Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Joe A. Friberg" <JoeFriberg AT email.msn.com>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Alviero Niccacci" <sbfnet AT netvision.net.il>
Sent: Monday, December 27, 1999 12:46 PM

<<

Dear Galia Hatav,

How would you explain the fact that in the examples below the same
event is expressed with wayyiqtol in one case, and with first-place
qatal or second-place x-qatal in the other?

- 2 Sam 12:26 wayyillaHem yô'ab berabbat benê `amôn -- wayyilkod
'et-`îr hammelukâ
  versus 12:27  (Joab sent messengers to David and said )
        nilHamtî berabbâ -- gam-lakadtî 'et-`îr hammayim.
- Gen 40:2      wayyiqtzop par`oh `al $enê sarisayw ...
  versus 41:10  (The chief cupbearer said to Pharaoh)
        par`oh qatsap `al-`abadayw ...

In my _Syntax_ pages 41-43 I have listed about 20 such cases,
and the list is far for being complete.

From these examples I deduced that verbforms are used
differently in historical narrative and in direct speech. In
historical narrative wayyiqtol is used while in direct speech qatal
or x-qatal (with no visible difference in this particular case).
Specifically, wayyiqtol is used to narrate historically (*erzählen*
in German) while (x-) qatal is used to *report* an event orally
(*berichten* in German). This distinction is clearcut in the examples
above because the same verbal roots are used for the same event,
which is first narrated by the historian, then reported in direct
speech.

>>



Professor Niccacci:

Could it be that the distinction between the historical narrative and the
direct speech in these cases is because of the relative contemporaneity of
the direct speech narratives in each case?  In each of the above examples,
the narrative is first person; perhaps the initial qatal indicates the
relative proximity, in time and perhaps personal interest, of the events
narrated.  Conversely, if a native BH speaker was narrating a story that was
generations removed, might they begin with a wayyiqtol?

Thanks, and God bless you!
Joe A. Friberg