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b-hebrew - Re: Re[2]: Genesis 1 & 2

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  • From: "Dave Washburn" <dwashbur AT nyx.net>
  • To: b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu
  • Subject: Re: Re[2]: Genesis 1 & 2
  • Date: Sun, 5 Dec 1999 14:15:14 -0700


Jonathan wrote in part:
> Additionally, we have to consider the great probability that the source
> material for
> Genesis came from other languages and was translated into Hebrew at the
> level of
> redaction. So during the redaction process with the combining of the
> sources, there is
> a translation element here that causes us to lose the ability to look for
> redactionary
> indicators in the grammar. Take this for example. I like to say that the
> first source
> ends with the very end of 2:4 after eretz ve-shamayim, and I make verses
> 2:5-2:6 (in
> their entirety) a redactional insertion that attempts to smooth out the 2
> sources, and I
> make the second source start with verse 7, vayitsar. Of course the notion
> of an
> independant source starting with a vayyiqtol is ludicrous, but the Akkadian
> or West
> Semitic or even Protosemitic source need not necessarily start with an
> imperfective
> form, if there even was such a thing in the source language, as we are
> working with
> the translation into Mosaic/Davidian Hebrew. So in this respect, detailed
> grammar
> analyses are only useful for exegesis. You cannot apply grammar to theories
> of
> redaction if you are working with a text that was translated as it was
> redacted.

Actually, the idea of an independent source starting with a
wayyiqtol isn't ludicrious at all. We have such forms all over the
Hebrew Bible starting new sections, new thoughts, even a whole
book like Jonah. While I agree that it's possible some sources
were written in other languages, there's nothing inherently ludicrous
about a Hebrew source starting with a wayyiqtol. See F. I.
Andersen, "The Sentence in Biblical Hebrew" on wayyiqtol's use to
begin a new idea, as well as my paper "Perspective and Purpose:
Understanding the Josiah Story" in _Trinity Journal_ 1991 (there's
also a link to it as a WordPerfect file at
www.nyx.net/~dwashbur/cv.html).


Dave Washburn
http://www.nyx.net/~dwashbur
Teach me your way, O Lord, and I will walk in your truth;
give me an undivided heart that I may fear your name.
Psalm 86:11




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