Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter_Kirk AT SIL.ORG]

Dear John,

I accept that you have made a strong case with your Genesis 42 example 
for wayyiqtol not being inherently strictly sequential. I would judge 
that if you could come up with 2-3 other non-sequential cases as 
strong as your number 9 (to reduce the chance that this is a corrupted 
text, a seam between sources, or a simple error) your case is well 
proved. Bryan's explanation is interesting, but seems a little 
contrived; I suppose that authors could deliberately use an otherwise 
inappropriate verb form for emphasis, but is there other evidence of 
this?

1 Kings 15:17,21 addresses a different issue, that of perfectivity 
rather than sequentiality. (Is perfective necessarily sequential? Not 
where marked as a "pluperfect" at least.) In verse 17 I think Russian 
might well use a perfective verb meaning something like "he did some 
building work at Ramah" cf. my "Ivan pochital gazetu" meaning "Ivan 
read for a bit from the newspaper", or else another one meaning "he 
started to build Ramah" (in fact after writing this I read the actual 
Russian translation: it has "began to build", perfective). These 
meanings are perfective and not incompatible with verse 21; they also 
explain why "and he finished it" is needed at 1 Kings 6:9, for Hebrew 
does not have the variety of prefixes which Russian can use to 
distinguish different types of perfective action (e.g. starting, doing 
for a bit, completing).

This reminds me of a little problem which I came across while listening 
to a sermon in English with Russian translation. The preacher quoted 
from Genesis 2:2: "on the seventh day God rested". The Russian 
translator searched subconsciously no doubt for an appropriate 
perfective form and came up with "began to rest", as more appropriate 
than the alternative "took a (short) rest". Perhaps he was thinking of 
an interpretation, corresponding to Hebrews 4:1-11, in which God's 
resting from creation is continuing until today. But the preacher, who 
knows Russian and was probably thinking of the seventh day in terms of 
a 24 hour period, objected to the translation and obviously tried to 
get the translator to translate (as the printed Russian text does) 
"took a rest". Now can we actually tell from Genesis 2:2 in Hebrew 
(apart from any theological arguments!) which of these meanings was 
intended? I suppose only the strictest adherents of sequential 
wayyiqtol would want to argue that the wayyiqtols in verse 3 must have 
taken place after God had completed his rest. We also have the X qatal 
in verse 3 which on my theory means "God had rested", but then perhaps 
(especially if we give qatal adjectival force) it means "God was 
resting". Quite a complicated little question.

By the way, I would provisionally take wayyiqtol and qatal as 
perfective; and suggest that weqatal has two separate meanings 
(possibly of different origin), one perfective and one imperfective.

Peter Kirk