Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] YHWH...Was..Is..Will (shall) be

b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Biblical Hebrew Forum

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "Harold R. Holmyard III" <hholmyard AT ont.com>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] YHWH...Was..Is..Will (shall) be
  • Date: Wed, 3 Aug 2005 12:41:55 -0500

Dear Gene,

I questioned earlier:

I would like to ask the members of the list, if there
are any who would like to present what they believe is
the best translation of this phrase.

hayah howeh yihyeh

I only received a few responses, but Shoshanna had
this to say:

He was, he is, he will be

Peter responded with this:

Well, Shoshanna, that is the meaning in modern Hebrew.
But in biblical
Hebrew these verb forms were not tenses, at least
certainly not in this
simple sense. See the whole recent thread on verbs,
from which you might
well conclude that the Hebrew verb is mysterious after
all. At least,
the result of such investigations is that such a
phrase is
untranslatable without a context.


HH: Gene, what text are you quoting? Without a context, as Peter said, your request for a translation seems to involve a hidden agenda. The first is a QATAL from HYH, the second a Qal participle from HWH, and the third a YIQTOL from HYH. A participle would normally involve another element giving the subject, like a pronoun.

Yours,
Harold Holmyard





Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page