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b-hebrew - Re: Qatal, 1 Kings 11:1

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  • From: "Dave Washburn" <dwashbur AT nyx.net>
  • To: b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu
  • Subject: Re: Qatal, 1 Kings 11:1
  • Date: Sat, 23 Jan 1999 15:17:36 -0700


Peter wrote:
> If we follow the regular understanding of N + qatal in 1 Kings 11:1,
> the point is not that Solomon "had a thing for" foreign women or
> "habitually fell in love with them". I guess that would require a
> participle. Here, rather, the sense is pluperfect: at some time
> previous to the events described in the previous passage, Solomon "had
> fallen in love with" many foreign women and so was, at the narrative
> time, in a state of love regarding them - cf an English or Greek
> perfect or pluperfect tense. Indeed, they had become his wives and
> concubines. I understand Bryan's conception of the qatal as stative as
> relating in that way to its pluperfect "flashback" sense - is that
> right, Bryan? Maybe the older grammarians were not as wrong as we
> sometimes think in calling the qatal form "perfect".

My purpose in offering that text was to set a couple of clauses in
the context of Bryan's fientive/stative context. If I understand his
approach correctly, the stative idea that Solomon had an eye for
numerous foreign women would be the essential force of the qatal
in that verse. I wouldn't use the expression "fall in love" at all in
that clause, though "was in love" might be workable.


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




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