ervation
cannot be too clearly defined. If that record be the only one, then we
may accept it, we may reject it, we may be obliged to say, "We do not
understand it," or "It is imperfect, and we can make no use of it," but
we must not alter it. A moment's reflection will show that a man who
would permit himself to tamper with the sole evidence upon which he
purports to work, no matter how profoundly convinced he may be that his
proposed corrections are sound, is one who does not understand the
spirit of science, and is not going the way to arrive at scientific
truth.

There is no need then to inquire as to whether the tenth chapter of the
Book of Joshua comes from two or more sources; we take the narrative as
it stands. And it is one which has, for the astronomer, an interest
quite irrespective of any interpretation which he may place upon the
account of the miracle which forms its central incident. For Joshua's
exclamation:--

"Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon;
And thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon,"

implies that, at the moment of his speaking, the two heavenly bodies
appeared to him to be, the one upon or over Gibeon, the other over the
valley of Ajalon. We have therefore, in effect, a definite astronomical
observation; interesting in itself, as being one of the oldest that has
been preserved to us; doubly interesting in the conclusions that we are
able to deduce from it.

The idea which has been most generally formed of the meaning of Joshua's
command, is, that he saw Gibeon in the distance on the horizon in one
direction with the sun low down in the sky immediately above it, and the
valley of Ajalon in the distance, on the horizon in another direction,
with the moon low down in the sky above it.

It would be quite natural to associate the sun and moon with distant
objects if they were only some five or six degrees high; it would be
rather straining the point to do so if they were more than ten degrees
high; and if they were fifteen or more degrees high, it would be quite
impossible.

They could not be both in the same quarter of the sky; both rising or
both setting. For this would mean that the moon was not only very near
the sun in the sky, but was very near to conjunction--in other words, to
new moon. She could, therefore, have only shown a slender thread of
light, and it is perfectly certain that Joshua, facing the sun in such a
country as southern Palestine could not possibly have perceived