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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] Aspect to Tense in Hellenistic period? Was: Also asking a question - Re: YHWH is Aramaic?

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  • From: "Ken Penner" <ken.penner AT acadiau.ca>
  • To: "Peter Kirk" <peter AT qaya.org>
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Aspect to Tense in Hellenistic period? Was: Also asking a question - Re: YHWH is Aramaic?
  • Date: Sun, 2 Jul 2006 12:49:27 -0300

Peter wrote:

> Ken, you obviously know much more than I do about Hebrew from
> the Hellenistic period. Perhaps I went too far in suggesting
> that the change to a tensed language was completed during
> this period. I can point you to many authorities, from
> Gesenius to Furuli, who agree that biblical Hebrew was
> aspectual. It is well known that modern Hebrew is tensed. I
> have certainly seen it suggested that this change goes back
> to the Hellenistic period, but maybe at that period it was
> only partial.
> Perhaps you would care to enlighten us further about what
> these verb forms actually meant in Hellenistic times.

Yes, many authorities do agree that biblical Hebrew was aspectual, but
Gesenius and Furuli do not constitute examples. I do not recall that Gesenius
claimed Hebrew was aspectual; GKC followed not Gesenius but Driver on this
question. I have not seen Furuli cited as an authority outside of B-Hebrew.

At the time of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the verb forms were certainly not
aspects (using definitions of aspect by Comrie and Binnick) but tenses or
moods (the evidence does not decisively favour one of these two over the
other, but a tense model has slighly more explanatory power for most Qumran
documents).

Ken M. Penner, PhD
Acadia Divinity College





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