Biblical Hebrew Forum

[George Athas <gathas AT mail.usyd.edu.au>]

Bryan Rocine wrote:

> 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..."?

Perhaps: "and the earth had been ..." OR "and the earth used to be ..." ?

>
>
> 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.

All the more reason to continue research into the Hebrew language!

> Shalom,

Ditto,GEORGE ATHAS
Dept of Semitic Studies,
University of Sydney
- Email: gathas AT mail.usyd.edu.au
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