Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter_Kirk AT SIL.ORG]

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