Question Corner

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Sep 5, 1895

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 21, No. 35.

“If ye will inquire, inquire ye.” “But avoid foolish questions.”

No. 235. Lost Time.

PLEASE explain Joshua 10:12, 13 and Isa. 38:8. How much time was lost, and how is it accounted for? L. W. H.

The passages read as follows:—

“Then spake Joshua to the Lord in the day when the Lord delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon. And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day.” Joshua 10:12, 13.

“Behold, I will bring again the shadow of the degrees, which is gone down in the sundial of Ahaz, ten degrees backward. So the sun returned ten degrees, by which degrees it was gone down.” Isa. 38:8.

We do not see as the text needs an explanation. It simply states a historical fact in the customary language of common people. If God wished to stop the sun and moon in their courses, or the earth on its axis, he has the power, and this is what he did. In the second instance the Lord brought the shadow backward. He might have done this by the refraction of the light, or by the stopping of the earth, probably the former. In either case it was a miracle.

“How much time was lost” in the miracle with Joshua?—Not any. Joshua gained about a day. The great miracle did not affect chronology at all. It made that day longer, that is all. The whole time is called in the next verse “a day.” If it were Monday, it made a longer Monday. The next day was Tuesday, just as much as though the miracle never occurred. The day stopped and waited, no more and no less. It does not need accounting for in any way.

No. 236. Cain’s Wife.

WHERE did Cain get his wife? He went to the land of Nod; but how came she there when not a woman was then living but Eve? G. B. S.

How does our querist know that “not a woman was then living but Eve”? Gen. 4:1-24 gives an account of Cain’s life and posterity from his birth to the sixth generation. This must have been nearly to the time of the flood. The record then goes back and records the birth of Seth (verse 25), and other sons and daughters (chap. 5:1-4). The reasonable supposition is that Cain’s wife was one of the daughters of Adam or Seth. The events of the Bible are not always in chronological order.