Hebrew Verb Research Articles

In the OT-a case of borrowing

There is an agreement among scholars concerning the meaning of the Hebrew verb from the root in the OT. They all suppose that this verb means “sexual desire”. However, they base their opinion neither on the origin of this root nor on the study of all the verses in which it appears in the OT. The aim of the present study is to show that this Hebrew verb is originated in another language where it has many other meanings. In addition, it aims to prove that in most of the appearances of this verb in the OT there is no need to assume it has a sexual meaning.

Holy community of life and property amongst the poor:

This article explores the origins of the earliest Jerusalem believers’ communal lifestyle (Acts 1:13-14; 2:42-47; 4:32-5:11; cf. 6.1-6). Jesus’ example and authority sanctioned community of life and property. Wealthy supporters made benefactions (Luke 8:1-3) to his travelling party’s shared purse. Jesus’ group financed from their common purse support for the poor, common meals and other needs (John 6.5-7; 12:4-6; 13:29). Ideals of holiness and complete consecration dominated ancient Judaea more than Galilee. Highly dedicated service to God in common life amongst the poor had originated as a Judaean response, amongst the Essenes, to the harshness of agrarian subsistence economy. The verb nosphizomai, used of Ananias’ crime in Acts 5:2-3, means ‘embezzle, misappropriate’; Peter’s reference to Ananias’ sale of property (5:4) may reflect the Hebrew verb makar in its root sense ‘hand over’. Ananias’ property-surrender, which was only provisional, reflected both the Essene novitiate (1QS 6.13-23, cf. Josephus, Jewish War 2.8.7 §§137-142) and the nascent Church’s associations with Jerusalem Essenism.

The Problem of Finite Verb Translation in Exodus 15.1-18

This article examines the finite Hebrew verbs in the song in Exod. 15.1-18. This song has long resisted a uniformly accepted translation. Due to its connection with the Exodus narrative and the difficulty of translating finite verbs in Hebrew poetry, some of the translation problems are exacerbated. This study examines the verbs in the song through an aspectual analysis that takes into account the narrative context of Exodus. Three models of translation are considered: the Prophetic Perfect Model, the Sinai Provenance Model, and the Dual Perspective Model. These three models correspond to three views of the verbs in the song: the prophetic perfect, the preterite, and the traditional schema of perfect-past, imperfect-present/modal/future. Though this study does not arrive at any single answer to the verb translation issues, the analysis clearly points out the possibilities and the problems of each model within the song-narrative context.

Maimonides in the Context of Andalusian Hebrew Lexicography

Maimonides’ Guide of the Perplexed begins with the lexicographical analysis of selected biblical terms that are applied anthropomorphically to God. Proceeding on the assumption that God is incorporeal, Maimonides seeks to explain in detail the various terms applied to God that seem to denote human accidents. He maintains that when the Bible ascribes to God actions that are described in terms usually appropriate to human actions, these terms must be understood as having an allegorical sense. To interpret a biblical account as an allegory, however, the metaphorical or figurative meaning of the terms employed—which is derived from its basic sense—must be determined. The first part of the Guide can therefore be construed as a work dealing with the meanings of words, i.e., a work of lexicography. The Guide is examined from the perspective of the Andalusian lexicographical tradition. Following a brief survey of Hebrew lexicography as it developed in the Iberian Peninsula, Maimonides’ comments on Hebrew verbs applied to God and the treatment of their meanings in the Guide are set in the context of this tradition.

In the Beginning was the Word

All linguists assume that the meaning of a complex syntactic expression is determined by its structure and the meanings of its constituents. Most believe that the meanings of words are similarly compositionally derived from the meanings of their constituent morphemes. The classical lexicalist hypothesis holds instead that the central basic meaningful constituents of language are not morphemes but lexemes. This article supports that hypothesis with evidence from syntax, lexical semantics, and morphology. Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language (ABSL) is a new language that is compositional down to its smallest pieces, in which these pieces are lexemes. ABSL shows that a language can emerge very quickly in which lexemes are basic. Next comes evidence against the claim that newly derived words diverge from compositionality only because they are stored in memory. Finally, Hebrew verb roots are shown to have robust morphological properties that bear no relation to meaning and little to phonology, leaving room for morphemes within a lexeme-based framework, but not as the basic meaningful atoms of language.*

A New Understanding of the Verbal System of Classical Hebrew: An Attempt to Distinguish between Semantic and Pragmatic Factors (review)

