Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Lee R. Martin" <lmartin AT vol.com>]

Dear Bryan and others,
I think it would be helpful to have a list of possible ways that a BH
writer could begin a narrative using subordinate information.
Does anyone have such a list? X-Qatal is one way.  Temporal adverbs is
another.  In several late books, the Infinitive construct seems to
present the same kind of information as x-qatal, but I haven't studied
them to see if they come at the beginning of narratives (Ez. 47:7; 2
Chr. 7:1; 31:1; Ezr. 9:1; 10:1 Esther 2:12; 2:15; Dan.11:34).  The usual
word for "when" (KY) is not used to begin a narrative, but is normally
used after the clause that it modifies.  Just think of how often we use
the word "when" to begin sections of narrative. A quick search of the
KJV shows 892 occurrencesof "And when...";  66 of "Now when..."; 25 of
"So when..."; and 6 of "Then when...".  BH has no such introductory
word.  X-qatal fulfills the need.


--

Lee R. Martin
Pastor, Prospect Church of God, Cleveland, Tennessee
Instructor in Hebrew and Old Testament
Church of God Theological Seminary
http://www.earth.vol.com/~lmartin/