myBibleHistory

Ancient Mysteries & Interpretations

The Lost Book of Jashar and the Day the Sun Stood Still

Joshua and 2 Samuel quote a "book of Jasher," an ancient collection of poems now lost. Books published since 1625 under the same name are different works. The sun-and-moon poem it supplied has been read as a miracle, as poetry, as a prayer for darkness, and as an eclipse.

Book: lost · Later "Jasher" books: not the original · Eclipse: a proposal

1 What Scripture says

"Is not this written in the book of Jasher?" (Joshua 10:13). "Behold, it is written in the book of Jasher" (2 Samuel 1:18).

2 What evidence we might expect

  • Other quotations of the book; manuscripts if it survived.

3 What ancient sources survive

Sefer ha-Yashar (the ancient book)

Language
Hebrew
Composed
Before the final form of Joshua and Samuel
Oldest surviving copy
None; known only from quotations
Status
Lost

Sefer ha-Yashar (Venice, 1625)

Language
Hebrew
Composed
Medieval or early modern midrash
Oldest surviving copy
Printed 1625; English translation 1840
Status
Not the ancient book

A retelling of Genesis to Judges.

"The Book of Jasher" (1751)

Language
English
Composed
1751
Oldest surviving copy
Printed 1751 (Jacob Ilive)
Status
A forgery

4 What discoveries exist

Colin Humphreys and Graeme Waddington (2017) calculated that an annular solar eclipse was visible from Canaan on 30 October 1207 BC and proposed it as the event of Joshua 10. Vainstub, Yizhaq and Avner (2020) also interpreted the passage as an eclipse. These calculations show what could have been seen; they cannot show that Joshua saw it, and the date fits some chronologies and not others.

5 How interpretations compare

Traditional reading

Prolonged day

God miraculously extended the daylight.

Scholarly reconstruction

Poetry

An old victory poem read literally by the prose that follows.

Alternative explanation

NASA's "missing day"

A claim that computers found a lost day.

Assessment: An urban legend with no source.

6 The strongest supported reconstruction

The Book of Jashar was a real ancient source now lost. Joshua 10 quotes a poem from it; what the poem describes is a matter of interpretation.

7 What remains possible or unknown

  • The contents of the lost book.
  • Whether the poem describes a physical event, and which.

What the evidence shows

Where this connects