Biblical Hebrew Forum

[George Athas <George.Athas AT moore.edu.au>]

Karl, I don’t think the reasoning you’ve given works. First of all, every 
book is its own unit. Yes, there may be deliberate connections to other 
books, but each book is it’s own unit with its own beginning. But that, I 
don’t think, is all that important in the larger scheme of things. It’s the 
concept of continuity of sequentiality that I have an issue with.

Take, for example, the narrator’s listing of Israel’s sins in 2 Kgs 17:

V.7   ויהי...וייראו
V.8   וילכו
V.9   ויחפאו
V.10   ויצבו
V.11   ויקטרו
V.12   ויעבדו
etc.

Are these sins in a sequence because they are all given in wayyiqtols? I 
think the notion of continuation or sequentiality can’t work in this passage. 
I would argue that the wayyiqtols here produce a narrative momentum that 
moves the storyline forward by basically letting you ‘watch’ the action 
happen ‘live’, as it were. Each new wayyiqtol brings you to another action to 
watch ‘live’. Now, in the average story, most actions happen to be told in 
sequence, but that’s not the result of the wayyiqtol; it’s just an incidental 
detail of the way narratives are told. Sequentiality certainly does not 
explain the wayyiqtols in 2 Kgs 17, where it’s an accumulation of things that 
are being brought to our attention. But, each action is being separated out 
for us to ‘watch’ and, therefore, share the narrator’s horror and evaluation 
of each and every sin being mentioned. It builds momentum, but it’s not about 
continuity or sequentiality.


GEORGE ATHAS
Moore Theological College (Sydney, Australia)
www.moore.edu.au