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  • From: "Dave Washburn" <dwashbur AT nyx.net>
  • To: b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu
  • Subject: Re: Gen. 2:19
  • Date: Wed, 20 Jan 1999 21:28:41 -0700


George Athas wrote, incorporating his correction:
> Hi Mark.
>
> I just had a few comments on your explanation of the use of waw
> consecutive in Gen 2:19. Waw Consecutive verbs serve to advance events
> in a narrative. They are not to be translated as pluperfects. They are
> the next event in a narrative. You would not normally use a waw consecutive
> form to say, "X had happened." You would use a waw consecutive to say,
> "Then X happened."

The key word there is "normally." The problem is, it's a form that is
also used to open narratives, begin whole books (such as Jonah)
and provide an explanatory aside as in 2 Sam 19:2 (see my article
on this passage in TC at
http://scholar.cc.emory.edu/scripts/TC/vol01/Washburn1996.html
for details). The view that George has stated is the general "party
line" view of both traditional grammar and of current discourse
approaches. However, neither approach has managed to provide a
unified syntactic explanation of the various uses of the so-called
imperfect with waw-consecutive, which I tend to abbreviate WP.
For a different approach, see my article in *Hebrew Studies* 1994
beginning on p. 27. It is true that the WP is the form of choice for
simple narrative, but this is because it is a simple declarative
sentence, not because it carries a value of consecutivity. As such
it can carry just about any meaning including past and pluperfect.
Even Waltke and O'Connor, who declared it to be "always
subordinate," recognized this fact, though they could not explain it
adequately with their structuralist approach. The upshot is, as has
already been pointed out, that one's presuppositions about the text
will most likely determine whether one translates Gen 2:19 as a
past (consecutive) or as a pluperfect, and either one is possible
within the range of usage of the WP.

Dave Washburn
http://www.nyx.net/~dwashbur
A Bible that's falling apart means a life that isn't.




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