The Verbal Tense System in Late Biblical Hebrew Prose.

• Author: Hornkohl, Aaron D.
• Position: Book review

The Verbal Tense System in Late Biblical Hebrew Prose. By OHAD COHEN. Harvard Semitic Series, vol. 63. Winona Lake, Ind.: EISENBRAUNS, 2013. Pp. xiv + 304. S49.50.

The work under review, an English translation of the writers Hebrew University of Jerusalem Ph.D. dissertation, originally written in Hebrew (under the supervision of Steven E. Fassberg), is a methodical and detailed study of the Biblical Hebrew (BH) verbal system as reflected in a limited corpus of Late Biblical Hebrew (LBH) prose material--Esther, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, and the non-synoptic parts of Chronicles--unanimously considered products of the post-Restoration period (thus leaving out such works of debated datation as Jonah and Ruth as well as the almost certainly late Wisdom composition Ecclesiastes). The study is significant because it offers not only a synchronic description of the LBH verb system, but a systematic diachronic comparison between the latter and the verb system of Classical Biblical Hebrew (CBH), succinctly summarizing views and offering cogent critiques of accounts and theories relevant to both. The author also judiciously relates to extra-biblical Hebrew, including Qumran and Mishnaic Hebrew.

The discussion ignores the ongoing debate involving the feasibility of the linguistic periodization of BH works, but the approach assumes the possibility of at least relative linguistic dating, its conclusions--which center mainly on morpho-syntax, and to a lesser extent morphology--unambiguously confirming the reality of the linguistic development that distinguishes post-exilic Hebrew sources from their pre-exilic counterparts.

The book is divided into two parts: the first, consisting of two chapters, presents Cohens research methodology; the second contains eight chapters, each furnishing a thorough discussion of a verbal form (qatal, wayyiqtol, participle, yiqtol, weqatal, infinitive construct, volitive forms, and infinitive absolute) from the perspective of use and meaning vis-a-vis other forms in the LBH system and in comparison to CBH.

In chapter 1 the author briefly discusses problems of text, literary development, vocalization, and genre. He goes on to summarize the prevailing view of BH diachrony, according to which, broadly speaking, the Babylonian Exile serves as the watershed separating First-Temple CBH and Second-Temple LBH, noting such challenges as dialect and listing a few of the major relevant scholarly works.

Chapter 2 embodies the authors...