Hebrew Studies 48 (2007) 359 Reviews Indeed, verse 11a conveys both the explicit subject and the inceptive action from which the content of verse 11b flows (cf. Isa 35:10 at p. 74). Also note that, despite Garr’s translation, the prefixed verb in 11b comes at the end of its clause: literally, “About what I do not know they question me” (yˆn…wlDaVvˆy). Is the paragogic nun at the beginning of this verse in some way motivated by the nun of the object suffix at its end? Finally, Garr’s evaluation of the paragogic nun as “semantically nondesiderative” (p. 71) seems overly restrictive given his consideration a page before of nonindicative NE;tˆy_yIm syntagms . Rather than claim that “the desiderative frame overrides the epistemic mood” (p. 70), it might be more accurate to evaluate the paragogic nun verbs as modally neutral (perhaps even as modally unmarked, should the Biblical Hebrew verb system here manifest structuralized oppositions). Paul Korchin University of Alaska, Northwest Campus Nome, AK 99762 korchin@post.harvard.edu A NEW UNDERSTANDING OF THE VERBAL SYSTEM OF CLASSICAL HEBREW: AN ATTEMPT TO DISTINGUISH BETWEEN SEMANTIC AND PRAGMATIC FACTORS. By R. J. Furuli. Pp. 508. Oslo: Awatu Publishers, 2006. Paper, 300 NOK. $47.00. In this volume Furuli proposes an entirely new definition of Hebrew verbal aspect. He theorizes that aspect is a function of the interaction of event time, reference time, and the deictic center of events. According to Furuli, event time is “the time from the beginning to the end of an event. This time is non-deictic, because it is not seen in relation to a certain vantage point.” In reference time “the reporter in a way intersects event time and make (sic) a part of event time visible.” Finally, the deictic center is “the vantage point from which an event is seen” (pp. 471–472). This new definition is the result of an analysis of 79,574 verbal forms, in which Furuli seeks to make a strict distinction between semantic (uncancellable ) meaning and conversational pragmatic implicature, or meaning in context. Furuli’s methodological approach is corpus-based. The corpus includes the entire text of the Tanakh, samples from the Dead Sea Scrolls, Ben Sira, and Inscriptions. Furuli detects no change in the semantic meaning of the verbal forms across these texts. Additionally, the corpus includes prose, poetry , and prophetic literature. He observes that semantic meaning of the ver- Hebrew Studies 48 (2007) 360 Reviews bal forms is not affected by genre. Furuli’s distinction between semantic and pragmatic factors results in a redefinition of aspect. He states: The imperfective aspect is a close-up view of a small section of the event where the progressive action is made visible. The perfective aspect is a view, as if from some distance, of a greater part of, or of the whole event, where progressive action is not made visible. (p. 69) While other linguistic studies of Biblical Hebrew offer similar definitions of aspect (e.g., John Cook, “The Hebrew Verb: A Grammaticalization Approach,” ZAH 14 [2001]: 124), Furuli concludes that wayyiqtol is among the imperfective forms, along with yiqtol and weyiqtol, while qatal and weqatal represent the perfective forms. This is, perhaps, the most challenging aspect of the volume. In the first chapter, Furuli presents a review of previous scholarship, analysing the views of various scholars based upon the number of conjugations employed and their meaning. He differentiates between four component models, two component models, tense-based models, aspect-based models, models in which waw is viewed as more than a conjunction and models in which waw is viewed as a normal conjunction. He notes that contemporary scholarship acknowledges four conjugations and various combinations of tense and aspect based understandings. In the second chapter, Furuli presents his view of meaning in language, which is based upon Ogden’s triangle of signification: concept, word, and reference (p. 27). His approach is based upon lexical semantics in that each verb has a lexical meaning and an aktionsart, based upon the Vendlerian categories of state, activity, accomplishment, and achievement (see Z. Vendler, “Verbs and Time,” Philosophical Review 56 [1957]: 143–160). For Furuli, uncancellable semantic features include...

