Did. Joshua really stop the sun?

Short answer? No—there’s no scientific proof that Joshua literally stopped the sun.

Longer, more interesting answer? Let’s unpack why people still debate it.

What science says

From a physics and astronomy standpoint, the sun doesn’t move around the Earth—the Earth rotates. For the sun to “stand still” in a literal sense, Earth’s rotation would have to stop or drastically slow down. That would cause catastrophic effects: global earthquakes, oceans sloshing over continents, atmospheric collapse, and mass extinction. There’s no geological, astronomical, or physical evidence that such an event ever happened.

Astronomy also leaves us with a paper trail. Ancient civilizations (Chinese, Babylonian, Egyptian) recorded eclipses and planetary movements very carefully. None record a global day that suddenly doubled in length or anything remotely like it.

So scientifically? ❌ No confirmation.

What people sometimes claim

You may hear a few popular claims floating around:

NASA “missing day” stories – these have been repeatedly debunked and don’t come from NASA at all.

Ancient eclipse theories – some suggest Joshua 10 refers to a solar eclipse. But eclipses last minutes, not “about a whole day,” and don’t stop the moon as the text says.

Poetic or phenomenological language – describing how the event appeared to observers, not what literally happened cosmically.

None of these rise to the level of scientific proof.

What the text itself suggests

Joshua 10:12–13 is written in ancient Hebrew poetic style and even cites another source (“the Book of Jashar”), which already hints that the passage may be:

Phenomenological (how it looked from the ground)

Poetic/liturgical

A theological claim about divine victory, not an astronomy lesson

From a Karaite-style Tanakh reading, this matters. Scripture communicates truth, but not every truth is scientific literalism. The Tanakh often uses cosmic imagery to describe divine intervention without requiring a violation of natural law as we understand it.

Bottom line

Science: No evidence the sun literally stopped.

History: No independent corroboration.

Textually: The passage functions as theological narrative, not scientific reporting.

Whether one sees Joshua 10 as miracle, metaphor, or divine timing described in human language depends on theological framework—not science.