Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] And Elohim called light 'Day' and darkness hecalled night
Date: Mon, 21 Sep 2009 17:21:34 -0500
I would like to weigh in on the syntax of this verse and others like it in
the Hebrew Bible. John Sailhamer argues that a clause in biblical Hebrew that
begins with wayyiqtol then shifts to (waw)X Qatal where both verbs are of the
same verbal root expresses contemporaneity between the actions of both
clauses. The sense would be something like "And God named the light day
while naming the darkness night." You have the same construction in Exodus
1:5, something like: "the number was seventy while Joseph was in Egypt."
I believe he has also argued that this clause structure also often serves to
signal the closing off of sections in the text, thus the name "closed Qatal
clause".