Biblical Hebrew Forum

[K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

Christoph:

On Thu, Aug 18, 2011 at 7:18 AM, Christoph Georg Mueller <
kuayanga AT bluewin.ch> wrote:

> Dear Karl,
>
> if I understand you correctly, you seem to translate Judges 6,29 with
> something like: "Who is a (typical) doer of this thing ?"
>

Not at all. Genesis 19:13 is another example of a participle used to refer
to a one time event. The use of a participle does not mean an imperfective
aspect to the action.


> This question would be understandable if the text related the deeds of an
> mysterious serial sanctuary-desecrator.
>

This is a misunderstanding of the role of the participle in Hebrew.


> But the question seems to be asked by the people the morning after a unique
> vandalism of a sanctuary.
> In such a case the expected question is: "who did this thing ?"
>

Exactly!


> For that type of expression - within the literary genre of colloquial
> conversation - the regular form is qatal, not qotel.
>

That’s where I disagree with you. The participle points to the actor, place
of action or event, with the action being secondary. The people were looking
for the who, not about the what happened. Hence the participle, not Qatal.
The Qatal points to the what happened, which was known.


> The question in Jdg 6,29 is not poetry, nor is it the main-thread of the
> narrative, but ist is a quote of colloquial conversation inserted into the
> narrative.
> Colloquial conversation has to be compared to itself to begin with, then
> only can one compare it to other genres in a second go.
>
> With respectful regards
> Christoph Georg Müller,
> Bangui, Central African Republic
>
> I have been reading Tanakh through using an unpointed text for well over a
decade, probably more than ten times. It is only recently that I got
interested in how I am reading the text as far as grammar is concerned, and
that largely thanks to this group. Basically, I am looking at how I have
come to be reading the text, not setting up a system and trying to follow it
(like I tried to do the first few times I read Tanakh).

Karl W. Randolph.