Biblical Hebrew Forum

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

Rolf,
> What I do know is that there is no orthographic difference between
> WAYYIQTOLs and WEYIQTOLs in unpointed texts. Apocopation is found in both
> groups. Further do I know that Origen in the third century CE did not
> differentiate between WEYIQTOLs and WAYYIQTOLs. He transscribed both the
> WE- and WAYY- prefixes as OU.

That should tell you something about his knowledge of Hebrew!  I
know Origen seemed to know some, but it would appear from this
that either his pronunciation was pretty poor (i.e. he didn't speak it
at all) or he had an awful time figuring out how to render it in Greek.
Either way, I have doubts about how far to trust Origen on this point.

> The first time the five "groups" YIQTOL, WAYYIQTOL,WEYIQTOL, QATAL, and
> WEQATAL are seen in writing, is in the Masoretic text. So it is legitimate
> to ask: On which basis did the Masoretes do their pointing? I am in the
> process of research, and appreciate all material that can throw light on
> this question.

You're reinventing the wheel.  It's been done many, many times.
Every so often somebody comes along who questions the
Masoretic pronunciation (e.g. Loprieno), but the ideas never catch
on because, from all we know about them, the Masoretes simply
passed on what they had received.  I believe you said yourself that
they weren't grammarians, so the idea of them inventing this
system is less than compelling.  Their concern was preservation,
not invention.

On a somewhat related note, and to put it rather bluntly, how much
evidence would it take to convince you that they did in fact faithfully
preserve the language as it was passed to them, especially wrt the
wayyiqtol?


Dave Washburn
http://www.nyx.net/~dwashbur
"Éist le glór Dé."