Biblical Hebrew Forum

["John M. Linebarger" <jmlineb AT comcast.net>]

I am preparing to teach a year of Elementary Biblical Hebrew through a couple 
of local churches, using the second edition of Basics of Biblical Hebrew by 
Pratico and Van Pelt.  Chapter 17 deals covers the Waw Consecutive, and it is 
taught as if it were a Waw Conversive (as a useful paedogogical device, not 
as a description of the dynamics of the underlying phenomenon).

I have two questions for the group.  First, is there an emerging scholarly 
consensus about the so-called Waw Consecutive?  I've read something about the 
Waw Consecutive being the remnant of a preterite conjugation (although that 
doesn't seem to explain the "waw + perfect = future tense" phenomenon).  
Second, is there an emerging paedogogy for how to teach the Waw Consecutive 
to first year students?

Recommendations of seminal papers that present the emerging scholarly 
consensus (if one exists), and examples of a good paedogogical approach to 
teaching the Waw Consecutive, would be greatly appreciated.  I recall the Waw 
Conversive being one of the mind warps of first year Hebrew, and I'd like 
present the material in such a way that not only is it easily assimilated, it 
is also linguistically accurate.

Thanks!  I feel free to ask a Biblical Hebrew question again!

John M. Linebarger, PhD (Computer Science)
Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA