In Joshua 10 the sun 'stood still' over Gibeon so Israel could finish a battle — 'about a full day.' Christians read it several honest ways: as a genuine cosmic miracle; as poetic, phenomenological language (how the sky looks from the ground, as we still say 'sunrise'); or as describing an unusual local event, even a hailstorm-darkened or refracted sky. What it is NOT is proof from science. The popular story that 'NASA's computers found a missing day' confirming it is a long-debunked hoax — NASA has said no such thing, and the tale collapses on inspection. We set that aside: the passage stands on the text and its readings, not on a myth.
- Joshua 10:12–14: the sun 'stood still' about a full day at Gibeon.
- Honest readings range from a literal miracle to poetic/phenomenological language to a local sky event.
- The 'NASA found a missing day' story is a well-documented hoax — NASA never claimed it.
What the evidence showsThe text and the range of serious interpretations are real and worth laying out; and being honest about the debunked 'NASA missing day' story is itself a mark of integrity that critics can respect.
Where it stopsThere is no scientific confirmation of a literal stopped sun, and the 'missing day' claim is false; how to read the passage is a genuine interpretive question, not one archaeology or astronomy can settle.
Sources & further reading