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b-hebrew - RE: [b-hebrew] re:the mystery of the vav-consecutive

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  • From: "Ken Penner" <pennerkm AT mcmaster.ca>
  • To: "'Smith, Colin'" <csmith AT bbc.edu>, <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Cc:
  • Subject: RE: [b-hebrew] re:the mystery of the vav-consecutive
  • Date: Wed, 25 May 2005 16:17:07 -0400

Colin Smith wrote:

> The derivation of the wayyiqtol verb is relevant to the
> discussion. The most likely origin of the
> form is that it was an innovation, combining vav with
> doubling (assimilated nun?) and an archaic
> preterite verbal form, adapted for a new kind of literature,
> religous narrative/prose. The sacred
> writing/mythology of the other ANE languages was poetic
> (treating Middle Egyption prose as
> non-Semitic). The Hebrew Bible was the first body of Semitic
> literature to present sacred texts inprose form and it
> presented a unique circumstance in which a verbal form was
> created to suit the needs of the text - a narrative of the
> acts of a God of time/history rather than a god of nature.

Wow! That's quite a theory. Can you tie it to any evidence? What do you make
of narrative wayyiqtol in epigraphic Hebrew?

Ken Penner, McMaster/DSS
Dead Sea Scrolls scholars' list owner,
http://mailman.McMaster.CA/mailman/listinfo/g-megillot





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