THE WAYYIQTOL AS ‘PLUPERFECT’: WHEN AND WHY -
Tyndale Bulletin 46.1 (1995) 117-140.THE WAYYIQTOL AS ‘PLUPERFECT’:WHEN AND WHYC. John CollinsSummaryThis article examines the possibility that the Hebrew wayyiqtol verb form itself,without a previous perfect, may denote what in Western languages would beexpressed by a pluperfect tense, and attempts to articulate how we might discernit in a given passage, and the communicative effect of such a usage. The articleconcludes that there is an unmarked pluperfect usage of the wayyiqtol verb form;and that it may be detected when one of three conditions is met. Application ofthese results demonstrates that this usage is not present in 1 Samuel 14:24, whileit is present in Genesis 2:19.I. IntroductionThere is no need to defend the statement of Gesenius that in ClassicalHebrew narrative the wayyiqtol verb form (commonly called ‘the wawconsecutive with “imperfect”’) ‘serves to express actions, events, orstates, which are to be regarded as the temporal or logical sequel ofactions, events, or states mentioned immediately before.’1 Morerecently, practitioners of textlinguistics have referred to the wayyiqtolverb form as ‘the backbone or storyline tense of Biblical Hebrewnarrative discourse.’2 In general, orderly narrative involves a story inthe past tense, about discrete and basically sequential events.3 In1E. Kautzsch, Gesenius’ Hebrew Grammar (trans. A.E. Cowley; Oxford:Clarendon, 1910) §111a.2R.E. Longacre, ‘Discourse Perspective on the Hebrew Verb: Affirmation andRestatement’, in W. Bodine (ed.), Linguistics and Biblical Hebrew (Winona Lake:Eisenbrauns, 1992) 177-189, p. 178.3Within a paragraph or episode, we have what T. Givón, Topic Continuity inDiscourse (Philadelphia: Benjamins, 1983) 8, calls ‘action continuity’: ‘actionsare given primarily in the natural sequential order in which they actually occurredand most commonly there is small if any temporal gap between one action andthe next’ (cited in S. Levinsohn, Discourse Features of New Testament Greek[Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics, 1992] 14).
118TYNDALE BULLETIN 46.1 (1995)Biblical Hebrew, the wayyiqtol verb form is grammatically marked asconveying this information.4There is also little need to discuss the proposition that thenormal way to express a pluperfect idea (also called a ‘flashback’5) inClassical Hebrew narrative is by the use of the perfect verb form (alsocalled the qatal form), commonly introduced in a narrative with asubordinating conjunction such as ’ăšer or kî, or with some sentenceelement preposed to the verb. This verb form in narrative isgrammatically marked for off-the-main-storyline events. It mayintroduce an imbedded storyline of time prior to the main storyline,whose backbone sequence will be conveyed by wayyiqtol forms.Difficulties arise when it appears that the wayyiqtol verbform is used to denote an event prior to the previous verb, i.e., as whatin Western languages would be expressed by a pluperfect verb form.The purpose of this paper is to examine claims that such a usageexisted in Classical Hebrew; and if it did, to articulate if possible thecriteria by which we might discern it in a given passage, and thecommunicative effect of such a usage.64Of course we must add nuances to this statement for a full description of Hebrewnarrative, as does, e.g., R. Buth: ‘various degrees of partial semantic and temporaloverlap with a preceding sentence are possible, up to and including a hendiadyslike “answered and said”’ (‘Methodological Collision between Source Criticismand Discourse Analysis: The Problem of “Unmarked Temporal Overlay” and thePluperfect/non-Sequential wayyiqtol’, paper read to the Seminar on DiscourseLinguistics and Biblical Hebrew [sponsored by Summer Institute of Linguistics],Dallas, Texas, May 31-June 11, 1993, 1. [This paper is marked as having alsobeen read at SBL, 1991, in absentia, and is slated for publication in R. Bergen(ed.), Collected Papers on Discourse Linguistics and Biblical Hebrew [Dallas:SIL, forthcoming.]).5Longacre, ibid.6Note that these concerns make this approach a broadly text-linguistic one, asdescribed in E. Talstra, ‘Text Grammar and Hebrew Bible. I: Elements of aTheory’, Bibliotheca Orientalis 35 (1978) 169-174, p. 169. Note further that ourdata base is the narrative of Genesis through Kings.
