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b-hebrew - Re: Verb (haya) 'to be' - help

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  • From: Polycarp66 AT aol.com
  • To: Polycarp66 AT aol.com, b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu
  • Subject: Re: Verb (haya) 'to be' - help
  • Date: Sat, 4 Jan 2003 10:02:49 EST

In a message dated 1/4/2003 9:53:16 AM Eastern Standard Time, I wrote:

In a message dated 1/4/2003 9:17:39 AM Eastern Standard Time, 06PETERSON AT cua.edu writes:

This may be somewhat overstated. Aside from the three instances in this
chapter, the other two forms you note (and their compounds) are the only forms
we expect to see meaning "where." If we had one of those forms, there would be
no question. As it is, we have a form that looks exactly like a first person
jussive from HYH in the G stem. BDB's argument is that several ancient
versions translate it as where, and what the word looks like seems unlikely.
(We don't expect a jussive in the first person, nor does it make as much sense
in this context.) I'm always a little bit hesitant about arguing such things
on the basis of what does and does not seem to fit best in a given context,
but I do think the problem with the jussive form needs to be addressed. That's
why, as I said in my earlier post, I'd be more inclined to consider this an
old preterite form, although that doesn't fit very well either. The solution
proposed by BDB is to treat this word as some sort of otherwise unattested
alternate form of the interrogative. The solution proposed by HALOT and BHS is
to consider it a textually corrupted form of the interrogative.


I would take it to be the interrogative particle )aY with the he locale.


I might add that already in the 1 c. A.D. St. Paul understood it thus since in 1 Cor 15.53 he wrote

POU SOU, QANATE, TO NIKOS?
POU SOU, QANATE, TO KENTRON?

gfsomsel



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