17
edits
Changes
→Hezekiah's illness: Added third option for sundial
Some commentators have insisted that this event must have been a freak accident. John D. Davis tried to connect it to a partial [[solar eclipse]] that, he said, occurred on May 6, 724 BC--earlier even than the [[Fall of Samaria]]<ref name=Davis>Davis, John D. ''Illustrated Davis Dictionary of the Bible.'' [[Nashville]], [[Tennessee]]: Royal Publishers, 1973, ISBN 0878360018.</ref> Ussher, who kept a strict account of astronomical manifestations, mentions no such eclipse in that year.<ref name=Ussher/> Ussher also maintains that God accomplished a total reversal of time, so that the event did not leave any lasting sign other than contemporary records.<ref name=Ussher/>
Some commentators have insisted that this event must have been a freak accident. John D. Davis tried to connect it to a partial [[solar eclipse]] that, he said, occurred on May 6, 724 BC--earlier even than the [[Fall of Samaria]]<ref name=Davis>Davis, John D. ''Illustrated Davis Dictionary of the Bible.'' [[Nashville]], [[Tennessee]]: Royal Publishers, 1973, ISBN 0878360018.</ref> Ussher, who kept a strict account of astronomical manifestations, mentions no such eclipse in that year.<ref name=Ussher/> Ussher also maintains that God accomplished a total reversal of time, so that the event did not leave any lasting sign other than contemporary records.<ref name=Ussher/>
A third possibility is that the earth's inclination to the ecliptic was increased. A sundial measures both time of the day, and also by the length of the shadow at noon, it measures the sun's angle in the sky. If the sundial had a series of marks on a line going north from the pedestal, the shadow would always be moving one direction for each of the four seasons. If say, the event occurred in May, when the sun's noon shadow had been getting shorter for almost sixty days, and suddenly it got ten day-steps longer, the shadow could be said to have gone "backwards ten steps". If God changed the angle of the Earth's axis of rotation by a few degrees this is what would result.
Whether Hezekiah's illness took place before the mass killing of Sennacherib's soldiers, or afterward, the Bible does not make entirely clear. What is clear is that Hezekiah recovered from his illness.<ref name=AllAboutGod/>
Whether Hezekiah's illness took place before the mass killing of Sennacherib's soldiers, or afterward, the Bible does not make entirely clear. What is clear is that Hezekiah recovered from his illness.<ref name=AllAboutGod/>