Re: [asa] a theological exercise

Taking /damam/ to mean "to be silent" surely clarifies matters. Evidently
the sun was noisy till Joshua told it to be quiet, and it has not made
noise since. But a rational approach requires us to take the locations
given in Joshua 10:12, 13 seriously, so the meaning cannot have to do
with silence. Note that /`amad/, "to stay.' is used of the moon, and
there are more meanings given for /damam/ in Strong's. TWOT notes; "Those
who explain this miracle in terms of silencing the sun's heat have a more
difficult time, especially in view of the parallelism with the moon." (p.
193).
Dave (ASA)

On Tue, 3 Jun 2008 19:40:24 -0600 (MDT) gordon brown
<Gordon.Brown@Colorado.EDU> writes:
> On Tue, 3 Jun 2008, Dennis Venema wrote:
>
> > It¹s not just verses about the sun rising: Psalms speak of the
> Lord
> > establishing the earth that it might never be moved, and Joshua¹s
> ³long day²
> > specifically refers to the sun stopping, not the earth.
> Ecclesiastes also
> > states that the sun moves relative to the earth as it hastens back
> to the
> > place of its rising.
> >
> >> Yet, maybe that reflects my own historical situatedness to some
> degree.
> >
> > I would say so: this was no trivial discussion when it took
> place.
> >
> > Here¹s Luther¹s take on the issue:
> >
> > ³People gave ear to an upstart astrologer who strove to show that
> the earth
> > revolves, not the heavens or the firmament, the sun and the moon.
> Whoever
> > wishes to appear clever must devise some new system, which of all
> systems is
> > of course the very best. This fool [or Œman¹] wishes to reverse
> the entire
> > science of astronomy; but sacred Scripture tells us that Joshua
> commanded
> > the sun to stand still, and not the earth.² ‹ Martin Luther, Table
> Talk
>
> Luther's argument depends on understanding the Hebrew verb damam to
> mean
> stand still, whereas its literal meaning is to be silent. The verses
> that
> I know of that speak of the earth not moving appear to me to say
> that it
> cannot be moved off its foundation. Therefore I think that the real
> issue
> ought to be the meaning of the earth's foundation rather than the
> meaning
> of motion.
>
> Gordon Brown (ASA member)
>
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Received on Wed Jun 4 17:24:22 2008