Can the same principle be applies to the so-called "prophetic perfect"
in the Hebrew Bible? This perhaps depends on the context and genre. The
vision in Daniel 8 is clearly of this apocalyptic nature. And therefore
the WAYYIQTOLs in 8:6 etc must be understood as having past reference
relative to the deictic centre, and in fact as being normal narrative
past WAYYIQTOLs except that this particular narrative is an apocalyptic
one of the future. Might the same be true of passages like Isaiah
8:23b-9:6 (9:1b-7 in English), which is introduced with WH'XRWN "in the
latter time" followed by a QATAL? A study of how far this principle can
be extended to other QATALs and WAYYIQTOLs which have been described as
"prophetic perfect" would be an interesting exercise. But this
illustrates the danger of taking verb forms which are used to describe
future events and classifying as "non-past", and so as counter-examples
to a tense-based analysis, without properly understanding the genre and
the deictic centre.
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