Biblical Hebrew Forum

[ROGLAND AT rullet.LeidenUniv.nl]

        Dear Rolf,
        
        Thanks for the reply.  It raises two questions in my mind.  
        Firstly, what sort of present "meaning" do you attribute to the 
        formula?  Is it a "performative present", "timeless present", 
        etc.?  I was assuming that you meant the former, but please let me 
        know if that was a mistake.  Secondly, I'm curious to know why you 
        think that God's voice *must* have a present "meaning".  It does not 
        appear self-evident to me.
        
        Best wishes for your research,
        
        Max Rogland
        Leiden University
         
> I agree with your quote from Krispenz, that in contexts with "to me" the
> _koh 'amar yhwh_ formula does not have a present meaning, but rather a
> perfect or past meaning. However, I think we should distinguish between
> "past tense" (=grammaticalized location in time) and "past meaning"
> (location in time based on either pragmatic or semantic factors). In some
> cases  the _koh 'amar yhwh_ formula evidently represents God's "voice" and
> must have a present meaning. Based on such examples I think that most of
> the occurences of the formula have present meaning.