Il libro del profeta Michea. Testo traduzione composizione senso

Almost twenty years after the publication of his book Un profeta tra oppressori e oppressi. Analisi esegetica del capitolo 2 di Michea nel piano generale del libro, the author presents a syntactic and compositional analysis of the whole Hebrew text of the Prophet Micah. Referring to his previous analysis and partly revising it, the author proposes a division of the text in twenty-one units and five main sections in a chiastic composition, i.e. ch. 1 // 6:1-7:6, ch. 2 // chs. 3-5, with 7:7-20 as the concluding unit. Based on his theory of a coherent Hebrew verb system both for prose and poetry, the author pays careful attention to the verb forms and to the resulting dynamics of communication necessary to achieve a proper interpretation of any text. Besides underlying a strong unity of composition for the whole book, as recognized by many interpreters, the author also proposes a rather precise date between 713 and 701 B.C. for the different historical situations evoked in the book, also on the basis of a Judaean exile in the VIII cent. B.C., an event usually not considered by scholars. Thus, one single author, Micah, for the whole prophecy is seen as a concrete possibility.

A Default Inheritance Hierarchy for Computing Hebrew Verb Morphology

We apply default inheritance hierarchies to generating the morphology of Hebrew verbs. This approach represents inflectional exponents as markings associated with the application of rules by which complex word forms are deduced from simpler roots or stems. The high degree of similarity among verbs of different conjugation classes allows us to formulate general rules; these general rules are, however, sometimes overridden by conjugation-specific rules. Similarly, a verb's form within a particular conjugation is determined both by default rules and by overriding rules specific to lexical stem peculiarities. Our result is a concise set of rules defining the morphology of Hebrew verbs in all conjugations. We express these rules in KATR, both a formalism for default inheritance hierarchies and associated software for generating the forms specified by those rules. As we describe the rules, we point out general strategies for expressing morphology in KATR. We conclude by discussing KATR's advantages over ordinary DATR for the representation of morphological systems and our plans for KATR's successor, LATR.

Discourse Structure, Verb Forms, and Archaism in Psalm 18

Psalm 18 is especially relevant to the occasional use of what might be called ‘old preterites’ in the Hebrew Bible. These forms act exactly like wyyqtl, i.e., the waw consecutive with the imperfect in respect to being a narrative tense and limited to clause initial position, but lack the w- on the front. In this particular psalm the distribution of this form correlates with the narrative progress which can be posited within the psalm. A secondary value in this psalm is its possible light on the use of the two basic forms of the Hebrew verb, the perfect (qtl) and the imperfect (yqtl) in off the line uses in the structure of the psalm.

O Conceito de Justiça no Antigo Testamento a Partir de Juízes 5.9-12

O conceito de sedaqah, em Juízes 5.11, representa certamente o significado mais primitivo usado e confessado pelo povo israelita. Longe de carregar um sentido simplesmente jurídico ou de uma ordem cósmica, a expressão sidekot Yhwh, traduzida por justiças de Javé, deve ser entendida como os atos salvíficos de Javé. Esta interpretação é reforçada pelo verbo hebraico tanah, recontar que rege a frase lá se recontam os atos de justiça de Javé.

Amos in Song and Book Culture (review)

