Joshua

The Sun Stands Still. Joshua 12-14

The story of Joshua defeating his enemies with the aid of the Lord (Tetragrammaton: YHVH) stilling the sun to enable battle to continue by daylight is a key story within Craft Masonry.

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12 On the day that the LORD gave the Amorites over to the Israelites, Joshua spoke to the LORD in the presence of Israel: “O sun, stand still over Gibeon, O moon, over the Valley of Aijalon.” 13 So the sun stood still and the moon stopped until the nation took vengeance upon its enemies. Is this not written in the Book of Jashar? “So the sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day.” 14 There has been no day like it before or since, when the LORD listened to the voice of a man, because the LORD fought for Israel.

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A similar story appears in South America from the Aztecs

Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxochitl (1578-1650)

Chapter 11. Link to full chapter [1]

13. In the year 8 Tochtli, 9 which was 1,347 years after the second calamity and 4,779 years since the creation of the world, it is recorded in their history that the sun stood still one natural day without moving, and a myth evolved wherein a mosquito saw the sun suspended in the air in a pensive mood and said, "Lord of the world, why are you standing still and why are you in such deep thought? Why are you not doing the work you are supposed to do? Do you want to destroy the world as before?" And the mosquito said many other things to the sun, but the sun still did not move. The mosquito then stung the sun on the leg, and seeing that his leg had been stung, the sun began again to move along its course as before.

14. It had been 158 years since the great hurricane and 4,964 years since the creation of the world, when there occurred another destruction in this land. 10 The people who lived in this comer of the land, which they now call New Spain, were giants called Quinametzin. The destruction consisted of a great earthquake that swallowed up and killed the people when the high volcanic mountains erupted. All of the people were destroyed and no one escaped; or if anyone did escape, it was those who were in the internal parts of the land. Many Tultecas, along with the Chichimecas, who were their neighbors, were killed. This was in the year Tecpatl, and they called this time period Tlacchitonatiuh, which means sun of the earth.

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Solstice

In English, the world solstice comes from the Latin word solstitium, meaning "sun standing still". It seems to suggest a brief pause as the sun reaches its most extreme point (as experienced on Earth) before the direction of travel is reversed.

In the northern hemisphere the Winter Solstice occurs usually on the 21st December (though it may fall on the 20th or the 23rd depending on calendar adjustments). This winter solstice occurs when the sun reaches its most southerly declination of -23.44 degrees. Basically, it is when the North Pole is tilted 23.44 degrees away from the sun - its maximum tilt point. This is when the three stars ("the three Kings" or "the three sisters") in Orion’s belt line up with Sirius which is the brightest star in the Eastern sky and indicates the following day’s sunrise. For around three days the sun appears to stand still before starting its ascent upwards and back to the heavens.

The summer solstice (midsummer) occurs when one of Earth's poles has its maximum tilt toward the Sun. It happens twice yearly, once in each hemisphere (Northern and Southern). For that hemisphere, the summer solstice is when the Sun reaches its highest position in the sky (for areas outside of the tropics) and is the day with the longest period of daylight. Within the Arctic and Antarctic circles, there is continuous daylight during their respective summer solstices. On the summer solstice, Earth's maximum axial tilt toward the Sun is 23.44°. Likewise, the Sun's declination from the celestial equator is 23.44°.

For the northern hemisphere, the summer solstice occurs between June 20 and June 22.

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The Book of Jashar

The Book of Jasher (also spelled Jashar; Hebrew: סֵפֶר הַיׇּשׇׁר sēfer hayyāšār), which means the Book of the Upright or the Book of the Just Man, is a book briefly referenced in the Hebrew Bible. The contents of this book are unknown and the various publications claiming to be the Book of Asher are all known forgeries. The Book of Asher is most commonly believed to have been a book of poetry and song.

Jewish scholar Rashi (Shlomo Yitzchaki. 22 February 1040 – 13 July 1105) suggests this book is actually a reference to the Pentateuch - the first 5 books of the Old Testament: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

"Divided as we may be by religion, we are united by charity." -Rashi

The translation "Book of the Just Man" is the traditional Greek and Latin translation, while the transliterated form "Jasher" is found in the King James Bible, 1611.

The book is mentioned twice in the Hebrew Bible. A possible third reference exists with a variant spelling.

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According to the Book of Joshua, while Joshua was winning a battle against Adonizedek (king of Jerusalem) and his allies, Joshua prayed for the sun and moon to stand still.

Joshua 10:13 then states:

And the Sun stood still, and the Moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves on their enemies.

Is this not written in Sefer HaYashar?

The presence of this event in a book of poetry has been interpreted as a poetic description of the prolonged battle.

According to the medieval Jewish scholar Rashi, "Sefer HaYashar" in this verse refers to the Pentateuch: Jacob's prophecy regarding Joshua's ancestor Ephraim—"His seed will fill the nations"[3]—was fulfilled when Joshua's victory gave him renown among the various nations who heard of the victory.

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2 Samuel 1:18

According to the Book of Samuel, when David spoke his lament over the deaths of Saul and Jonathan, he began as follows:

To teach the sons of Judah [the use of] the bow. Behold, it is written in the book of Jasher.

The King James Version of the English Bible includes the words "the use of" in italics, material which its translator(s) added in order to render the text into what they considered understandable and comfortable English. According to some other translations (such as the English Standard Version), David taught his Judeans "The Bow" (Hebrew: קָ֑שֶׁת, romanized: qāšeṯ), which they hypothesize was a poetic lament of the deaths of Saul and Jonathan. According to this interpretation, this "Bow" was a lament or a tune contained in the Book of Jashar which that book also says was taught to the Israelites.

The Septuagint translation renders sefer hayashar in both cases as the 'book of the just'. It also misses the reference to the bow. It reads:

"And he gave orders to teach it to the sons of Judah: behold, it is written in the book of the just." — 2 Samuel 1:18

The Septuagint translation (abbreviation LXX) is the earliest Greek translation of the Old Testament from the original Hebrew. This translation is believed to have been made for the Jewish community in Egypt when Greek was the common language throughout that region.

The name Septuagint is from the Latin septuaginta - “70” - and is derived from the legend that there were 72 translators, 6 from each of the 12 tribes of Israel, who worked independently to translate the whole book to produce identical copies.

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In Kings

A possible third reference appears in I Kings 8. In the Septuagint (though not in the Hebrew text or in most translations), verse 8:53 says that the preceding prayer of Solomon is written "in the book of song" (ἐν βιβλίῳ τῆς ᾠδῆς). The Hebrew version of "book of song" could be ספר השיר (sefer ha-shir), which is the same as "Sefer HaYashar" with two letters transposed. According to Alexander Rofeh, this suggests that the name of "Sefer HaYashar" could be related to its function as a book of song, and the second word of "Sefer HaYashar" might have originally been שיר (shir, "song") or ישיר (yashir, "he will sing").