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[Transplant]

Are there any non biblical but from same time period writings that talk about the sun standing still (Joshua 10:12), sun moving backwards (Isaiah 38:8), zombies (Matthew 27:52), river backing up to a whole other town(Joshua 3:16) and other worldwide happenings (minus the flood - I know each ancient people seem to have their own stories) or is the Bible all that we have to go on these?

[jimwalton]

> Are there any non biblical but from same time period writings that talk about the sun standing still (Joshua 10:12)

John Walton has done research and says that it was an issue of omens happening, not the Earth stopping its rotation. He writes, "The Mesopotamian celestial omens use verbs like “wait,” “stand” and “stop” to record the relative movements and positions of the celestial bodies. When the moon and/or sun do not wait, the moon sinks over the horizon before the sun rises and no opposition occurs. When the moon and sun wait or stand, it indicates that the opposition does occur for the determination of the full moon day. The omens in the series known as Enuma Anu Enlil often speak of changing velocities of the moon in its course to effect or avoid opposition with the sun. Likewise in v.13 the text here reports that the sun did not hurry, but instead stood in its section of the sky. It should be noted that the text does not suggest the astronomical phenomena were unique, instead, v. 14 says plainly that what was unique was the Lord accepting a battle strategy from a man (“the Lord listened to a man,” v. 14). A Mesopotamian lamentation (first millennium) shows this same type of terminology for divine judgment when it speaks of heavens rumbling, earth shaking, the sun laying at the horizon and the moon stopping in the sky, and evil storms sweeping through the land. Joshua’s knowledge of the Amorites’ dependence on omens may have led him to ask the Lord for one that he knew would deflate their morale—for the opposition to occur on an unpropitious day."

As far as extra biblical writings concerning the same thing, Walton also writes, "Perhaps more than any other chapter of Joshua, chapter 10 is filled with material that possesses parallels in ancient Near Eastern literature and can be further illuminated by comparisons with aspects of contemporary culture. In its totality, it resembled the annalistic accounts of the ANE. Kitchen has noted the manner in which Egyptian and Hittite annalistic accounts of the Late Bronze Age preserve an overall structure similar to Joshua 10."

> sun moving backwards (Isaiah 38:8)

Craig Blomberg writes that "It is best understood as a miracle involving the movement of the shadow (all that the Bible ever describes), not of the entire solar system." Peter Nagy concurs: "The Bible never claims the sun moved, but only the shadow. Nor does the text say there was any change in elapsed time. Isaiah also makes no mention of any time change in his account (Isa. 38.7-9)."
It could have easily have been an eclipse.

I got this from a now unknown source: "When a total eclipse happens (as happened across the US in August of 2017), viewers in the path of the eclipse experience about two minutes of total darkness. When the solar eclipse works its eerie wonders on August 21, shadows will behave strangely. Pin-hole openings in tree leaf cover will project tiny eclipses on the ground. Some people will see shadow waves—bands of shade moving across the ground.

"In 702 BC, the 16th year before Hezekiah’s death, a prominent solar eclipse appeared over the Middle East (see online NASA’s Five millennium Catalog of Solar Eclipses). If a stairway had been engulfed in darkness and then restored to daylight, the shadow would have appeared to retreat."

> zombies (Matthew 27:52)

Ha, ha, they weren't zombies. This term is just derogatory Internet disdain for the account. To discredit this story, one must answer the following questions:

1. If Jesus has power over death, why is this story impossible?

2. If those who were much closer to the situation historically considered it to be historiographical (the early Church Fathers) rather than symbolic, poetic, or metaphorical.), on what basis do you reject it (other than, "sounds silly to me" or "Oooh, zombies.")?

3. What did Matthew have to gain by making up such a story? It's only brings scoffers out of the woodwork if it isn't true and discredits his own narrative.

4. What other evidences do you have from Matthew's Gospel that the disciples were a bunch of gullible and foolish superstitionalists?
river backing up to a whole other town(Joshua 3:16)

Adam is modern Damiya on the east side of the Jordan just south of the where the Jabbok River flows it, 18 miles north of the fords at Jericho. The steep banks of the Jordan are particularly susceptible to mudslides because of the large amount of water flowing together here from the two rivers.

The Jordan River valley experiences earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater about every 200 years. The high banks in the region, along with the tectonic nature of the Jordan Valley have contributed to periodic collapses of earthen mounds into the river, damming it temporarily. These mud slides occur about 25 miles upriver from Jericho that could temporarily cut off the flow, and there have been about 10 such slides in the past 2500 years, and at least three times in recent history: 1267, 1906, 1927. On the last occasion, the river was blocked for some 21 hours.