This is not the only example of this use of the conjugations, the most
notorious similar example is found in Genesis 2:9, 19, both verses referring
to events that happened prior to the creation of man, yet listed later.
Karl W. Randolph.
On Sat, Mar 31, 2012 at 3:10 AM, George Athas
<George.Athas AT moore.edu.au<mailto:George.Athas AT moore.edu.au>> wrote:
This seems like an attempt to harmonize the sources, and then reading the
verbal conjugations in such a way that allows for this harmonization.
GEORGE ATHAS
Director of Postgraduate Studies
Moore Theological College (Sydney, Australia)
Because the Hebrew verbs do not conjugate for tense, that sometimes can lead
to misunderstanding. One of those is that sometimes when the writer assumes
that the audience understands that a certain event happened before another,
the writer then writes a rather abbreviated account that needs context from
other sources in order to understand the order of events, especially when an
earlier event is listed after a latter one. An English writer (German also)
would be able to indicate through tense the order of events.
Here Haggai 2:18 is not clear as to the order of events, other sources
indicate that the foundation was laid well before the time of Haggai. The
context around Haggai 2:18 also seems to indicate that a certain amount of
time had passed since the foundation was laid. So linguistically, there is no
problem in recognizing that Haggai referred to the same event as Ezra. It’s
just that the Hebrew linguistic practice does not conform to English practice.
Karl W. Randolph.
On Fri, Mar 30, 2012 at 6:43 AM, George Athas
<George.Athas AT moore.edu.au<mailto:George.Athas AT moore.edu.au><mailto:George.Athas AT moore.edu.au<mailto:George.Athas AT moore.edu.au>>>
wrote:
You didn't break the rules at all, Peter. You asked a good question about
Hebrew. Unfortunately, the answer to your question is not an issue with
Hebrew per se, but rather with historiography. And since that is beyond the
scope of the forum, we can't really explore it here (fascinating though it
would be).