Hebrew Studies 45 (2004) 338 Reviews Finally, del Barco’s claim that the position of the verb in the clause is determinative of its meaning (a view he shares with other discourse theorists, such as Niccacci) appears dubious (p. 159). For instance, he claims that a perfect (aspect) meaning is distinctive of the zero-qatal construction (i.e., clause initial qatal) (p. 158). However, the fact that qatal is clause initial appears to have nothing to do with the perfect meaning of the verb since examples may be found in del Barco’s database in which a non-clause initial qatal also has a perfect sense. Most notable is Mtofn in Amos 5:11, which del Barco correctly translates with a (subjunctive) perfect sense “aunque hayáis plantado” (although you have planted) (p. 157). Del Barco’s study provides important data for further research on the Hebrew verb, and he has rightfully challenged scholars to move beyond the comfortable domain of prose narrative. However, del Barco’s study exemplifies the difficulties associated with discourse studies of the Hebrew verb in general. Namely, without a semantic component (the traditional grammar approach ) discourse observations remain just that, observations and not explanations . Explanations require serious attention to the symbiotic relationship between verbal semantics and discourse contexts. Semantic and discourse approaches should not be presented as mutually exclusive options, but as complementary approaches whose explanatory powers mutually enrich each other. John A. Cook University of Wisconsin Madison, WI 53706 jacook@juno.com AMOS IN SONG AND BOOK CULTURE. By Joyce Rilett Wood. JSOTSup 337. Pp. 249. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 2002. Cloth, $80.00. £50.00. This is a revision of a 1993 Ph.D. dissertation completed at the Toronto School of Theology under the supervision of Brian Peckham. His influence is obvious and substantial at several key points, and Wood acknowledges this debt. For example, the origin of prophecy within the poetic tradition, the nature of the redaction of the prophetic books, and their literary analysis and dating find their source in Peckham’s work (cf. History and Prophecy: The Development of Late Judean Literary Traditions [ABRL; New York: Doubleday, 1993]. He mentions this dissertation in a footnote on p. 222.). The foundational idea for the argument of the book is that Israelite prophecy began in the performing arts. The author’s goal is to demonstrate how the material that Amos wrote for live public performance was completely revised Hebrew Studies 45 (2004) 339 Reviews by a later editor as a historical and biographical document. The title reflects this hypothesis. In the Introduction, Wood concurs with much of what traditional criticism has identified as the authentic texts of the prophet, but, at the same time, disagrees at two other important points. First, she believes that there was a literary composition from the very beginning. Second, Wood argues that a twoedition theory is simpler and more adequate than those that contend that there was an initial oral stage followed by multiple redactions of the written material. The rest of the book explains the rationale and content of these two versions (chap. 1–2) and suggests the contexts for their production (chap. 3–4). The final chapter tries to demonstrate how other prophetic books developed Amos’s ideas and what sources the editor used in his expansions. In chapter 1, Wood argues that the initial edition consisted of seven distinct poems, which were all interconnected by the theme of the Day of the Lord and the demise of Israel. The second chapter contends that the subsequent editor preserved this original work intact but then updated it with new material to create a very different work that now had ten parts. The bulk of this chapter is dedicated to showing how and where the additions found their way into the text. With the substance of the two editions thus established, in the third chapter , the author moves into the methodological heart of her thesis. Using categories drawn from Northrop Frye’s archetypal criticism, she explains that the prophet’s libretto was a tragic poem of the North’s failures and the announcement of judgment that was designed to call his audience to reflect upon their own...

