Joshua's Total Solar Eclipse at Gibeon
Emil Khalisi
TL;DR
This paper reanalyzes the biblical story of Joshua's eclipse, confirming the 1131 BCE eclipse as the likely event and improving the calculation of Earth's rotational deceleration.
Contribution
It provides a detailed re-computation of the 1131 BCE eclipse and refines the error margin for Earth's rotation deceleration parameter.
Findings
1131 BCE eclipse is the most probable event linked to Joshua's story
Recomputed Besselian Elements for the 1131 BCE eclipse
Improved accuracy of Earth's deceleration parameter error margin
Abstract
We reanalyse the solar eclipse linked to the Biblical passage about the military leader Joshua who ordered the sun to halt in the midst of the day (Joshua 10:12). Although there is agreement that the basic story is rooted in a real event, the date is subject to different opinions. We review the historical emergence of the text and confirm that the total eclipse of the sun of 30 September 1131 BCE is the most likely candidate. The Besselian Elements for this eclipse are re-computed. The error for the deceleration parameter of Earth's rotation, , is improved by a factor of 2.
Peer Reviews
No public reviews on file for this paper yet. If you reviewed it on a platform where reviews are public (OpenReview, ICLR, NeurIPS, ICML), you can paste yours below so the community can read it here.
Videos
No videos yet. Explain this paper in a talk, walkthrough, or lecture? Add one.
Taxonomy
TopicsGeophysics and Gravity Measurements · Solar and Space Plasma Dynamics · Historical Astronomy and Related Studies