J a naude the aim of this anicle is to determine the status and interpretation of. Copular predication in biblical hebrew by daniel joseph. Long before the final written form of the scriptures came to be, bits and pieces of it were told orally, sometimes as stories, sometimes in worship rituals, sometimes as legal judgments about particular disputed claims. The overall topics discussed are whether the verbless clause exists in hebrew, the definition of nominal clauses and the linked topics of the copula and the status. The pronoun in tripartite verbless clauses in biblical hebrew.
The subject is the one who performs the action of the verb. Observations on syntax and meter in lamentations the hebrew verbless clause in the pentateuch, by francis i. Hoftijzers the nominal clause reconsidered 1973 and t. Andersen and jacob hoftijzer, members of the 1996 sbl section on linguistics and biblical hebrew gathered to reconsider the topic of the verbless clause in hebrew. The hebrew independent personal pronouns are listed below. Lecture 1 pentateuch overview s headhearthand blog. The pronoun in tripartite verbless clauses in biblical. In the introduction to the book, the verbless clause in biblical hebrew, cynthia miller details the issue of nonverbal clauses being designated as nominal or verbless. In our inquiries respecting the authorship of the pentateuch, we begin with the undisputed fact that it existed in its present form in the days of christ and. For this reason, they are sometimes called subject pronouns. Put simply, schmitt shows that the pentateuch is intended to teach faith in god. Millers article succinctly outlines the problem of the verbal clause in biblical hebrew and discusses some of the most important secondary treatments during the final decades of the twentieth century for example, francis i. A synthesis of andersen and jo\uonmuraoka, authorl. Dean forbes, he pioneered the use of computers for the analysis of biblical hebrew syntax.
Pdf the hebrew verbless clause nauff zakaria academia. Does et aet sometimes signify from the grammar and interpretation of exodus 6. Pdf copular and existential sentences in biblical hebrew. On the verbless or nominal clause in biblical hebrew. Andersen, the hebrew verbless clause in the pentateuch, jblms 14 nashville, tn. Keeping in mind the first audience of the pentateuch, the focal expression of this covenant is the sinaitic covenant which grows out of the promises made to abraham. Chapter 8c pronouns demonstratives singular plural masc this. Verbless clauses are different from adverbial phrases. The relationship of the pentateuch to the nt will also be considered. Biblical hebrew hereafter bh employs a clause structure often called the. Also considered are such matters as ellipsis and whether the participle is verbal or nominal.
Public reading of the pentateuch is a central component of communal worship and religious festivals. Variants in the samaritan pentateuch of the hebrew bible as compared to the masoretic text abstract not long after the destruction of the jerusalem temple in 70 ce began the eventual end of a long history of textual competition between variations of the pentateuch. The hebrew verbless clause in the pentateuch journal of biblical literature. The student will be recognize most vocabulary terms occurring fifty or more times in the hebrew bible. The relative pronoun may appear either with or without the maqqef. How to say pentateuch in hebrew whats the hebrew word for pentateuch. Examination of hebrew style from the texts themselves, without concern for criteria for dating or distinguishing sources. The conditional clause is one of the most common clause types in biblical hebrew, and its understanding critical for accurate exegesis, translation and investigation. Still, the covenant with abraham is foundational to our understanding of gods relationship to. Demonstratives may be used either as adjectives thisman, those women or as pronouns this is the man, those are the women. Reconstructing the pronunciation of biblical hebrew table. By rule the sequence is predicatesubject in a clause of classification in which the predicate is indefinite relative to the subject f.
The student will become proficient in reading aloud pronouncing the hebrew of any passage in. Samaritan pentateuch introduction the samaritan pentateuch sp constitutes the entire canon of sacred text for the samaritan community. Verbless clauses are usually discussed in association with nonfinite clauses because they have similar syntactic structures. However, these resources provide very little or no criteria for establish. His work, the hebrew verbless clause in the pentateuch, offers an exhaustive collection of the pentateuchal verbless clauses and his analysis of their. Null constituentsnull or covert items are constituents that lack a. Full text of variants in the samaritan pentateuch of the. This book is most is this the second best rendition, in hebrew of the torah with a sidebyside english translation, and provided with commentary, or is it just a matter of taste. Andersen, the hebrew verbless clause in the pentateuch society for biblical literature, monograph series. He taught old testament, history, and religious studies at various institutions in australia and the united states, including macquarie university, the university of queensland. In other words, it does not inflect to indicate the gender and number of its antecedent the noun it is modifying. The jewish name for these books is the hebrew word hrat torah. Verbless subordinate clause and its distinctive features a. Searching for hebrew verbless clauses and more posted in hebrew syntax guides.
A verbless sentence is a common type of minor sentence. Table 1 changes in the noun from ph to th general case. The hebrew wording in this verse is known as a verbless clause. Miller, michael oconnor, journal of near eastern studies 61, no. The latter provide some information to do with the time, place, or manner in which something happens within an existing clause.
Pdf, remember to click the hyperlink below and save the file or gain access to other information which might be highly relevant to. Journal of biblical literature monograph series 14. The hebrew verbless clause in the pentateuch journal of biblical literature andersen, francis i on. Pdf the verbless clause with pleonastic pronoun in biblical aramaic. The relative clause is particularly suitable in this regard for two reasons. Biblical hebrew a student grammar ruth 1, the aleppo codex 10th c. The pentateuch mark vincent menucha bible school, 2008. The specific phenomenon is the socalled tripartite verbless clause,1 that is, a clause lacking an overt verb as the predicate and consisting of three primary constituents, at least one of which is a thirdperson pronoun henceforth, pron, as in 1, given with two translations. It comes in many different shapes, ranging from the straightforward clause found in genesis. In english grammar, a verbless sentence is a construction that lacks a verb but functions as a sentence.
In hebrew, the word functions as the relative pronoun. In the following text we focus on this type of a verbless clause. This was derived from the greek word meaning five scrolls. Andersen reaches important new conclusions concerning word order in verbless clauses, showing that varieties of word order are associated with. Andersen, the hebrew verbless clause in the pentateuch jbl monograph series, 14. Andersens the hebrew verbless clause in the pentateuch, jblms 14 new york, 1970 and j. Andersen,l is an exceptionally significant step forward in hebrew syntax. This word does not occur in scripture, nor is it certainly known when the roll was thus divided into five portions genesis, exodus, leviticus, numbers, deuteronomy. Introduction to the pentateuch background the hebrew bible or old testament took shape over many centuries.
Pdf clauses which begin with a form of the verb hyh may belong to one of four types. When functioning as a relative pronoun introducing a relative clause, it immediately follows the. They can be recognized as clauses because their internal structure can be analysed into the same functional elements that are distinguished in finite clauses. A nonfinite clause is a clause whose verb element is non. The hebrew verbless clause in the pentateuch journal of biblical literature by francis i andersen jan 1, 1970. For the record, the pentateuch is another name for the torah, the first five books of the bible, the five books of moses. The zero copula strategy the verblessnominal clause is the. Holmstedtabegg hebrew syntactic database principles and parameters v. Pdf on the verbless or nominal clause in biblical hebrew. In the following examples, you will notice that when functions as a relative. Waltke and oconnor define this type as an identification clause because. Personal pronouns may also appear as the subject of a verbless clause. Such clauses often require a complex grammatical analysis in order to properly interpret their meaning.
Nashville, tenn published for the society of biblical literature by abingdon press. Lecture 1 pentateuch overview covenant people introduction the septuagint called the first five books of the bible the pentateuch. See zewi and lev 2008 for an exhaustive bibliography on the verbless clause in hebrew although the reader should be aware that the section on general linguistics does not include any of the myriad generative studies. Table 2 changes in the noun from ph to th possible special cases. Testament in hebrew which was the native language of the people of god of old, and the new. Nashville, published for the society of biblical literature by abingdon press 1970 ocolc607934820. It denotes, therefore, the collection of five books. Phases of biblical hebrew and its antecedents bha and the development of the biblical hebrew reading tradition of the tiberian masoretes. We will find that the neutral core of both a verbless clause and a participial.
Professor of oriental and old testament literature in princeton theological seminary 1895 edition published by charles scribners sons. The higher criticism of the pentateuch gordon college. The hebrew verbless clause in the pentateuch journal of. Miller linguistic studies in ancient west semitic 1. Francis ian andersen born 28 july 1925 is an australian scholar in the fields of biblical studies and hebrew. Bringing the highest level of technical expertise to bear on the canon, cognate literature, and the historical matrix of the bible, jbl has stood at the center of communication among biblical scholars in north america for the past 125 years. Nashville, published for the society of biblical literature by abingdon press 1970 ocolc556607737 online version. The term pentateuch is composed of the two greek words, pente, five, and teuchos, which in later alexandrine usage signified book. Chapter 8e hebrew pronouns the relative pronoun who, which, that the form of this word does not change in order to indicate the gender or number of its antecedent.
Searching for hebrew verbless clauses and more hebrew. The student will be able to identify fundamental grammatical elements and translate basic readings from the hebrew scriptures. The socalled tripartite verbless clause in biblical hebrew consists of two nominal phrases and a pronominal element. Andersen, the hebrew verbless clause in the pentateuch nashville, 1970 42.
Graduate institute of applied linguistics abstract this paper provides evidence that tripartite nominal clauses in biblical hebrew employ one of two types of extraposition and a resumptive pronoun. Semantic scholar extracted view of on the verbless or nominal clause in biblical hebrew. The overall topics discussed are whether the verbless clause exists in hebrew, the definition of nominal clauses and the linked topics of the copula and the status of the verb haya to be. Andersen and jacob hoftijzer, members of the 1996 sbl section on linguistics and biblical hebrew gathered to. Jan 02, 2020 the name pentateuch can be traced at least as far back as ad 200, when tertullian referred to the first five books of the bible by that name. A new translation with introduction and commentaryhardback 2007 edition.
Three analyses of the pronominal element have been advanced, each with. This enables us to introduce our students to stretches of. Pentateuch definition and meaning bible dictionary. Salience, implicature, ambiguity, and redundancy in clause clause relationships.
In hebrew, independent personal pronouns are subjective, meaning they are used as the subject of a verb, never as the object of the verb. Verbless clauses a clause is a group of words that has both a subject and a predicate. Hebrew is a relative clause modifying the noun person. Pivotal issues in analyzing the verbless clause, inthe verbless clause in biblical hebrew. I welcome feedback as i now begin in earnest to draft the guide thanks to the solid accuracy of the search programming kudos to the accordance folks. Also known as the torah, which is the hebrew word meaning law, these five books of the bible are genesis, exodus, leviticus, numbers, and deuteronomy. The conditional clause in the biblical hebrew of the pentateuch. The purpose of this paper is to briefly compare and more fully contrast the methodology, conclusions, and taxonomy used by francis andersen in his work the hebrew verbless clause in the pentateuch and by paul jouon and takamitsu muraoka in a grammar of biblical hebrew, regarding the verbless or nominal clause in biblical hebrew. Below is a draft section from a barebones guide to the hebrew syntax modules.
The hebrew verbless clause in the pentateuch book, 1970. Its prominent role within the samaritan community is clear. Every verbless clause in joshua through 2 kings as well as many throughout the pentateuch and books which have been labelled as examples of late biblical hebrew have been analysed in order to note. The journal of biblical literature jbl is a quarterly periodical that promotes critical and academic biblical scholarship. Implied verbal predications a clause is usually defined as a syntactical unit that includes a subject and a verb. Randall carr university of california, santa barbara, ca 93106 in exod 6. Pentateuch 1 pentateuch reading guide and assignments there is a strange idea abroad that in every subject the ancient books should be read only by the professionals, and that the amateur should content himself with the modern booksif the average student wants to find out something about platonism, the very last thing he thinks of doing. Hebrew text english translation and commentary english and hebrew edition j. The conditional clause in the biblical hebrew of the. Verbless clauses, on the other hand, provide a separate piece of information outside of an existing clause.