Biblical Hebrew Forum

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

I don't think the issue that you are hearing modern rather than biblical 
Hebrew. Rather, the situation is that in the classroom you have to deal with 
things in an immediate present setting. This makes for conversations in the 
present that use predominantly the convention of participles. Most biblical 
narratives, however, are not conversations in the present and, therefore, use 
other syntactical arrangements and verb forms. So the issue is not the 
difference between modern and ancient, but rather the difference between a 
live class room and an ancient document.


GEORGE ATHAS
Director of Postgraduate Studies,
Moore Theological College (moore.edu.au)
Sydney, Australia