Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Yitzhak Sapir" <yitzhaksapir AT gmail.com>]

On 3/22/07, Marjorie Alley   wrote:

> Was "the ad hoc hypothesis of 'prophetic perfect' " really invented in the
> 19th century?
>
> I see that the editor of the Shottenstein edition of Tehillim, published by
> Mesorah Publications (Artscroll, an Orthodox Jewish publishing house) accepts
> the prophetic perfect:
>
> "In Tehillim, as elsewhere in Tanach, future events are described in the past
> tense, because the prophet has seen these events in his prophetic vision."
> (p. xii, Editor's Foreword.)
>
> I confess that I have no evidence regarding the history of the "prophetic
> perfect" interpretation, but I would be surprised to find that Orthodox Jews 
> so
> readily adopted a 19th century "ad hoc hypothesis."  I would expect their
> understanding to go much further back, perhaps to Qimhi or Rashi?
>
> Thank you again for responding to my previous post. I appreciate your
> willingness to discuss the factors which have influenced the direction of your
> research.

Ibn Ezra in his commentary on Num 23:23, "k(t y)mr ly(qb wly&r)l mh-p(l )l",
writes, "What God has wrought - What God will do.  The usage of the past
for anything that has been decreed, and if it is future that was decreed in
the beginning, and this will be told to Israel in a prophecy that is true."

Yitzhak Sapir