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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] The Explicative use of wayyiqtol

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  • From: Peter Kirk <peter AT qaya.org>
  • To: John Cook <jacook AT eisenbrauns.com>
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] The Explicative use of wayyiqtol
  • Date: Fri, 21 Apr 2006 14:12:51 +0500

On 20/04/2006 18:03, John Cook wrote:
...

Examples such as Num 1:48 as well as examples I offered in my article, such
as Genesis 29:23-25a, 28-30a, demonstrate the saliency marking of WAYYIQTOL
devoid of any clear sense of temporal succession. In the latter passages, a
temporally successive interpretation leads to an odd sequence of events,
whereby Laban gives each of his daughters a maidservant between the time that
Jacob has gone in to them on their wedding night and the following morning.
It seems doubtful that Laban would have taken such an inopportune moment to
give his daughters maidservants. Instead, I think the WAYYIQTOL forms in
these instances mark the giving of the maidservants as highly salient to the
narrative---particularly poignantly expressed by being placed in the middle
of the report of the consummation of each marriage.

John, I don't hold to WAYYIQTOL being strictly consecutive, as there are some clear counter-examples. But I don't accept this one as being a good counter-example. It is clear that the formal giving of the maidservants was a part of the wedding ceremony, as also was the consummation of the marriage and the production of the proof of virginity. This proof was given to the bride's father (cf. Deuteronomy 22:13-19), and the giving of the maidservant may well have been in response to this - and all this may have happened before the morning. At least we certainly cannot rule out such a sequence of events - at least without detailed knowledge of the marriage customs of the time.


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






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