Biblical Hebrew Forum

["UUC" <unikom AT paco.net>]

I always wondered, If the grammar is so complicated, how did the ancients
spoke these languages, anyway? Surely it looked to them simpler than that.


Sincerely,

Vadim Cherny


> Serves to prove the view that the waw consecutive verbs are not imperfects
at all, but preterites (past tense) with a non-converse waw. The jussive is
formed off the preterite, hence both forms are shorter than the imperfect.
>
>
>
> Best regards,
>
> GEORGE ATHAS
> Lecturer in Biblical Languages
> Southern Cross College
> Sydney, Australia
>
>
>   ----- Original Message -----
>   From: Harold R. Holmyard III
>   To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
>   Sent: Tuesday, May 25, 2004 6:22 AM
>   Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Vav consecutive Gen 1:3
>
>
>   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
>
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