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  • From: "Yitzhak Sapir" <yitzhaksapir AT gmail.com>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [b-hebrew] Ibn Ezra on the Prophetic Perfect
  • Date: Thu, 22 Mar 2007 03:16:18 +0000

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




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