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  • From: MarjorieAlley AT cs.com
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [b-hebrew] Question for Rolf on the JW outlook on the Hebrew verbal system
  • Date: Mon, 19 Mar 2007 21:31:51 EDT

Rolf ---

On the question of the "Jehovah's Witness outlook on the verbal system,"
I've just been rereading Appendix 3C "Hebrew Verbs Indicating Continuous or
Progressive Action, " pp. 1572-1573 of the Watchtower Society's 1984 "New
World
Translation of the Holy Scriptures – With References."



Here is an excerpt from "Hebrew Verbs Indicating Continuous or Progressive
Action":



"Throughout the centuries scholars have been amazed at the capability of the
Hebrew language to express past events by using verbs in the imperfect state,
and to express future events by using verbs in the perfect state. In an
attempt to explain this peculiarity, they developed the theory of Waw
Consecutive.



Concerning this theory, O. L. Barnes, in his work A New Approach to the
Problem of the Hebrew Tenses and Its Solution Without Recourse to
Waw-Consecutive,
Oxford (1965), pp. 4, 5, wrote:



'The matter has been needlessly complicated by the introduction and slavish
adherence to the doctrine of Waw Consecutive, or its more ancient forebear
Waw
Conversive (the latest name proposed for it is Waw Conservative). Very
briefly, though there have been a variety of modifications of the theme, this
states
that the ‘and – Waw ’ appearing before the first of a series of consecutive
Hebrew Verbs in the Imperfect Tense, if preceded by a Hebrew Verb in the
Perfect Tense, indicates that all of them should be read or taken as Perfects
(instead of what they really are: Imperfects) and vice versa, provided of
course
certain vowels associated with the Waw in the Imperfect are present.'



Regarding the validity of this theory, O. L. Barnes wrote on p. 1 of his
work: 'We may

rightly ask why the ‘and – Waw ?’ has this strange converting power. Some
recent grammars, in an attempt to by-pass the absurdity, state that it is not
really the ‘and – Waw ?’ that has this converting power, but it is the key or
guide we must look for to indicate the conversion; in end-result, therefore,
it
amounts to precisely the same thing. I trust it will be evident from what is
stated here that in fact the ‘and – Waw ?’ neither has this power, nor is its
assumption necessary to explain the rapid, sometimes abrupt, change in
sequence of the Hebrew Tenses. In other words, we may dispense completely
with the
mythical Waw-Consecutive theory invented by grammarians.'



About one hundred years ago, Benjamin Wills Newton, in his work The Altered
Translation of Genesis ii. 5, London, 1888, pp. 49-51, took a firm stand
against the theory of Waw Consecutive. After giving a sample translation of
Ge
1:3-8, Newton concluded on pp. 50, 51:



'Throughout the chapter the future is used to denote progression. In our
translation we rightly enough use the past, for we are unable by our future
tense
similarly to mark progression. There is an expansiveness in the Hebrew use of
the future which our future has not; and, consequently, greater accuracy of
statement. I may add that there certainly is no room for the theory of Vav
conversive in this chapter, and no ground for saying (because our future
cannot
adapt itself to the elasticity of the Hebrew future) that therefore the
Hebrew
future is to be shorn of its prerogatives and commuted into a past. It is
marvellous that any one should have ventured to propose anything so
preposterous.'



[...] The New World Translation has not followed the unfounded theory of
Waw Consecutive when translating Hebrew verbs. This age-old theory does not
convey the power and forcefulness of the Hebrew verbs in their original
states.
Therefore, the New World Translation presents the Hebrew verbs with accurate
meaning and dynamism by maintaining a distinction between the perfect and the
imperfect states of the Hebrew verbs."


I realize you have devoted many years of research to your project and have
consulted numerous sources.

Can you help clarify whether this appendix in the 1984 NWT Bible played some
part in helping to shape the direction of your research into the Hebrew
verbal
system?

Were you familiar with it when you started your research? I am just curious
as to whether you attribute some degree of influence on your thinking to the
JW
outlook on the Hebrew verbal system?

(I realize, of course, that we all have our biases, and perhaps it is the
ones we are *unconscious* of which are most likely to cause us to see what we
*expect* to see when we examine the text.)

Regards,
Marjorie Alley

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