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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] Also asking a question - Re: YHWH is Aramaic?

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  • From: Awohili AT aol.com
  • To: peter AT qaya.org
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Also asking a question - Re: YHWH is Aramaic?
  • Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2006 11:07:51 EDT


In a message dated 06/29/2006 7:48:06 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time,
peter AT qaya.org writes:

> In the book, _201 Hebrew Verbs_ Abraham S. Halkin lists ehyeh as the
future
> aspect of the kal of HYH. ...

Is this a book of MODERN Hebrew? Of course in modern Hebrew the
"imperfect" or YIQTOL form is a future tense, and so the meaning is
uncontestably "I will be". But in biblical Hebrew, at least as
understood by most scholars, this verb form indicates not so much a
tense as the imperfective or continuous aspect, meaning in the context
something like "I was and I am and I always will be", or, in simpler
English, "I am".




*********************

Halkin doesn't specify, and you are correct about the aspectual
characteristic of YIQTOL. However, rendering ehyeh as "future" is not
limited to Modern
Hebrew.

In attempting to bring the Greek of Exodus 3:14 closer in meaning to the
Hebrew text, the 1st (or 2nd) century translators Theodotion and Aquila gave
us
ESOMAI (hOS) ESOMAI, "I will be who I will be."

Solomon Landers




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