Biblical Hebrew Forum

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

Dave, I am quite happy with "... The earth [at that point] was TOHU and
BOHU etc." i.e. the X-QATAL as concurrent. What I am saying the Hebrew
probably doesn't mean is "... The earth then became TOHU and BOHU etc.";
for X-QATAL is not normally consecutive.

Peter Kirk

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Dave Washburn [mailto:dwashbur AT nyx.net]
> Sent: 03 April 2002 17:53
> To: Biblical Hebrew
> Subject: RE: TOHUW WA BOHUW, Gen & Jer. (hyth)
> 
> Peter,
> I'm not sure I understand why you're pushing for a pluperfect here.  I
> see no reason not to view the X-qatal as concurrent with v.1: "In the
> beginning God created the heavens and the earth.  The earth [at
> that point] was TOHU and BOHU etc."  At a discourse level, I see
> v.2 narrowing the scope of the narrative.  We have creation of both
> heavens and earth in v.1, then we focus on earth for the rest of the
> discourse.
> 
> > To me, what fits the Hebrew and the context is "had become" which is
> > almost equivalent to "was", but not "then became".
> >
> > Peter Kirk
> >