Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Peter Kirk" <Peter_Kirk AT sil.org>]

You three are arguing past one another here. In English at least, any string
of characters or phonemes can be used as a name, but any name functions
within the sentence as a nominal or noun i.e. it will appear in a noun slot
e.g. subject, object, and not in a slot reserved for a verb or any other
part of speech. Very often that name will also have a meaning as a common
word - in English, most commonly a noun, often an adjective, rarely a verb
but why not? Or sometimes the word will be meaningless, at least within the
contemporary language - words from foreign languages are common, borrowed as
names rather than as common words. I like to think that any name has hidden
inverted commas around it, like a book title. In fact all names function
like book titles: we use all sorts of words and phrases as book titles, but
as soon as we add those inverted commas they can be used as nouns within the
sentence. On this basis, I would say that )EH:YEH is certainly a verb when
looked at within the inverted commas (and YHWH YIR:)EH is a complete
sentence), but looking outside the inverted commas at the structure of the
sentence, at least in the last part of 3:14 ')EHYEH' functions as a noun, as
does 'YHWH YIR:)EH'. I have a feeling we actually used inverted commas in
3:14 in our draft translation i.e. we wrote something like: "'I am' has sent
me to you".

Peter Kirk

-----Original Message-----
From: Daniel Wagner [mailto:dan.wagner AT netzero.net]
Sent: 09 May 2001 02:03
To: Biblical Hebrew
Subject: Re: _)aSHER_ in Ex. 3:14 (was "I AM")


----- Original Message -----
From: <GregStffrd AT aol.com>
To: Biblical Hebrew <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, May 08, 2001 12:40 AM
Subject: Re: _)aSHER_ in Ex. 3:14 (was "I AM")


> In a message dated 05/07/2001 6:11:34 PM Pacific Daylight Time,
> dwashbur AT nyx.net writes:
>
> << Excuse me?  Dan isn't taking 'ehyeh as a nominal.  His whole
>  point is that it's a verb, and hence can't be part of a verbless
>  clause.  >>
>
> He said he views the second 'EHYEH as a name, that is a NOMINAL. It may
have
> verbal associations, but it is a nominal.

No, the name *is* itself a finite verb. We don't have any parallels, but i
think that the first )EHYEH is used intentionally to show by rhetorical
parallelism that the 2nd )EHYEH is also a verb. God's name is thus summed up
in His covenant self-identification / self-revelation to His people as
"I-AM" (i don't want to transliterate the 2nd verb, i think that is a
mistake and miscommunicates the intent).

But that is not the only reason why )ANI )EHYEH will not work as a noun
clause. The other reason is the grotesque ambiguity in such a statement.

> The same as the example I gave
> concerning YHWH in Exodus 9:27. Are you reading the entire message? YHWH
has
> verbal associations as a proper name derived from HYH, but it is
frequently
> the subject or predicate of a verbless clause.

There is a real difference in my mind between a name having verbal
associations (and i agree that YHWH does) and a finite verb itself being
used as a name itself. Sorry if i didn't make that clear, but i wasn't
thinking down the line as you took it, though i can see how you came to that
conclusion from a couple of my comments about YHWH and HYH / HWH roots. Same
applies to the rest of your comments below.

Dan Wagner

<snip>