Profecía y Sintaxis: El Uso de las Formas Verbales en los Profetas Menores Preexílicos. (Prophecy and Syntax: The Use of the Verbal Forms in the Pre-Exilic Minor Prophets) [Spanish] (review)

Hebrew Studies 45 (2004) 336 Reviews PROFECÍA Y SINTAXIS: EL USO DE LAS FORMAS VERBALES EN LOS PROFETAS MENORES PREEXÍLICOS. (Prophecy and Syntax: The Use of the Verbal Forms in the Pre-Exilic Minor Prophets) [Spanish]. By Francisco Javier del Barco del Barco. Pp. xiii + 259. Madrid: Instituto de Filología, 2003. Paper, € 23,83. $28.69. Discourse studies of the Hebrew verb are based on the premise that the traditional, sentence based, semantic analyses of the Hebrew verb are inadequate and ultimately unsuccessful in explaining the Hebrew verbal system as a system. Del Barco begins his study of the Hebrew verb from this premise (pp. 1–2). However, in contrast to previous discourse studies, which have largely focused on narrative discourse, del Barco examines the verb in the pre-exilic prophetic books of Hosea, Amos, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah. Del Barco begins with a justification of his approach and choice of database , followed by a survey of some earlier studies of the verb, focusing on some of the more prominent discourse studies such as those by Talstra, Longacre, and Niccacci (chap. 1). In the second chapter, del Barco presents statistics on the occurrences of verb forms in the database. In chapters 3–6, del Barco analyzes the distribution of the verb forms weqatal, wayyiqtol, qatal, and yiqtol in the database. In chapter seven, he analyzes selected texts, drawing on his conclusions from previous chapters (Amos 6, Nahum 2, Zephaniah 1). Finally, del Barco offers in his concluding chapter a recapitulation of the results of his analysis of the individual verb forms and summary of the types of discourse found in the data. Del Barco’s main concern is with the four verb forms to which he devotes a chapter each: weqatal, wayyiqtol, qatal, and yiqtol. Like many recent discourse-based models, del Barco views the waw-prefixed forms (weqatal and wayyiqtol) as distinct from the other pair of forms in that they usually occur in verbal chains denoting sequentiality or temporal succession. Thus, he looks first at chains of weqatal and wayyiqtol and then deals with the handful of individual instances of these forms in the data. Del Barco states that chains of weqatal occur in predictive discourse with future time reference and in descriptive types of discourse (e.g., lament) without an explicit temporal reference (p. 89). The form occurs alone (i.e., not in a chain) in predictive discourse, most often following yiqtol (p. 97). Chains of wayyiqtol occur less frequently in the database. Most often they are headed by a qatal verb, and together form a brief narrative sequence (p. 126). Unlike the waw-prefixed forms, qatal and yiqtol may appear in a variety of positions in the clause. Thus, del Barco organizes his discussion of these two forms syntactically—whether they appear initially in the clause, or are preceded by waw conjunction, by a particle, or by another constituent. Del Hebrew Studies 45 (2004) 337 Reviews Barco observes that qatal occurs in three syntactic contexts: by itself (with anterior or perfect meaning), with waw conjunction (a rare occurrence), and following a variety of subordinating conjunctions (p. 158). Yiqtol occurs at the beginning of the clause with three different functions: as a modal form, as the antecedent to a chain of weqatal forms, and in one half of a protasisapodosis construction or parallel bicola (pp. 194–195). Yiqtol prefixed with waw shows a close connection with what precedes or expresses a jussive sense, and the form also follows various subordinating conjunctions (p. 195). Del Barco presents a wealth of statistical detail regarding the verb forms in pre-exilic minor prophets. He also breaks new ground by examining largely poetic prophetic books rather than prose narrative, as in most previous studies. Del Barco begins his concluding chapter optimistically, with the claim that his study has shown that the syntactic analysis of the Hebrew verbs is an integral part of grammatical analysis and leads to a better understanding of the biblical text (p. 219). Further, he reiterates that the failure of traditional sentence-based approaches to the verbal system justifies his discourse approach , and that in contrast to the numerous exceptional examples that sentence-based...

