The Origins and Development of the Waw-Consecutive: Northwest Semitic Evidence from Ugarit to Qumran (review)

Abstract

Hebrew Studies 34 (1993) 202 Reviews enough depth and clarity to provide a helpful entre into the world of the text for the would be reader. As mentioned above, Skehan's translation is an adaptation of the NAB, which has the advantage of being a clear, straightforward version while never being lyrical in its rendition of Ben Sira's poetry. The Notes, which are consistently brief, chiefly discuss textual variants among the various Greek manuscripts and the Hebrew manuscripts from Qumran. Following the pattern of many Anchor Bible volumes, the Commentary is mostly a technical discussion of aspects of translation with helpful comments to illuminate the historical, social, theological environment in which the book was produced. As a result, it is primarily useful to the expert or the student of translation rather than the pastor or layperson seeking sermon material or spiritual guidance. Di LelIa's prose is clear and readable throughout, though on occasion his style becomes repetitious (e.g., pp. 290303 where almost every paragraph begins with "The next poem ..."). In summary, Di LelIa and Skehan have produced a useful work that represents a worthy addition to the Anchor Bible series and will provide the basis of much fruitful work for many years to come. Gerald H. Wilson Newberg, OR 97132 THE ORIGINS AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE WAWCONSECUTIVE : NORTHWEST SEMITIC EVIDENCE FROM UGARIT TO QUMRAN. By Mark S. Smith. Harvard Semitic Studies 39. Pp. xiv + 100. Atlanta: Scholars, 1991. Cloth, $24.95. In the introduction to this slender volume, Mark Smith states very clearly, "The main purpose of this presentation is to address three historical questions: (1) the grammatical origins of the waw-consecutive; (2) the development of the form in Biblical Hebrew prose; and (3) the distribution of the form in the Hebrew texts of Qumran" (p. xi). In well-organized fashion, the three chapters of the book ("Early Extra-biblical Evidence," "The Waw-Consecutive in Hebrew Prose," and "The Waw-Consecutive in the Qumran Literature") then set out to address these three issues. (Note that certain issues are not discussed, e.g., the accentual shift in the waw- Hebrew Studies 34 (1993) 203 Reviews consecutive and the occasional attestation of the waw-consecutive in biblical poetry.) The survey of early extra-biblical evidence concentrates mainly on the Ugaritic and Amama evidence. Smith accepts the dominant view (first stated by G. Bergstrasser [1918]) that the converted imperfect (wyqtl) "derived from independent usage of the *yaqtul preterite" (p. 12), a usage attested not only in the Amama letters and in the Ugaritic poetic narratives, but also in other Semitic languages in specific environments (e.g., Arabic, viz., lam yaqtul). In Hebrew, the specific environments which continued the usage of a preterite yaqtul were (a) the presence of "waw + doubling of the initial radical (in MT tmdition)" (p. 12; sic: it is the prefixed pronominal indicator which is doubled, not the first root letter of the verb); and (b) the presence of various particles, for example, ~az, beterem, and terem. To explain the phenomenon of the doubling of the consonant following the waw, Smith relies on T. O. Lambdin's (1971) posited "junctural doubling." As for the converted perfect (wqtl), whereas Bergstrasser argued for its development due to Analogiebildung (i.e., once wyqtl was used to refer to the past, wqtl emerged to refer to the future), Smith takes a different approach. In his detailed study of the Amama letters, W. L. Momn (1950) noted that qatala is used in both apodoses and protases of conditional sentences with references to future time. C. H. Gordon (1967: 69) detected several examples of wqtl in conditional sentences in Ugaritic, and of course also in Biblical Hebrew (BH) qatala is used in the apodoses of conditional sentences. It is from this background, Smith claims, that the converted perfect emerged, though its extension "from dependent to independent clauses was apparently an inner Hebrew development" (pp. 14-15). In the second chapter, Smith addresses the use of the waw-consecutive in Hebrew prose, both biblical and inscriptional (and along with the latter treats the presence of the waw-consecutive in Moabite, Deir CAlla, and Aramaic). A major issue for Smith is the question of...