Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Ian Hutchesson" <mc2499 AT mclink.it>]

>Ian,
>the following examples show that BYOM can be qualified by two COORDINATED
>clauses. 
> 
>> Isa 30:26b
>> bywm xb$ yhwh 't-$br `mw
>>      wmxc mktw yrp'
>> 
>Here we have BYOM+INF+X W+X+IQTOL. I was talking about the pattern
>BYOM+INF+X WQATAL (or WAYYQTOL) + X.
>But again, your examples above are better for the argument that BERESHIT 
>in Gen 1.1 could have been qualified by more than one clauses, than
>the other examples you cited whose pattern is BYOM+INF+X WAYYQTOL + X. 
>  
>> Obadiah 11
>> bywm `md:k mngd 
>> bywm $bwt zrym xyl:w 
>>      wnkrym b'w $`r:w 
>>      w`l-yrw$lm ydw gwrl 
>> gm-'th k'xd mhm
>
>
>Here the pattern is BYOM + INF + X W+X+QATAL W+X+QATAL. The three clauses
>following BYOM are coordinated clauses and thus all of them qualify BYOM.

Moon,

As the writer of Jeremiah showed with br'$yt in 26:1 and 49:34, 
the time localiser can be initial (26:1) or postponed (49:34) 
while saying basically the same thing. Two out of the four 
examples of br'$yt in Jeremiah are initial, the first two. The 
third refers to the same reign as the other two.

What necessary difference do you see between 

  wayyiqtol b-noun ()

and

  b-noun () wayyiqtol

or could they, also, be the same thing?

Could literary purposes allow such a thing? For example, at the 
start of a book one usually puts something which explains what 
the book is about at the beginning. Again, if the time apparatus 
is placed initially it provides a contextualisation for the 
first action and it doesn't interrupt the structure of the 
formalised creation narrative, in which each day starts with God 
saying something and ends with "and there was evening and there 
was morning, day x". Such a structure would be disturbed by the 
insertion of a general time localizer, especially if it is as 
large as I would have it. Wouldn't it be better outside the 
narrative itself and at the beginning?

(Incidentally, I have just come across an edition of Genesis with 
Hebrew text and commentaries which starts somewhat as I have 
advocated, "At the beginning of God's creating..." I'll get the 
bibliographical data.)


Ian