Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Studium Biblicum Franciscanum <sbfnet AT netvision.net.il>]

 On  05/06/99 (Re[4]: Tidbits from Ruth (Alviero)) Oeter Kirk wrote:


> John Ronning wrote to Prof. Niccacci:
> 
> <long snip>
> 
> I'm sorry I've lost your message that I was thinking of (something to do 
> with instructions for the tabernacle or maybe offerings for the 
> dedication of the tabernacle or consecration of Aaron and his sons) - I 
> thought you had shown that in the instructions both weqatal and x-yiqtol 
> were used, and in the description of the completion, both were described 
> with wayyiqtols; thus both weqatal and x-yiqtol were "mainline."  I was 
> suggesting the same is true for historical narrative - both wayyiqtol and 
> sometimes x + qatal are mainline.  I was asking what type of evidence you 
> would have to see to agree that x + qatal can be "mainline" in historical 
> narrative.
> 
> <snip>
> 
> (PK): Did Prof. Niccacci really show this, or has there been some 
> confusion here? If I remember rightly, there is a clear rule that 
> weqatal in the instructions for the tabernacle etc is replaced by 
> wayyiqtol in the narrative of the construction, and x-yiqtol is 
> replaced by x-qatal; this suggests that weqatal and wayyiqtol are 
> mainline and x-yiqtol and x-qatal are background, within these 
> discourses.

____________________________REPLY____________________________________________
Dear Peter Kirk,

the situation of x-yiqtol is very complex. I will try to review the evidence:

- The making of the tabernacle is treated in Exod. 26 (God's instruction to Moses) and in Exod. 36 (execution).
If you have A. Bendavid's _Parallels in the Bible_ (a very useful book, as pointed out by Camille Bessette, even in the era of computers), you'l find the two texts on page 173:

1) Exod. 26:1 (instruction) we'et-hammi$kan ta`aSeh `eSer yerî`ot (= waw-x-yiqtol) "You shall make the tabernacle with ten hangings"
versus 36:8 (execution) wayya`aSû ... 'et-hammi$kan `eSer yerî`ot (= wayyiqtol) "And they (...) made the tabernacle with ten hangings."

2) Exod. 26:1 (instruction) kerubîm ma`aSeh xo$eb ta`aSeh 'otam (= x-yiqtol) "It is in the form of cherubim, the work of a seamster, that you shall make them (the hangings)"
Versus 36:8 (execution) kerubîm ma`aSeh xo$eb `aSâ 'otam (= x-qatal) "It is in the form of cherubim, the work of a seamster, that he made them (the hangings)."
One may consult my _Syntax_ ##58-59.

3) Exod. 18:22 (instruction) (...) wekol-dabar haqqaTon yi$peTû-hem "while any minor matter they shall judge by themselves."
versus 18:26 (execution) (...) wekol-haddabar haqqaTon yi$pûTû hem "while any minor matter the used to judge by themselves."
See my _Syntax_ #60.

- Thus we have three different cases:
1) INITIAL x-yiqtol in direct speech becomes wayyiqtol in historical narrative, i.e. INITIAL x-yiqtol is mainline in direct speech with reference to the future.

2) NONINITIAL x-yiqtol in direct speech becomes x-qatal in historical narrative, i.e. NONINITIAL x-yiqtol is offline in direct speech. The correspondence of x-qatal in historical narrative suggests that x-yiqtol is semantically perfective, i.e. indicates a single event.

3) NONINITIAL x-yiqtol in direct speech remains x-yiqtol in historical narrative. Why does it not become x-qatal? I suppose because this x-yiqtol is semantically imperfective, i.e. it denotes a repetition, habit, or description (according to the context).
This means that this offline x-yiqtol occurs both in direct speech and in historical narrative; however, its time value in the target language is different--future and imperfect, respectively.

With this we have only discussed INDICATIVE, NONVOLITIVE x-yiqtol.

Peace and all good.
Alviero Niccacci