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  • From: Dave Washburn <dwashbur AT nyx.net>
  • To: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Vav consecutive Gen 1:3
  • Date: Wed, 26 May 2004 13:42:52 -0600

I would think the answer would be obvious: it's only complicated to us, it
wasn't to them because they were native speakers.

On Wednesday 26 May 2004 07:54, UUC wrote:
> 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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--
Dave Washburn
http://www.nyx.net/~dwashbur
Learning about Christianity from a non-Christian
is like getting a kiss over the telephone.





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