Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter_Kirk AT SIL.ORG]

Interesting question. But what view exactly did Ewald put forward?

How about Psalm 72:2-11 as an example - but these are yiqtols not 
qatals.

LXX, KJV, RV, NIV translate with future tenses and makes the psalm 
Messianic. (NIV footnotes the alternative)

Delitzsch, NJB, NRSV, TEV, New Living Translation, 19th century 
Turkish translate with "let him" type constructions, and the psalm 
simply becomes a prayer.

Any correlation with religious views? Or with developing understanding 
of Hebrew? Or simply with who prefers LXX to MT?

Peter Kirk


______________________________ Reply Separator 
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Subject: BH, agendas and tenselessness?
Author:  decaen AT chass.utoronto.ca at internet
Date:    14/02/1999 13:27


i continue my studies on that fateful year of 1826 when ewald came up 
with his idea of the verbal system based on his study of sanskrit and 
comparative indoeuropean studies. in part i have argued that this view 
was motivated by 19th cent racism, a view not original with me.

i am interested in developing other ideas about other agendas, other 
motivations beyond racist views of mind and language. i believe that 
the tenselessness is functional in many ways.

one idea i want to explore is tenselessness and christian readings of 
prophetic texts. this came up in my reading of literature aimed at 
converting jews. jews familiar with hebrew and the prophetic texts 
would not read crucial texts as required by christians. this involves 
crucially the use of hebrew qatal, otherwise a past/perfective/realis 
form. if the system **only** encodes aspect, then we are free to read 
crucial texts as future and irrealis. so.... at a really basic level, 
the tenseless approach is highly functional for christian apologists.

what do you think of this idea?

if you come across really good cases in respectable literature and 
commentary that employs this argument in reading the prophets, I'd be 
grateful for references. pamphlets from jews for jesus, e.g., wouldn't 
count for me.

cheers
V
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Dr. Vincent DeCaen <decaen AT chass.utoronto.ca>
c/o Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations 
4 Bancroft Ave., 2d floor
University of Toronto
Toronto ON, CANADA, M5S 1A1

Hebrew Syntax Encoding Initiative
http://www.chass.utoronto.ca:8080/~decaen/hsei/ 
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Scepticism is the chastity of the intellect, and it is shameful to 
surrender it too soon or to the first comer.     --Santayana

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