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b-hebrew - Re: Gen 4:1, X + qatal , John

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  • From: "Bryan Rocine" <596547 AT ican.net>
  • To: "Biblical Hebrew" <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: Gen 4:1, X + qatal , John
  • Date: Fri, 12 Feb 1999 16:30:17 -0500


Hi John, It's a lot of fun hacking through real examples! you wrote:

>Bryan wrote
> > The use of the X-qatal in 18:7 indicates that while Sarah was baking,
> > Abraham was running.
>
> Like I said, we'el habbaqar rats Abraham is functionally
> equivalent to wayyarots Abraham 'el habbaqar, since if we
> had the former you would be compelled to give an identical
> interpretation as you gave above. This interpretation would
> be dictated by the context + logic, not the verbal form
> used.
>
> I'm confused, however, comparing the above with what you
> proposed before:
>
> Bryan wrote:
> > 1. X-qatal--->wayyiqtol
> >
> > 2. wayyiqtol--->X-qatal
> >
> > Series (1), when found at the beginning of a narrative paragraph
> > (anywhere in a pericope), will give antecedent information, describing

> > the situation at the time when the following wayyiqtol pushes the
> > narrative time forward.
> > I think this is your pluperfect idea, Peter.
> >
> > In (2), the X-qatal gives simultaneous (with the preceding wayyiqtol)
> > information. It functions as a topicalizing clause; that is, it
shifts
> > the focus of the narrative from the layout of a plotline to the layout
of
> > information which clarifies, contrasts with, or is simultaneous with
> > the plotline. Is pluperfect an accurate characterization of X-qatal
in
> > this second series? Doesn't seem quite right to me.
> >
>
> Bryan, isn't the Gen 18:7 example series 2, in which case
> (per your hypothesis) Abraham's running to the herd would
> have to be simultaneous with him giving directions to Sarah?

Notice I said that the running is simultaneous with Sarah's *baking* not
Abraham's speaking. In that the X-qatal follows in a series with vayo'mer,
which of course it does, we would have to strictly consider the running as
simultaneous with the speaking. But writers are not as strict as we
grand-standing grammarians. The X-qatal follows *notionally* Sarah's
implicit obedience to Abraham's instructions. The X-qatal is simultaneous
with a notional or understood (i.e., elided) wayyiqtol meaning "then she
baked": vato'peh or "and then she did as he had commanded": vata`aseh
ka'a$er civah 'abraham. I am not just trying to play grammatical
slight-of-hand. Doesn't our world knowledge inform us that Abraham ran
while Sarah baked? But where is the baking? It has elided from the
surface representation. I think the narrator is trying to create a sense
of breathlessness, and the wayyiqtol representing Sarah's baking is
implicitly clear enough to be dispensable from the representation.

>
> And doesn't the example of Gen 19:22-25 which we discussed
> before fit under series 1 (specifically v. 23 is X + qatal
> at start of paragraph), which per your analysis would make
> the sun rise (and Lot's arrival and the fire and sulphur)
> pluperfect, rather than joined with the following? (I grant
> it's not quite the same as your series 1 because here you
> have three X + qatals before you get to the wayyiqtol).

I said my piece on this example in an earlier post in the same thread.
I'll stick by it.

>
> Another case that shows that wayyiqtol plus X + qatal can be
> functionally equivalent to wayyiqtol plus wayyiqtol (and not
> simultaneous) is Gen 24:46:
> wa'esht wegam haggemallim hishqathah - I drank, and also she
> watered the camels.
<snip>

Your example from Gen 24:46 is very interesting, and the events are indeed
sequential. Here we see that the Hebrew story-teller has options available
to him. Certainly, Abraham's servant *could* have used a wayyiqtol for
representing R's watering the camels and in so doing he would represent the
little history as a series of events. By choosing for the second clause an
X-qatal, he represents the little history as a package. A real series of
events does not require representation as a series of events. Why the
"package" representation? It enabled Abraham's servant to point to the
attribute of Reb. as a fulfillment of his prayer for godspeed. "Then I
drank, but even of the camels--she was a waterer (of them)."

Shalom,
Bryan


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

315-437-6744(w)
315-479-8267(h)




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