Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Bryan Rocine" <596547 AT ican.net>]

B-Haverim,

What do you guys think of the qatal of hyh in v. 2 weha'arec haytah tohu
vabohu  ?  here it is in series with a verbless clause and a participle
clause.  why did the hyh surface?  why not a verbless clause?  I happened
to get a sneak preview of the intriguing article by Vincent DeCaen on the
verbless clause that is coming out in the new Eisenbrauns publication
edited by Cindy Miller.  in it, he's considering hyh to be notional in
verbless clauses and wondering why hyh surfaces sometimes and not others. 
might it be that hyh is not merely a copula?  given the loaded use of hyh
in Gen 1, might weha'arec hayta tohu vabohu mean "and the earth
*became*..." or "and the earth had become..."?

it's interesting to me how such a lexical and verbal semantic micro issue
can have such a macro effect on our understanding of Gen 1.

Shalom,
Bryan


B. M. Rocine
Associate Pastor
Living Word Church
6101 Court St. Rd.
Syracuse, NY 13208

315-437-6744(w)
315-479-8267(h)