Biblical Hebrew Forum

["s.a.breyer" <s.a.breyer AT gmail.com>]

It might be useful to recall that just this topic was discussed on this
list in very great detail throughout March of 2001 (with brief
recrudescences on June 14 and July 20-21). It was a fascinating
discussion, worth revisiting for the quality and erudition of the
arguments; butthe unhappy incivility into which it occasionally
descended should also be noted, as a warning.

Since the stated subject is *Translating* Ehyeh, may I adduce two points
from the perspective of an 'expert' in English? 

1. In the sense in which Rolf uses the term 'tense', English has no
future tense. I suspect Shoshanna thinks of 'tense' the same way I do,
as a characteristic of the utterance not the verb; but here it must be
noted that futurity in English is not expressed exclusively by a
periphrastic expression employing 'will'. Depending on context, the
non-past very often embraces the future. And I invite Shoshanna to
consider two very different senses of futurity: 'I will be (as I am
now)' or 'I (am not now, but I) will be' before rejecting 'I am' out of
hand.

2. Tense aside, it is perfectly clear that the Hebrew verb here is only
approximately and occasionally equivalent to the English verb "be",
which is used mostly either as a simple copula or as an adjunct in
periphrastic constructions, neither of which functions, as far as my
limited knowledge takes me, exists in BH.

Stoney Breyer
Writer