3rd September 2025 Question box

So, today’s question refers to a verse in the Old Testament, Joshua 10:13. Here’s the verse:

So the sun stood still,
and the moon stopped,
till the nation avenged itself on its enemies,
as it is written in the Book of Jashar.

This is one of three times where the book of Jashar is mentioned in the bible (it also gets quoted in 2 Samuel and 1 Kings). Now the question is:

What is this book of Jashar? Is it referring to another book of the bible?

Well, the answer is “no” – because these quotes don’t turn up in any other book of the bible. All the quotes are in poetic format, and so it appears to have been an epic poem about the history of Israel. It’s a book that seems to have been lost.

So was the book of Jashar inspired by the Holy Spirit? Like, are there lost scriptures that we might find one day? No, I don’t think we should think of it like that. The book of Jashar is a poem which records real historical events. In oral cultures people often preserve history through poetry, because its easier to remember.

And so quoting this poem is a bit like, imagine if, in a sermon, I used a line from the famous poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson: “the charge of the light brigade.” If you don’t know that poem, it was written 150 year ago, about a real battle in the Crimean war. Now, if I quoted it, if I said: “Cannon to right of them, 
Cannon to left of them…” …I would be quoting things that are true. But it wouldn’t necessarily mean that I think the poem is scripture.

And the bible includes quotes from other sources too:

• The “Book of the Wars of the Lord” (e.g. Numbers 21:14)
• The “Book of the Annals of the Kings of Israel” (e.g. 1 Kings 14:19)
• The “Book of the Annals of the Kings of Judah” (e.g. 1 Kings 14:29)

I think the point is that the books of the bible refer to real historical events. But what the bible is doing is telling true those stories with a theological perspective. The books of the bible are teaching us to interpret real historical events from God’s point of view. See, the whole bible is about helping us to make sense of the way that God has worked in real history to save us.

So thanks for that question! We’ll do another next week.

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This question was originally answered in our evening service on 6 April 2025. I’ll aim to post another question and answer next week. You can read about how our question box works here.