SUMMARY OF THE NEW VIEW OF THE HEBREW VERB
From these pages the scholar can scarcely fail to infer that:—
I. The form of the Hebrew verb yiqtol, denotes a real present, and not a, future:
1) Because it is admitted by Ewald, Gesenius, