Alleged Non-past Uses of Qatal in Classical Hebrew


Book Description

This new monograph on the Hebrew verb examines those instances in which the qatal form (the so-called "perfect" or suffix conjugation) appears to refer to present or future events. The "gnomic", "prophetic", and "performative" perfects are each treated in turn. This study is especially intended for Hebrew linguists and scholars of the Old Testament, but its results will be of interest to scholars of other Semitic languages as well.




Alleged Non-Past Uses of Qatal in Classical Hebrew


Book Description

This new monograph on the Hebrew verb examines those instances in which the qatal form (the so-called "perfect" or suffix conjugation) appears to refer to present or future events. The "gnomic", "prophetic", and "performative" perfects are each treated in turn. This study is especially intended for Hebrew linguists and scholars of the Old Testament, but its results will be of interest to scholars of other Semitic languages as well.




The Verbal System of the Dead Sea Scrolls


Book Description

In The Verbal System of the Dead Sea Scrolls Ken M. Penner determines whether Qumran Hebrew finite verbs are primarily temporal, aspectual, or modal. Standard grammars claim Hebrew was aspect-prominent in the Bible, and tense-prominent in the Mishnah. But the semantic value of the verb forms in the intervening period in which the Dead Sea Scrolls were written has remained controversial. Penner answers the question of Qumran Hebrew verb form semantics using an empirical method: a database calculating the correlation between each form and each function, establishing that the ancient author’s selection of verb form is determined not by aspect, but by tense or modality. Penner then applies these findings to controversial interpretations of three Qumran texts.




The Lexical Field of the Substantives of “Gift” in Ancient Hebrew


Book Description

This monograph exhaustively investigates the semantic domain of ‘gift’ in Ancient Hebrew, which comprises 28 substantives. The investigation firstly focuses on the syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations that determine the meanings of each individual lexeme and subsequently provides an overall picture of the developments and extensions of the whole lexical field across the different layers of Ancient Hebrew. The investigation sheds new light on the debated issue of the so-called sectarian Qumran writings, by demonstrating that they attest to distinctive patterns of lexical organisation that are not found elsewhere in Ancient Hebrew. The appendix finally discusses the feasibility of drawing concept related conclusions on the basis of linguistic data, thus sketching a possible map of the concept of ‘gift’.




Ancient Hebrew Periodization and the Language of the Book of Jeremiah


Book Description

In Ancient Hebrew Periodization and the Language of the Book of Jeremiah, Aaron Hornkohl defends the diachronic approach to Biblical Hebrew and the linguistic dating of biblical texts. Applying the standard methodologies to the Masoretic version of the biblical book of Jeremiah, he seeks to date the work on the basis of its linguistic profile, determining that, though composite, Jeremiah is likely a product of the transitional time between the First and Second Temple Periods. Hornkohl also contributes to unraveling Jeremiah’s complicated literary development, arguing on the basis of language that its 'short edition', as reflected in the book’s Old Greek translation, predates that 'supplementary material' preserved in the Masoretic edition but unparalleled in the Greek. Nevertheless, he concludes that neither is written in Late Biblical Hebrew proper.




Living Waters from Ancient Springs


Book Description

Is the Old Testament still relevant for Christians today? Which fountains of wisdom, which never-failing streams, which wells of joy-filled salvation are we missing out on, if we neglect the Old Testament (Prov 18:4; Amos 5:24; Isa 12:3)? In this celebratory volume, fifteen scholars collaborate to explain and expound diverse aspects of the Christian life, with a special focus on drawing lines from the Old Testament through the New Testament toward the daily reality of living together as pilgrims in the church of Christ. This book commemorates the retirement of Dr. Cornelis Van Dam, professor of Old Testament, from the Canadian Reformed Theological Seminary in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. For three decades, Dr. Van Dam taught seminary students to draw living water from the wells of salvation. All the contributors to this book have benefited in one way or another from his knowledge and instruction.




Psalms : Volume 2 (Baker Commentary on the Old Testament Wisdom and Psalms)


Book Description

This is the second of a three-volume commentary on the Psalms, combining literary, historical, grammatical, and theological insight in a widely accessible manner. One of today's foremost experts on biblical theology, John Goldingay covers Psalms 42-89 with his own translation of each passage, followed by interpretive comments and theological implications. "The book of Psalms is the literary sanctuary; a holy place where humans share their joys and struggles with brutal honesty in God's presence," writes Tremper Longman III, editor of the Baker Commentary on the Old Testament Wisdom and Psalms series. Pastors, seminary students, scholars, and Bible study leaders will enjoy this accessible and enriching volume. This is the fourth volume in the series.




Prose and Poetry through Time


Book Description

This is the first major study of the Biblical Hebrew verbal system of a prophetic book. It is also the first book-length study in over 60 years to focus on how genre affects the Hebrew verbal system. It advances a data-driven argument that Biblical Hebrew verb forms do not function one way in prose and another way in poetry. Lastly, the author addresses the diachronic development of Hebrew between the destruction of the First Temple and the writing of the Dead Sea Scrolls.




The Verbal System in Late Enlightenment Hebrew


Book Description

This book constitutes the first detailed corpus-based analysis of the verbal morphology and syntax employed in the Eastern European Maskilic (Jewish Enlightenment) Hebrew prose fiction written between 1857 and 1881. This verbal system exhibits biblical, rabbinic and medieval elements as well as unprecedented features and similarities to Israeli Hebrew and Yiddish. The first section of the work offers a selective examination of maskilic verbal morphology, while the second section constitutes a thorough examination of the functions of the verbal conjugations and the third section surveys selected features of verbal syntax. The work fills a serious gap in the Hebrew philological literature and will therefore be of great relevance to students and scholars of diachronic Hebrew language and linguistics.




The Verbal System in the Hebrew Text of Ben Sira


Book Description

This volume is a revised and enlarged version of the author's Ph.D. dissertation (1999). It gives a comprehensive analysis of the morphosyntax and syntax of the tenses in the Hebrew text of Ben Sira. Due attention is paid to the heterogeneous character of the textual evidence (three manuscripts from the Desert of Judah and six mediaeval manuscripts from the Cairo Geniza), which complicates any linguistic study of Ben Sira. A descriptive analysis is complemented by a comparison with other contemporaneous, earlier, and later forms of Hebrew. It is argued that the Hebrew of Ben Sira is a literary language in its own right, rather than an imitation of Biblical Hebrew or a predecessor of Mishnaic Hebrew.