COLLINS: The wayyiqtol as ‘Pluperfect’119The procedure will be as follows: first, I will survey theviews of some classical grammarians (Gesenius, Driver, Davidson,Joüon, Waltke-O’Connor7); then I will look at the two major studiesof this topic (Martin, Baker), neither of which is from a textlinguisticpoint of view; then I will discuss the recent work of Buth, whichmakes explicit use of textlinguistic ideas, but is carried out on a muchsmaller sample than that of Baker.8 Buth suggests answers to thequestions posed above, and I will examine his answers in light of thelarger data base. Finally, I will address some controverted texts (1 Sa.14:24; Gn. 2:19) to see if this study can yield exegetical results.II. Survey of Classical GrammariansThe grammars of Gesenius and Joüon do not allow for the possibilityof a wayyiqtol denoting a pluperfect event, except when it isconsequent on a perfect verb form with pluperfect meaning.9Davidson has no independent discussion of the matter: he defers tothat in S.R. Driver.107In view of Waltke-O’Connor’s rejection of text-linguistic methodology (B.K.Waltke and M. O’Connor, An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax2 [WinonaLake: Eisenbrauns, 1990] 55: ‘We have resisted the strong claims of discoursegrammarians’), I group them with the ‘classical grammarians’. Unlike some in thetext-linguistic arena, however, I do not use this category name pejoratively.Talstra (e.g., ‘Text grammar I’, 170) mentions more than once that text-linguisticdiscussions of Hebrew would have benefited from more interaction with earlierdiscussions.8Buth apparently did not use the work of Baker for his study.9See, for example, Gesenius-Kautsch-Cowley §111n-x; P. Joüon, Grammaire del’hébreu biblique (Rome: Institut Biblique Pontifical, 1923) §118. Note that A.Niccacci, writing from within a text-linguistic perspective, endorses this, TheSyntax of the Verb in Classical Hebrew Prose (JSOT Sup 86, Sheffield: SheffieldAcademic Press, 1990 [ET of 1986 Italian edition]) §40.10A.B. Davidson, Hebrew Syntax3 (Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1901) §48 remark 2;Joüon §118d, note 2 also defers to Driver (Muraoka’s English translationmaintains this deference: P. Joüon and T. Muraoka, A Grammar of BiblicalHebrew [Rome: Pontifical Biblical Institute, 1993]).
120TYNDALE BULLETIN 46.1 (1995)The most comprehensive of the classical treatments of thissubject is that of S.R. Driver in his work on the Hebrew tenses.11After describing the normal use of the wayyiqtol to expresschronological sequence (§§73-74), he noted that some cases ‘occur inwhich no temporal relation is implied at all, and association in thoughtis the principle guiding the writer rather than association in time ’(§76). Thus he allowed for an ‘epexegetical’ use of the wayyiqtol verbform (i.e., a comment on the preceding narrative as a whole).12 Hethen in a long Observation appended to this section, dealt with the‘moot and delicate question how far the [wayyiqtol] denotes apluperfect. [C]an it instead of conducting us as usual to asucceeding act, lead us back to one which is chronologicallyanterior?’13 After pointing out that the usual way to denote apluperfect is by means of the perfect verb form, he examined in detailthose passages in which native Jewish grammarians,14 the translatorsof the AV, and some of his contemporary scholars15 had alleged apluperfect significance to the wayyiqtol form.16 His overallconclusion:In those [wayyiqtol forms] occuring at the beginning of a narrative,or paragraph, there are, as we have seen, reasons for presuming thatthe chronological principle is in abeyance, and that it is not theintention of the auth said thus. (7)And I looked (w’r’) [victoriously] on him and on his house, andIsrael perished utterly forever. And Omri had taken possession of(wyrš ‘mry) the land of Medebah, and he dwelt in it Towards the end of line 7 we find a wayyiqtol verb form wyrš, ‘and hetook possession’ used to express a previous event. Buth refutes thosewho would interpret this verb form differently, either as a weqatal(perfect consecutive) or as an infinitive:35There is no motivation for such structures. The verb is not habitual(the normal meaning of veQatal in narrative) and it is not continuinga description as normal Qatol infinitive. Rather than posit in Moabitea unique function, otherwise unattested for veQatal in Hebrew, it iscertainly better to group this Moabite example with a parallelHebrew phenomenon.32‘Methodological Collision’, 9.33This has the advantage that one cannot easily speak of poorly edited sources, orof damage in textual transmission.34Text from J.C.L. Gibson, Syrian Semitic Inscriptions, Vol. I (Oxford: OUP,1971) 74ff, and translation here based on Gibson’s.35Compare Driver, Notes on the Hebrew Text and the Topography of the Books ofSamuel (Oxford: Clarendon, 1912) lxxxix-xc; Gibson, Syrian Semitic InscriptionsI, 78.
