Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Paul Zellmer" <zellmer AT digitelone.com>]

In our recurring discussions on whether or not the wayyiqtol encodes, to
some degree, sequentiality, a question keeps coming up in my mind.  If
the wayyiqtol *does not* include this feature, what is the source?
After all, the normal case is that there are few, if any, adverbial type
features (whether true adverbs or prepositional phrases acting as
adverbs) to indicate the sequence of events, and there is no conjunction
that carries this information, like the English, "then."

A case in point is the narrative in Gen 2.  If one were to take that
narrative to 100 people, almost all of them would see it as sequential.
This includes those who use this very sequentiality combined with their
identification of the forming of the animals to indicate the disparity
between Gen 1 and Gen 2.  And even those who don't require it to be
sequential, like our own Dave Washburn, give the appearance that their
first take was that it was, indeed, a sequence.  It was only to get Gen
2 to come in line with Gen 1 that he pointed out that, in his opinion,
the wayyiqtol does not encode sequentiality and that the forming of the
animals, which he equates to their creation, probably preceded the
formation of man.  This seems ad hoc to me.  Hence, I rephrase my
question: what objective markers are there in BH to show that events are
sequential or non-sequential?

Thanks,

Paul

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Paul and Dee Zellmer, Jimmy Guingab, Geoffrey Beltran
Ibanag Translation Project
Cabagan, Isabela, Rep. of Philippines

zellmer AT digitelone.com