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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] The Tetragrammaton; aia; is there a name in Ex3:14?

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  • From: Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>
  • To: Vadim Cherny <VadimCherny AT mail.ru>
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] The Tetragrammaton; aia; is there a name in Ex3:14?
  • Date: Thu, 04 Aug 2005 14:44:54 +0100

On 04/08/2005 14:05, Vadim Cherny wrote:

I know I will be sorry for this - but how do you "experts"
rationalize that "Ehyeh" is "I am" and not "I will be"?


"I will be" is modern Hebrew. But it has long been known that in
biblical Hebrew this "imperfect" or prefix form is often used in past
and present contexts, and that the main element distinguishing it from
the "perfect" or suffix form is that the action is continuing or
repetitive, like the Russian imperfective aspect.


Peter forgot to tell that this is not a fact, but a convenient option for
exegesis.


Well, if not a "fact", a word I didn't use, it has certainly been the predominant scholarly understanding for well over a century.

Russian, for that matter, has both tenses and aspects. English, too, has
aspects, though they are grammatical constructs, not single words. What
language has aspects but not tenses? Nonsense.


Chinese. Arabic. Burmese. Many others - although sometimes not quite purely so. This is not nonsense.

--
Peter Kirk
peter AT qaya.org (personal)
peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
http://www.qaya.org/





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