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  • From: Peter_Kirk AT SIL.ORG
  • To: furuli AT online.no, b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu
  • Subject: Re[2]: wayyiqtol test
  • Date: Sun, 14 Feb 1999 00:38:16 -0500 (EST)



But in LXX, the wayyiqtols in both Ex. 8:14 and Jer 37:12 are
translated with Greek aorists, so perfective: EPOIHSAN in Ex. 8:14 and
EXHLQEN in Jer 44:12 (LXX); so an aorist cannot be "impossible in such
situations". This tends to confirm the theory that wayyiqtol was
understood (at least in Alexandria) as perfective even in contexts
which indicate some conflict with perfectivity, i.e. they got the
perfectivity from the verb form and not from the pragmatics. But I
don't see any necessary contradiction with perfectivity:

Ex 8:14: They did try something (and then gave up), they did not
succeed.

Jer 37:12: The point where Jeremiah was arrested, B.:$A(AR (v.13),
could well have been considered as outside the city, such that
Jeremiah did complete going out of the city.

Jer 38:9: the wayyiqtol is rendered in LXX by the present
(imperfective) infinitive APOKTEINAI (45:9 LXX), which may suggest a
hiphil form of MWT in the LXX Vorlage and so sheds doubt on the form
WAY.FMFT in the original Hebrew.

Peter Kirk


______________________________ Reply Separator
_________________________________
Subject: Re: wayyiqtol test
Author: furuli AT online.no at internet
Date: 13/02/1999 13:48

<snip>

Let me use three examples of wayyiqtols which show the imperfectivity of
the form, two of them are conative and the third is future:

Ex. 8:14 "The magicians tried by their secret arts to bring forth gnats,
but they could not. So there were gnats on man and beast. "

Jer. 37:12 "Jeremiah set out from Jerusalem to go to the land of Benjamin
to receive his portion there among the people." (Jeremiah did not leave
Jerusalem)

Jer. 38:9 "My lord the king, these men have done evil in all that they did
to Jeremiah the prophet by casting him into the cistern; and he will die
there of hunger, for there is no bread left in the city." (Jeremiah did not
die)

As far as I know, all examples of conative situations in the Hebrew OT and
Greek NT are described by Greek imperfect/ present (imperfective) and
Hebrew yiqtol/wayyiqtol (imperfective). If my model is correct, an aorist
or a qatal/weqatal would be impossible in such situations.


Regards
Rolf

Rolf Furuli
Lecturer in Semitic languages
University of Oslo




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