Literatuur

• Cesare Rossi , Ancient Engineers’ Inventions, Precursors of the Present, , [2009], 27-40,

  Chapter 3: MEASURING TIME

• - - , Institute for Biblical & Scientific Studies, , The Sun's Shadow Moved Back
• - - , Algemeen, , Paula Tobenfeld: THE SUNDIAL/STEPS OF AHAZ
• - - , Institute for Biblical & Scientific Studies, , Annie S. D. Maunder, F.R.A.S., THE SHADOW RETURNING ON THE DIAL OF AHAZ , From: JASA 3 (March 1951): 32
• - - , Institute for Biblical & Scientific Studies, , J. Lowell Butler, MIRAGES ARE LIGHT BENDERS, From: JASA 3 (December 1951): 1-19.
  Hezekiah's Sundial
  Speaking of Isaiah reminds me of another interesting supernatural mirage that occurred in his time, when Hezekiah was king of Judah. The story is recorded in two places In the Bible, in 2 Kings 20 end Isaiah 38. It tells us that God "brought the shadow ten degrees backward by vh1ch it had gone down in the dial of Ahaz. -2 Kings 20:11. In the book of Isaiah it is recorded in these words, "So the Sun returned ten degrees, by which degrees it was gone down."--Isaiah 38:8. This supernatural mirage occurred in the afternoon also; but instead of making the Sun appear to stand still, it caused it to appear to move backwards or upward, some distance. The ten degrees of the sundial of Ahaz, used by Hezekiah, may represent eighty minutes, or one and one-third hours.²⁵⁾ A supernatural superior mirage of the Sun could easily have produced the backward movement of the sundial shadow ten degrees. If a lateral mirage will apparently move a mountain some 900, certainly a supernatural mirage could apparently move the Sun 100 or more.
  The reader may be interested tn a discussion of these subjects which began recently (Sep., 1951) in the journal of the American Scientific Affiliation, Vol. 3) No. 3, with two articles entitled "Joshua's Long Day" by E, Walter Maunder, F.R.A.S, late Superintendent of the Solar Department of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich England; and "The Shadow Returning on the Dial of Ahaz," by Annie S. D. Maunder, F.R.A.S. A discussion follows each article. These are reprints from the Journal of Transactions of the Victoria Institute in London, England. Copies of the Journal of the A. S, A. may be had at $1.00 each by writing to the secretary, Dr. H. Harold Hartzler, 107 W. Plymouth Avenue, Goshen, Indiana. The discussion will be continued in this journal.
  ²⁵⁾ Encyclopaedia Britannica', 1929 edition; article on "Calendar," Vol. 4, P. 576, sub-heading 'tabylonian and Assyrian." Also Dictionary of the Bible by John B. David~ article on "Dial," p. 177; 1939. Also Daniel 4:19 and John 11:9.
• - - , Algemeen, , Karl Schwarzinger, Sistrans, Austria, Old Egyptian Instruments in Cairo for the Determination of the Day Time
• - - , Algemeen, , Fer de Vries, De schaduw loopt terug
• - - , Algemeen, , Guy Cramer, Isaiah's Sundial & Joshua's Long Day
• Encyclopedie , Jewish Encyclopedia, , Isidore Singer & Judah David Eisenstein, HOROLOGY: The science of the measurement of time.
• Rabbi Dr. I. Epstein , Soncino Babylonian Talmud, , Babylonian Talmud: Tractate Sanhedrin, Folio 96a
  To what does the 'four steps' refer? -- As it is written, At that time, Merodach-baladan, the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah: [for he had heard that he had been sick, and was recovered].²⁷  But just because Hezekiah had fallen sick and was recovered, he sent him letters and a present!²⁸  Indeed 'to enquire of the wonder that was done in the land.'²⁹  For R. Johanan said: The day on which Ahaz died consisted of but two hours;³⁰  and when Hezekiah sickened and recovered, the Holy One, blessed be He, restored those ten hours, as it is written, Behold, I will bring again the shadow of the degrees, which is gone down in the sun dial of Ahaz, ten degrees backward. So the sun returned ten degrees, by which degrees it was gone down.³¹  Thereupon he [Merodach-baladan] inquired of them [his courtiers], 'What is this?' They replied, 'Hezekiah has sickened and recovered.' 'There is such a [great] man,' exclaimed he, 'and shall I not send him a greeting! Write thus to him: "Peace to King Hezekiah, peace to the city of Jerusalem, and peace to the great God!"' Now Nebuchadnezzar was Baladan's scribe, but just then he was not present. When he came, he asked them, 'How did ye write?' And they told him, 'We wrote thus and thus.' 'Ye called him the great God,' said he, 'yet ye mentioned him last! Thus,' said he, 'should ye have written: "peace to the great God, peace to the city of Jerusalem, and peace to King Hezekiah."' 'Let the reader of the letter,' said they to him, 'become the messenger.'³²  So he ran after him;³³  but when he had taken four steps, Gabriel came and made him halt. R. Johanan observed: Had not Gabriel come and stopped him, nothing could have saved³⁴  the enemies of Israel.³⁵
  
  27. Isa. XXXIX, 1.
  28. Surely not!
  29. II Chron. XXXII, 31.
  30. I.e., it set ten hours too soon, to allow of no time for the funeral obsequies and eulogies. This was in order to make atonement for his sins, for the disgrace of being deprived of the usual funeral honours expiates ones misdeeds, as stated supra 46b and 47a.
  31. Isa. XXXVIII, 8. The return of the ten degrees is assumed to mean a prolongation of the day by ten hours, light having healing powers.
  32. I.e., let him who gave the advice carry it out.
  33. I.e., the messenger, who was already on his way, to recall him and rewrite it.
  34. Lit., 'there would have been no remedy for ...
  35. A euphemism for the Jews themselves. Had he run further and actually carried out his desire, his title to reward would have been so great as to enable him to wipe out Israel. The scholarly children of the ignorant --- a synonym here for the wicked -- should thus be informed that the honour paid to them is due to the slight merit of their fathers, as in this case.

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