Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Harold R. Holmyard III" <hholmyard AT ont.com>]

Dear Chris,

> I really mean it, I don't go looking for trouble but:
>
> Genesis 1:2  --  Let there be light and there was light.
>
> My grammar book states ( about the perfect + imperfect sequence):  "The vav
> consecutive is used nowhere else in the whole hebrew verb system except
> here".  I.E. Vav with patach.
>
> So? YHi (yod heh yod) being a jussive is followed by exactly the same except
> with Vav consecutive, and as I understand it one cannot point the vav in
> this manner EXCEPT on a vav consecutive. Yet this second verb is also
> imperfect.
>
> Now you can all obliterate my reasoning because as is usual I have to be
> missing something obvious.

HH: I changed the header since the verse you cite is Gen 1:3. You may 
be overlooking something. The preceding verb of importance may be 
"and he said," because "Let there be light" is an object clause for 
the verb of saying. So "and he said" is the main clause. The thought 
progression may be: "And he said something, and there was light." So 
the waw consecutive on "and there was" may follow a similar waw 
consecutive on "and he said," which may go back to the QATAL verb 
"was" in Gen 1:2: "darkness was."

                                Yours,
                                Harold Holmyard