Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Dave Washburn" <dwashbur AT nyx.net>]

Peter,
> I agree that this example is one of many difficult to interpret on a 
> strictly sequential view of WAYYIQTOL, and so I no longer hold to that 
> view. My point here was that it is simply wrong to think of each 
> WAYYIQTOL as in some way a new beginning. Your suggested translation, 
> while not wrong in point of fact, is at the level of a 3-year-old's 
> picture book. No, Hebrew used other devices, not the ubiquitous (in 
> narrative) WAYYIQTOL, to start new stories or new sections of stories, 
> or to pick up after digressions.
> 
> Of course I don't claim that this verse exhausts the possibilities for 
> WAYYIQTOL. But can you show me cases where WAYYIQTOL alone signifies a 
> major break? I doubt it, because it can and very often does (as here) 
> signify no break at all, and so there would be no way to distinguish a 
> major break from no break at all.

Do me a favor and show me where I used expressions like "new 
beginning" and "major break"?  I've explained before that this is not 
what I mean by "syntactic break" and in fact I claim no such thing.  
Major breaks and new beginnings, while often begun with 
wayyiqtol, are signaled by context, not grammatical forms.


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