El verbo en la gramática hebrea de la Biblia Complutense

This paper deals with Alonso of Zamora's approach to Hebrew verbs in his grammar published as a part of the Biblia Poliglota Complutense. Specifically, the author draws attention to Latin terminology applied to Hebrew grammar, in order to put Zamora's work in its Renaissance context. Together with a precise analysis of contents, an enlightening reflection on Zamora's nomenclature is put forward, focusing on Latin terminology as a model to his description of Hebrew grammar

A Modern Grammar for Classical Hebrew (review)

Hebrew Sllldies 44 (2003) 240 Reviews among the plethora of new Biblical Hebrew grammars, although it does not seem destined to establish a new hegemony among them. Bill T. Arnold Asbury Theological Seminary Wilmore. KY 40390 BilCArnold@asbllrysem;llary.edll A MODERN GRAMMAR FOR CLASSICAL HEBREW. By Duane A. Garrett. pp. viii + 395 + verb charts. Na'ihville, Tenn.: Broadman & Holman, 2002. Paper, $34.99. Duane Garrett's Grammar is "written with the student in mind rather than the scholar" (backcover). Recently the field of Biblical Hebrew studies has seen works which attempt to be more learner-friendly. I have wondered whether this emphasis is rooted in scholars having a clearer understanding of more effective pedagogy, or having to address increasingly less academically prepared students. Perhaps it is a little of both. One of my own publications (Grammatical Concepts IOJ for Biblical Hebrew [Peabody, Millis.: Hendrickson, 2002]) was a response to encountering students with woefully inadequate understandings of language phenomena. Whatever the case may be, more learner-friendly resources surely assist all of us entrusted with the task of teaching. The grammar takes a non-inductive route through the Hebrew learning experience. Six major parts lead the student through (I) "The Alphabet and Phonetics of Hebrew," (2) "Nouns, Adjectives, Prepositions, and the Billiics of Verbs," (3) "The Hebrew Verb System in Summary," (4) "The Qal Stem in Detail," (5) "The Derived Stems in Detail," and (6) "Additional Details and Introduction to Advanced Issues." Appendixes include vocabulary, proper names, paradigms, and an answer key to the homework. The exercises are primarily Hebrew-to-English in their orientation. One does find some English-ta-Hebrew exercises, but these are restricted to the early sections. One enamoring feature within early exercises is the "diglot weave," Is Paris the ;.~ of;iN.? for example. My remarks focus now on particular sections.§1. The Hebrew Alphabet and Simple Vowels-Throughout this section the charts present the infonnation nicely. The grammar's phonetic descriptions are straightforward and non-technical. Fully appreciative of this need for simplicity, I fmd the descriptions, at points, lacking sufficient precision . The grammar's treatment of N. and!: serves as an example (§1.4, pp. 4-5). Alef is described as "almost no sound," while ayin is called a "glottal Hebrew Studies 44 (2003) 241 Reviews stop." Garrett clearly wants the student to understand that the two consonants have a slightly different sound. But if a professor is trying to recreate Masoretic or modem Israeli Sephardic Hebrew pronunciation, alef is a voiceless glottal stop/plosive, while ay;n is a pharyngeal voiced fricative. If a professor is recreating modem Israeli Ashkenazic Hebrew, both alef and ayin are identical voiceless glottal stops/plosives. We are told, further, that K was necessnry...because originally Hebrew wns written with no vowels. Writing without vowels obviously posed a problem. if. for example. a word beKan with (/ vowel sound [emphasis mine). Some letter had to be an "empty" consonant to show that there wns a vowel sound there. and K hnd thnt role (p. 5). Alef is a true root consonant. occurring in first, second, and third root positions and is not simply a placeholder for vowels. Garrett certainly knows this, but as written, what he says is, at best. awkward. and, at worst, wrong.§4.B. Overview of Hebrew Grammar-This is a good "big picture" presentation of Hebrew grammar using simple definitions (pp. 27-28).§8.B. The Qal Perfect and §9.B. The Qal Imperfect-Garrett understands the Hebrew perfect (*qatal) to be perfective in aspect. That is clear from the overall presentation. One particular paragraph, however, is confusing . On page 49. section (9) one reads "The 'perfect' is perfect in aspect, not in tense." Aspect, arguably. envelopes perfect aspect, either distinct from or related to perfective aspect. (The former commonly encodes a state that is the result of a preceding situation; the latter, as Garrett says in that paragraph, views a situation from the outside, as whole and complete.) Knowing that Garrett sees the perfect (*qatal) verbal form as perfective, how should the reader understand what Garrett means by the perfect being "perfect in aspect"? The Prefix Conjugation, being imperfective aspect, "includes future actions" (p...

