Biblical Hebrew Forum

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

Hi Dave,

You mention Jdg 12:8-12 as a counter example to the theory that the
wayyiqtol marks sequentiality.  Hatav also mentions that you have this
counter-example.  She considers it a candidate for one of the 3%
unexplained counter-examples in her corpus, and offers a "genre-effect"
type of explanation.  She cites a private conference with Comrie in which
Comrie suggests that when the speaker/writer strays from narrative proper,
the sequential forms may appear in odd places.  She suggests the passage
here approaches chronicle or history rather than narrative proper.  Well,
you know how I throw around the word genre--like a mechanic throws around
oil in the engine room of an old ship--but Hatav's explanation seems thin
to me.  Here's a bit of the passage in question presented clause-by-clause:

8    After him Ibzan...judged(wayyiqtol) Israel
9a  And he had(wayyiqtol) thiry sons
 b   (an X-qatal not germane to this discussion)
 c   And he judged(wayyiqtol) Israel seven years
10a And Ibzan died(wayyiqtol)
   b  And was buried(wayyiqtol) in Bethlehem

Of course, your problem is not with the last three clauses which are
obviously sequenced.  The problem is with 8, 9a, and 9c which are obviously
not sequenced, but are still presented as a string of wayyiqtols.  But what
happens if you take out 9c?  You are left with a easy seuence: he judged,
he had kids, he died, he was buried.  The problem, then, is only with 9c,
in which the repetition of the verb wayyi$pot is conspicuous.  9c is
resumptive.  It first paraphrases(here by identity) the essential
proposition of 8, wayyi$pot, but adds the additional complement "for seven
years."  I think paraphrase accounts for a lot of the wayyiqtols that do
not seem to move the narrative time forward.  

It's really no problem in English, e.g. imagine the radio commentator at
the Bulls game:  "Jordan slammed it home. He rammed the ball down.  He
dunked right over Charles Barkley."  Does the series of sentences describe
Jordan scoring six points or two?  I say two.  The sportscaster used the
English simple past which defaults for moving forward narrative time and
for the mainline of historical narrative. However he creates no confusion
because we undrstand two things: (1) We understand someone on the other
poor team has to touch the ball in between Jordan scoring baskets, and
radio sportscasters notify their audiences of such things.  (2) We
understand that when the sportscaster is paraphrasing, that narrative time
is slowed or stopped.  None of the three sentences said by the sportscaster
is an exact paraphrase of the others; each one adds some detail.  But
paraphrase allows the use of the narrative mainline form for a non-sequence
of events.  

A similar case in BH, one which I think we have discussed before is Gen
7:17-18:

17b  The waters increased(wayyiqtol)
   c  And they lifted(wayyiqtol) the ark
   d  And it rose(wayyiqtol) above the earth
18a  And the waters grew great(wayyiqtol)
   b  And they increased(wayyiqtol) greatly
   c  And the ark moved(wayyiqtol) upon the face of the earth

I don't need to try to somehow defend that all these wayyiqtols are
sequential in order to hold the party line.  ;-)   On the other hand, I
would like to maintain the party line with this exception: the writer is
allowed to use non-sequential wayyiqtols in a series because of the
paraphrase that's going on here.

Shalom,
Bryan


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

315-437-6744(w)
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