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There are several things I'd like to know about this passage:

And Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “What shall be the sign that the LORD will heal me, and that I shall go up to the house of the LORD on the third day?” And Isaiah said, “This shall be the sign to you from the LORD, that the LORD will do the thing that he has promised: shall the shadow go forward ten steps, or go back ten steps?” And Hezekiah answered, “It is an easy thing for the shadow to lengthen ten steps. Rather let the shadow go back ten steps.” And Isaiah the prophet called to the LORD, and he brought the shadow back ten steps, by which it had gone down on the steps of Ahaz.—2nd Kings 20:8-11 (ESV)

  1. What is causing the shadow?
  2. How did the shadow move back ten steps?
  3. Why was it easier to go backward than forward?
  4. Why did Hezekiah need a sign in the first place?

The commentators assert that some type of sundial was implied, but I don't see where that idea comes from in the text. It looks like an educated guess.

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Another astronomy question I've been meaning to ask. – Jon Ericson♦ May 23 '12 at 6:36

2 Answers

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NASA interprets the passage:

...tells of an "accidental" sundial, in which the number of steps covered by the Sun's shadow on a staircase was used to measure the passage of time. In that story, the shadow miraculously retreated ten steps on the staircase built by King Ahaz.

The word translated "steps" also is translated as "degrees" (likely anachronistically) and is translated "dial" in the last verse (AV) as the "dial of Ahaz". If it were not an object such as as stairs or a sundial, then Ahaz possessed 'degrees' which would imply he had his own unit of measure for astrological movement perhaps, but not likely.

Using NASA's framework:

  1. The building that the stairs led to is the most probable source of the shadow, but a nearby statue would fare just as well.

  2. Speculation involves, that the earth rotated backwards, or pivoted on a different axis. Why we would look for a naturalistic mechanism when the text says God did it is beyond me. Both of these speculations carry massive geological upheavals if they occurred naturalistically. God would have had to miraculously cover these effects since there is no record of these massive upheavals. A better speculation is that time is not continuous, but quantized. Existence can change between one quantum state and another without having to pass through supposed intermediate states. If every moment is a newly created quantized state in the mind of God, then in the blink of a thought He can do as He wills.

  3. It was easier to go forward than backward. It happens every day when I fall asleep for a moment. He moved it backward.

  4. God was speaking to him through Isaiah. Isaiah offered the sign to prove that God was speaking through him. When someone comes claiming to speak for God, it would be fair to ask, "How do I know what you say is from Him?"

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I agree that we don't need a naturalistic mechanism to explain it. It probably causes more problems than it solves as you indicated. Thanks for the well-grounded answer. +1 – Jon Ericson♦ May 24 '12 at 23:23
I did a triple-take before I realized you were really quoting NASA. Good quote, tho. I agree with @JonEricson and you that a naturalistic explanation of a supernatural phenomenon is absurd. I'm puzzled why you went ahead and offered a speculation about it after that. +1 for helpful material. – Kazark May 25 '12 at 0:14
My speculation challenges our sense of reality. It is a physical model that explains why God can do what He wants instantaneously. If creation happened in timelessness or a quantum existence, then it doesn't matter how far the stars are from us, their light can still reach us. It doesn't matter how old the mountains look, we can still have radiation halos in the same rock. – Bob Jones May 25 '12 at 5:31
@Jon Thanks for the fix. – Bob Jones May 25 '12 at 5:32
I don't see any problem with looking for a natural mechanism to explain a divine act. Many of the Bible's phenomenon can be described by natural phenomenon: the plagues of Egypt, the great flood, even Genesis. The question could be rephrased "by which existing natural mechanism did the divine being cause the shadow to move back" just as the divine being used natural mechanisms to cause the plagues of Egypt. – dotancohen Jun 18 '12 at 15:21
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This was also recorded by the chinise on the same date. They said the sun set and later rose back up.They had two sunsets in one day. Other sisemic events were recored on this date globily. Answer The sun or the planets did not move, the earth didn't stop spining. It was a polar shift of the earth's crust mayby ten or more degrees. Recently Around the time of the Japan earth quake the earth shifted around 4 degrees at the poles.

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Wow, those are some fascinating claims! Do you have references? – Kazark Jan 3 at 2:31

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