[B-Greek] On Jussives

Dr. Don Wilkins drdwilkins at sbcglobal.net
Sat Nov 12 19:21:47 EST 2005


On Nov 11, 2005, at 10:06 PM, Donald Vance wrote:

> What you have stated here is a common understanding, but research,
> particularly from the linguistic side of things, has narrowed the gap
> considerably between Greek and Hebrew with regards to our  
> understanding
> of the "precision" of the one over the other. Each has areas where  
> they
> can be more precise than the other. The two languages can be quite
> specific in terms of aspect and temporality, but they do so in
> different ways. Hebrew is, in fact, not appreciably more limited in
> terms of tense/aspect than koine, especially when you deal with the
> languages in the Hellenistic and later periods.

That's a remarkable statement, and I have trouble imagining examples  
within the Hellenistic period where the Hebrew verb tense/aspect  
system could be as precise as the Greek. Some who have tried to  
defend the precision of the Hebrew have done so on the basis of  
adverbial elements or contextual factors, but to succeed, they need  
to argue verb-for-verb. Could you provide me an example or two  
(perhaps off-list, since this is a bit off-topic)? Thanks.
>
> As to the second part of our discussion, the handling of the tense,
> aspect, and mood of the Hebrew text by the LXX seems like a  
> potentially
> fruitful area of research. Perhaps there is a graduate student lurking
> on the list looking for a dissertation topic.

Amen. I don't know how much work has already been done in the area,  
but it looks potentially like a Rosetta-Stone quality project.

Don Wilkins 



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