COLLINS: The wayyiqtol as ‘Pluperfect’127Buth points out that the ‘mention of Omri [in line 7] returns thenarrative to a generation before King Mesha and before the time whenMoab subdued Israel.’36Buth is then able to posit the conditions in which thephenomenon of ‘unmarked overlay’ occurs and how we can recogniseit. He finds ‘two limited environments for unmarked temporaloverlay’:37(1) ‘Some lexical redundancy or reference specifically pointsback to a previous event.’ This anaphoric reference would explain,e.g., the examples in Judges 20:36 and the Moabite Stone, line 7.(2) ‘From common cultural experience an event can beinterpreted as giving a reason or otherwise commenting on the eventsimmediately preceding.’ This would explain Judges 11:1.Buth then explores the possible communicative effects of thisstructure, and applies his criteria to Genesis 2:8, 19 (arguing that theyare not instances of this phenomenon); but discussion of these pointswill be reserved for later in this paper.V. Criteria for the Unmarked wayyiqtol PluperfectThe aim of this section is to build on Buth’s analysis, applying it tothe larger data set found in Baker.38 In considering Baker’s evidence,the first thing that becomes clear is that Buth’s criteria are toorestrictive to cover all of the data. It would be better to say that thewayyiqtol may express pluperfect time when one or more of thefollowing three conditions are met:(1) Some anaphoric reference explicitly points back to aprevious event. This is Buth’s first condition, and in addition to the36‘Methodological Collision’, 8.37‘Methodological Collision’, 9.38Note that Buth offers a number of verses in Judges where the consecutive tenseis used with ‘temporal irregularities’. Some of these are better classed as‘recapitulative’: Judg. 9:56; 17:12; 21:6; while in some others it is not possible totell just where he found the temporal irregularity: e.g., Judg. 2:1, 14, 21; 3:4, 10.For more of his convincing examples see below.
128TYNDALE BULLETIN 46.1 (1995)verses explained by Buth, this would explain 1 Kings 21:8-9; 2 Kings7:18-19; and possibly 2 Samuel 13:34 as discussed below.39(2) The logic of the referent described requires that an eventpresented by a wayyiqtol verb form actually took place prior to theevent presented by a previous verb.40 This would explain. e.g., Joshua18:8, as well as those passages explained in Buth’s secondcondition.41(3) The verb begins a section or paragraph. This was the soleinstance allowed by Driver, in which he agreed that ‘the chronologicalprinciple’ of the wayyiqtol might be ‘in abeyance’. Note that this alsohelps explain 2 Samuel 13:34 (discussed below).4239Additional examples from Baker: 1 Sa. 14:6 (looks back to v. 1); 2 Sa. 4:7(restates v. 6, perhaps as an action peak); from Buth: Judg. 2:20 (back to v. 14);3:7 (back to 2:11); 7:22 (back to v. 20); 17:4 (restates v. 3); 18:20 (back to vv. 1718, but notice different subjects of verb lāqaִh); 18:31 (wayyāśîmû is a restatementof wayyāqîmû in v. 30).40This statement of the condition is wider than Buth’s, which is too narrowly castto cover all the data. Buth would restrict this to ‘common cultural experience’, buthow does that explain Is. 38:22 (compare parallel in 2 Ki. 20:8ff.), 1 Ki. 11:15, orJos. 18:8? Baker argues that wayyiben wayyiqra’ in Gn. 35:7 (the building of analtar and the naming of the place) refers to the action of 28:18-19, and henceshould be taken as pluperfect/epexegetical. If this is so, then the literary contextcan establish ‘the logic of the referent’ (much as in 1 Ki. 11:15, where wayĕhî time expression [or wayyāqem in v. 14, see discussion in section III above] refersto an event prior to its preceding context). This appeal to ‘the logic of the referent’is only an application of ‘the reality principle’ described in P. Cotterell andM.M.B. Turner, Linguistics and Biblical Interpretation (Downers Grove: IVP,1989) 264f. (with references to linguists).41Additional examples from Baker: Gn. 29:24; 35:6-7 (28:18 gives theoccurrence of events); Ex. 2:10; Jos. 2:16; 13:24, 29 (also satisfy criterion 3 sincethey begin paragraphs); 18:8; 1 Sa. 26:4; from Buth: Judg. 1:5, 8, 10 (explanationsof the summary statement in v. 4); 3:16 (before last verb of v. 15).42Additional examples from Baker: Gn. 19:29; 2 Sa. 12:26 (This verse satisfiescriterion 1 also); from other sources: Judg. 2:6 (so Driver, Tenses, 86); Jon. 1:17[2:1] (1:16 took us to the sailors’ return to shore; now we return to Jonah; also fitscriterion 1); 2:3 [2:4] (but of course this is poetic).
