Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Polycarp66 AT aol.com]

In a message dated 1/4/2003 9:53:16 AM Eastern Standard Time, I wrote:

> In a message dated 1/4/2003 9:17:39 AM Eastern Standard Time, 06PETERSON AT cua.edu writes:
>
> > This may be somewhat overstated. Aside from the three instances in this 
> > chapter, the other two forms you note (and their compounds) are the only forms 
> > we expect to see meaning "where." If we had one of those forms, there would be 
> > no question. As it is, we have a form that looks exactly like a first person 
> > jussive from HYH in the G stem. BDB's argument is that several ancient 
> > versions translate it as where, and what the word looks like seems unlikely. 
> > (We don't expect a jussive in the first person, nor does it make as much sense 
> > in this context.) I'm always a little bit hesitant about arguing such things 
> > on the basis of what does and does not seem to fit best in a given context, 
> > but I do think the problem with the jussive form needs to be addressed. That's 
> > why, as I said in my earlier post, I'd be more inclined to consider this an 
> > old preterite form, although that doesn't fit very well either. The solution 
> > proposed by BDB is to treat this word as some sort of otherwise unattested 
> > alternate form of the interrogative. The solution proposed by HALOT and BHS is 
> > to consider it a textually corrupted form of the interrogative.
>
>
> I would take it to be the interrogative particle )aY with the he locale.


I might add that already in the 1 c. A.D. St. Paul understood it thus since in 1 Cor 15.53 he wrote

POU SOU, QANATE, TO NIKOS?
POU SOU, QANATE, TO KENTRON?

gfsomsel