Biblical Hebrew Forum

[GregStffrd AT aol.com]

In a message dated 05/09/2001 7:15:02 AM Pacific Daylight Time, 
dstabno AT lifeway.com writes:

<< Therefore, _)NY )HYH_ is not a suitable way to communicate a name, because
 there would be nothing to tell the hearer that _)HYH_ is the predicate of a
 verbless sentence.  >>


If 'EHYEH is being introduced as a proper name then the simple verbless 
clause 'ANI 'EHYEH would convey the same thing in terms of predicate identity 
as 'ANI YHWH. Both 'EHYEH and YHWH are verbal, but stand in the typical 
predicate position of a verbless clause. If they are used as proper names, 
then the verbal associations are only present in the meaning of the names, 
not as part of the grammatical function in the sentence; hence, no 
grammatical ambiguity would result if the context was clear in using the 
terms as proper names. 


<<  The hearer would interpret it as a verbal sentence,
 expect an object, perhaps marked by lamed, and would think that the object
 is missing.  Now, admittedly, any way that one tries to express one's
 self-identity as a verb, one is going to stretch the conventions of
 language.  So perhaps _)NY )HYH_ would be one possible way of doing that.
 But the Lord chose a different way to stretch the conventions of language. >>


Well, that is the issue. But you admit it is a possible way of introducing 
'EHYEH as a name. It is a common way for God to express his identity, in 
fact, by using a verbless clause. However, to use 'EHYEH 'ASHER to introduce 
a name (to serve as the subject and copula of an equative sentence) is 
unheard of in BH as far as I can see. If you have any examples of an 'EHYEH 
'ASHER construction, or just with 'EHYEH, where the function is to serve as 
the subject and copula of an equative sentence, then we can discuss this 
issue further. 

Best regards,

Greg Stafford