Astronomy & Geophysics.
The interpretation of the Book of Joshua has long caused problems for biblical scholars. In translations of the Old Testament, it is stated that Joshua stopped the Sun and the Moon in the sky, so that the Sun no longer moved across the sky. Such phenomena do not occur on Earth, and in general in the solar system they can be observed only on Mercury, due to the peculiarities of its orbit.
A group of British astronomers noticed that the Hebrew text in the original uses the words dom and amad. Both words mean not only "to stand," but also to stop doing what you normally do. The authors interpreted them as “stop shining” for the Sun and Moon. In this case, the book of Joshua, describing the battle with the five kings of the Canaanites, should have indicated a solar eclipse.
However, another point from the book of Joshua remains unclear: the sun, according to this text, after "stopping" was in no hurry to leave the sky, which helped the Israelites defeat the Canaanites, pursuing them in the daylight. Researchers used calculations to try to find when an eclipse could occur in Palestine, after which the level of sunlight would not fall for a long time. It turned out that this situation was on October 30, 1207 BC. An annular eclipse could then be seen in Canaan. They occur when the Moon is too far from the Earth to completely eclipse the Sun, leaving a narrow ring around the edges of the lunar disk.
Interestingly, the eclipse on October 30 was supposed to start at 15.30, and until 16.50 the illumination should have decreased. However, from 17.10 to 17.38, on the contrary, it should have increased - the disk of the Moon was gradually leaving the path of the sun's rays. The Israelites - like no one else on Earth at that time - had never seen such an eclipse, as this is a very unusual and rare situation (see illustration).
Evolution of the visible disk of the Sun in the sky on October 30, 1207 BC
The researchers note that they not only solved the long-standing question of biblical studies, but also significantly clarified the chronology of the events of the conquest of Palestine by the Jews. Previously, it was not clear when exactly Moses and Joshua, close to him, brought the Israelites there, and in what specific years the conquest of this region took place. Now it is obvious that this happened shortly before the events of the Trojan War, in the 1220s-1210s. It is worth noting that ancient Egyptian sources describe the campaign of their pharaoh against the Israelites around the same years. This further confirms the interpretation of the events of the book of Joshua by astronomers - before the conquest of Palestine by the Jews, the Egyptians could not face them there on the battlefield.
Promotional video:
IVAN ORTEGA