COLLINS: The wayyiqtol as ‘Pluperfect’129VI. Communicative Effect of Unmarked TemporalOverlaySeveral of the authors cited above speculate on the effect of using theunmarked form to express a pluperfect idea, notably Martin and Buth.Martin, for example, contended:‘The major consideration with any writer of literary talent would beto present his material so organized as to stimulate attention and tocommunicate it effectively.’ 43Martin was not specifically dealing with the question of verb formsnormally used to describe successive events, being used abnormally toexpress a ‘pluperfect’ action, and Buth’s speculations are moreconcrete. Buth says:44With regard to communicative effect, in back-to-back sentenceswhere the natural relationship of the events provides the properunderstanding one can say that the vayyiqtol clause reports its eventas a main-line event. It avoids making any semantic relationship like‘reason’ or ‘grounds’ and it avoids breaking up the structure of thenarrative with a structurally marked aside or parenthesis. In caseswhere lexical reference or repetition signals a back-reference one canagain hypothesize that the author is primarily concerned inportraying ‘main-line’ events with the vayyiqtol structure. Theconstraint of adding details to a passage without also demoting themoff the main line gives rise to this non-sequential use of thevayyiqtol. Thus, for both lexically signalled temporal overlay as wellas semantically natural temporal overlay the vayyiqtol structure liftsa clause to the main line without making another relationshipprominent.Buth goes on to speculate about the literary effect of the unmarkedoverlay in Judges 20:31-48 (discussed in section IV above):4543‘Dischronologized Narrative’, 186.44‘Methodological Collision’, 9.45‘Methodological Collision’, 11.
130TYNDALE BULLETIN 46.1 (1995) we can explain the exuberance of unmarked overlay in Judges20:31-48 as a grammatical imitation of the military and even moralconfusion that the author attributed to that episode It was a lawlesstime and the complications of the unholy, fratricidal battle arehighlighted by forcing the audience to untangle the scenes by usingthe subtle lexical clues of unmarked overlay.Revell, in the article from which Buth drew, made the more prosaiccomment that:The complexity of the account is undoubtedly due, in part, to theneed to present the activities of three different groups participating inthe battle, a problem not often presented to the narrator, and difficultto solve within the linear convention of Hebrew narrative. 46Perhaps it would be helpful to think about the communicationsituation between an author and his audience.47 As an audience wenaturally assume that an author will follow the ‘Cooperative Principle’articulated by Grice:48(a) maxim of quantity: say neither more nor less information than isrequired. (b) maxim of quality: say what you have grounds to believeis true. (c) maxim of relation: be relevant. (d) maxims of manner: beperspicuous, specifically (i) avoid obscurity of expression; (ii) avoidambiguity; (iii) be brief; (iv) be orderly.If an author violates one of these rules from carelessness he usuallyproduces a literary blemish; however, sometimes a writer may46‘Battle with Benjamin’, 432. See also P.E. Satterthwaite, ‘Narrative Artistry inthe Composition of Judges xx.29ff’, VT 42 (1992) 80-89, who explores thenarrative artistry of this account within Revell’s framework; this interesting paperdoes not, however, discuss the grammatical issues (on pp. 80-81 he expressessatisfaction with Revell’s work).47Many of the ideas in what follows are influenced by Mary Louise Pratt, Towarda Speech Act Theory of Literary Discourse (Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1977) 100200.48H.P. Grice, whose theory of the Cooperative Principle is outlined in Pratt,Speech Act Theory, 125-132.
COLLINS: The wayyiqtol as ‘Pluperfect’131knowingly fail to fulfill one of the rules, and that can be interesti
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