Biblical Hebrew Forum

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

Hi John,

you wrote:

> Peter_Kirk AT SIL.ORG wrote:
> 
> > Interesting, I had never looked at the X + qatal in Gen 4:1 before.
> > Two possibilities: this is sequential and a genuine exception to the
> > regular pattern;
> 
> Peter (or anyone), is it a "regular pattern" that when you have the
> start of a new episode (as opposed to X + qatal within a story), X +
> qatal is a flashback/pluperfect?
> 


We are discussing just your question elsewhere on list, in a couple posts
entitled Qatal, 1Ki 11:1, and my latest blooper which was meant to be
off-list but which I sent to everyone.  I am suggesting that yes, an
episode-initial or paragraph-initial X-qatal gives antecedent information,
but Randall says that my idea not so reliable.  I would like to explore the
thought some more, so let me put forward, more properly for list
consumption, the query I posted to Randall on this topic:

Gen 3:24 reads (I'm labelling clauses with letters):

a.   "And he drove out (wayyiqtol) the man, 
b.  and he placed (wayyiqtol) to the east of the Garden of Eden..."  

Consider the writer's options for his next clauses (Gen 4:1):

option (c1 and d)
vayhi beda`at ha'adam 'et xavah 'ishto vat.ahar
"And then it happened (wayyiqtol hyh) when the man knew (infinitive) Xavah
his wife that she became pregnant (wayyiqtol)."

option (c2 and d)
vay.eda` ha'adam 'et xavah 'ishto vat.ahar
"And then the man knew (wayyiqtol) ...and she became pregnant.

option (c3 and d) the actual text:
veha'adam yada` 'et xavah 'ihsto vat.ahar
"Now the man, he had known (qatal)...and she had become pregnant."

Of course, our knowledge of the world (and the birds and the bees in
particular  ;-)  ) tells us
the events of 4:1 are in sequence, but do the linguistic options I list
above for describing the events denote any recognizable difference in how
they temporally relate c and d (4:1) to a and b (3:24)?  (This question is
more or less the question of Peter Kirk about sex in the garden for which
Nachman brought up the Rashi commentary.)  Is 4:1 in sequence with 3:24 or
not or can't we tell?  Do my translations appropriately represent the
differences in the Hebrew?  

Thanks for your coments!

Bryan



B. M. Rocine
Associate Pastor
Living Word Church
6101 Court St. Rd.
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