The researchers compared the Old Testament with the ancient Egyptian texts and named the estimated date of the earliest recorded eclipse of the Sun.
British researchers have compared a fragment of the Old Testament with the ancient Egyptian text of the Merneptah stele and suggested that the first documented solar eclipse in history could have occurred on October 30, 1207 BC. If this date is correct, it will clarify the dating of the reign of several Egyptian pharaohs, including Ramses II the Great.
The researchers were interested in a fragment of the book of Joshua, the first book of the Prophets. The text describes the Israeli invasion of Canaan - today this territory is divided between Israel, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. Before the battle, Joshua prayed: “Stop, the sun, over Gibeon, and the moon, over the valley of Aialon! And the sun stopped, and the moon stood while the people took revenge on their enemies."
The authors of the work suggested that the description of the stopped sun may be a translation error in the King James Bible. This translation was made at the beginning of the 17th century. The researchers drew attention to the Hebrew words of the original text. In the combination "Sun, stand still", the word "dôm" is used, and in the phrase "Moon stopped", the term "amad" is used. The authors of the work point out that both words have many connotations. "Dôm" is both "still" and "quiet" and "dumb". The word 'amad' can have many connotations, including stand, rise, stay. Commented by one of the authors of the work, Sir Colin Humphreys: “Based on the original Hebrew text, we have established that an alternative meaning is possible. The sun and moon have stopped doing what they usually do:stopped shining."
Researchers point out that the word "dôm" is related to a word that occurs in Babylonian descriptions of eclipses and means "to be dark."
Confirmation that the Israelites did indeed invade Canaan is believed to be the Egyptian text of the Stele of Merneptah. Pharaoh Merneptah is believed to have ruled from 1213 to 1203 BC. e. This granite inscription contains several hieroglyphs read as "Israel". Based on the research of the steles, they conclude that the invasion of Canaan took place in the period from 1500 to 1050 BC. e. They have already tried to compare the text with a fragment from the book of Joshua. However, it was not possible to date a possible eclipse taking into account the required position of the Sun, Moon and Earth, as well as the instability of the Earth's rotation speed.
The authors of the new study expanded their search. They took into account not only total, but also annular eclipses. In this case, the Moon is at a greater distance from the Earth than during a total eclipse. Visually, the Moon turns out to be smaller than the Sun in diameter, therefore, in the maximum phase of the eclipse, the Moon does not completely cover the Sun. A bright ring remains visible around the dark moon. According to researchers, the only possible date for such an eclipse visible in Canaan is from 1500 to 1050 BC. e. - October 30, 1207 BC e. If the assumptions turn out to be correct, this date will allow us to establish the exact boundaries of the reign of Merneptah and his father Ramses II.
However, it should be borne in mind: most modern researchers of the book of Joshua believe that it was created much later than the events described. Its authors were probably not contemporaries of the historical Joshua and could only rely on oral tradition.
Promotional video:
The research is published in the journal Astronomy & Geophysics.
Natalia Pelezneva