Guahibo Stress: Both Trochaic and Iambic

Previous articleNext article No AccessGuahibo Stress: Both Trochaic and IambicRiena KondoRiena Kondo Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by International Journal of American Linguistics Volume 67, Number 2Apr., 2001 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/466453 Views: 5Total views on this site Citations: 1Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 2001 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Itsik Pariente Stress, Syncope, Epenthesis and the Duke of York Gambit in the Modern Hebrew Verb System, Lingua 196 (Sep 2017): 39–54.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lingua.2017.06.006

Word Order and Time in Biblical Hebrew Narrative

This book addresses the problem of temporal interpretation within narrative of the biblical Hebrew verb, thus exploring the broader issue of the expression of time in language and the ways in which we can attempt to understand and represent it. Tal Goldfajn offers a summary of this controversy, which has been argued over since at least the tenth century, presenting previous scholarly opinions and theories. She argues that one possible way of understanding the fundamental meanings of the Hebrew verbs is by examining the role played in ordering time by the four main verb forms used in biblical Hebrew narrative. Accordingly, emphasis is given to the intersentential use of these forms and the variety of interesting ways in which they establish the order of events.

Leviticus (review)

Hebrew Studies 39 (1998) 218 Reviews into English is not the test of the semantics of the language from which we are translating. As to Endo's suggestion that preview and summary uses of wyyqtl's are off the line, I have no great quarrel with him here. I do want to suggest, however, that storylines are emic structures in the language where they are found, and verbs of storyline fonn may be expanded in usage in one language as compared to another language-so that storyline must be defmed anew for each language and is not entirely subject to a general semantic calculus. The latter concerns are etic and provide our initial analytic insights but do not dictate the fonn of the final emic analysis in a language. Some languages are more parsimonious in regard to what they put on the storyline, and other languages are more profligate in this regard. Consequently , storyline fonns may be used in one language at a point where they are not possible in another language. At any rate, the wyyqtl fonns are the backbone of Hebrew storytelling and correlate for the most part with what is represented as punctiliar sequential "happenings." Some of these backbone fonns emerge as non-backbone in English, where, for example, they are often rendered best as temporal clauses. This, I believe is apropos to Endo's discussion in 7.3.2.2. "The Temporal Clause with waYYIQTOL." Such clauses can be considered to be on the storyline in Hebrew but off the storyline in English. For the analysis of aspect in verbal fonns, Endo uses a diagram in which he discusses plus or minus values for each verb in each example cited in respect to the following parameters: perfective, complete, stative, fientive, durative, punctual, and progressive. These diagrams, with the accompanying commentary, may be one of the most interesting features of his work. Here the influence of Bernard Comrie is evident. Also in the first chapter, Endo provides a helpful summary of the system of the Hebrew verb as presented in the writings of a variety of scholars. Robert E. Longacre University of Texas, Arlington Dallas, TX 75236 bob_Iongacre@sil.org LEVITICUS. By Philip J. Budd. The New Century Bible Commentary. pp. xxiii + 390. Grand Rapids. MI: Eerdmans. 1996. Philip J. Budd, lecturer and tutor at Westminster College, Oxford, England, has provided a concise and useful commentary on the Book of Hebrew Studies 39 (1998) 219 Reviews Leviticus. He notes the lack of attention often given the book in popular circles and is candid about the ambiguities of historical context and the presuppositions about purity systems that are foreign to western readers. It is for this very reason, the author argues, that the book deserves serious study, since these same ambiguities reflect the enigmatic character of human motivation and experience. After a select but representative bibliography, the author deals with prolegomena: text, content, authorship and redaction, sources, literary forms and style. He also examines anthropological, historical, and theological topics related to holiness and sacrifice. Intentionally, the work does not attempt to detail a sustained inquiry into these introductory matters, but seeks to grapple with the broad arguments of the generally held positions and those who take exception to them. His ultimate judgments are prudent and well informed. The study benefits from an ability of the author to glean the strengths of variant positions, presenting conclusions that are carefully researched. The author's overview of current research on the priestly composition of Leviticus affirms an early post-exilic date of P between 539 and 516 BeE. These priestly writers constructed a narrative based on an existing written tradition and inserted substantial legal and cultic material which revised and supplemented the earlier narrative material. Budd identifies several of the major component parts of a legal and cultic nature which were inserted into the existing tradition: a narrative thread (8:1-10:20), procedures for the Day of Atonement (16:1-34), a large section on offerings {1:1-7:38), a Manual of Purity (11:1-15:33), the Holiness Code (17:126 :46), and a final chapter (27:1-34). The introduction also includes a helpful overview of the...

What the translation of tenses tells about the Septuagint translators

Abstract In his paper read at the IOSCS meeting in Jerusalem 1986, Prof. James Barr has stated that the translators of the LXX has succeeded well in rendering the verb tense. His main statement — the translator did not have any “precise or comprehensive theory of how the Hebrew tenses worked” and thus he followed the indications given by the context — require that there are no verb forms in the translation which do not fit into their context but are nevertheless in accordance with the normal equivalent of the Hebrew verb translated. I intend to question the position of Prof. Barr by presenting some cases of what he may call the “muddling of the verb tenses” which demonstrate that the context did not always select the suitable Greek tense for itself. It may not be argued that the context did not have any effect on the translation process of the tenses, but its influence was limited because of the habit of translating only short segments at a time and according to the so‐called “easy technique” which means ...

Derivational Processes: Underlying Forms and Analogies in Ḥayyûjs Linguistic Works

This study examines Rabbi Yehuda Hayyûj′s (945–1000 C.E.) use of two derivational processes: underlying forms and linguistic analogies (singular: ArabicHebrew), which were an integral element of his work. Since his goal was to show the derivation of Hebrew verbs from triliteral roots, he focused on weak verbs whose surface forms did not demonstrate all three radicals. He compared many weak verbs to other verbal forms in order to identify the exact inflection of words, especially their verbal patternand consonantal roots.

Tekstlinguïstiek en het Bijbels-Hebreeuwse werkwoord: een kritische uiteenzetting*Bewerkte versie van een voordracht gehouden voor het Oudtestamentisch Werkgezelschap op 12 januari 1995 te Brussel.

A textlinguistic approach to the perennial problem of the Hebrew verb has recently been developed in various quarters. Scholars like A. Niccacci, M. Eskhult and R. Longacre have argued that the function of the verbal forms is not primarily to be described in terms of tense or aspect, but that the verbal forms need to be viewed as signals structuring the text in which they occur. Although this new approach is certainly helpful it also presents several problems. In the present article it is argued that textlinguistic functions are not inherent in the different verbal forms; rather, such functions are contextual realisations of the temporal-aspectual value of the forms.