Scientists have identified the date of the oldest recorded solar eclipse — an event that occurred on October 30 in 1207 B.C.
Using a combination of material from the Bible and an ancient Egyptian text, researchers were able to refine their understanding of when the Egyptian pharaohs ruled, in particular the reign of Ramesses the Great.
Lines from the Old Testament book of Joshua state that after Joshua led the people of Israel into Canaan — a region that covered modern-day Israel and Palestine — he prayed: “Sun, stand still at Gibeon, and moon, in the Valley of Aijalon. And the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, until the nation took vengeance on their enemies.”
“If these words are describing a real observation, then a major astronomical event was taking place — the question for us to figure out is what the text actually means,” said Colin Humphreys from the University of Cambridge in the U.K.
“Modern English translations, which follow the King James translation of 1611, usually interpret this text to mean that the sun and the moon stopped moving,” said Mr. Humphreys.
Going back to the original Hebrew text, we determined that an alternative meaning could be that the sun and moon just stopped doing what they normally do: they stopped shining,” he said.
“In this context, the Hebrew words could be referring to a solar eclipse, when the moon passes between the earth and the sun, and the sun appears to stop shining,” he added.
“This interpretation is supported by the fact that the Hebrew word translated ‘stand still’ has the same root as a Babylonian word used in ancient astronomical texts to describe eclipses,” he said.
Independent evidence that the Israelites were in Canaan between 1500 and 1050 B.C. can be found in the Merneptah Stele, an Egyptian text dating from the reign of the Pharaoh Merneptah, son of the Ramesses the Great, researchers said. The large granite block, held in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, says that it was carved in the fifth year of Merneptah’s reign and mentions a campaign in Canaan in which he defeated the people of Israel.
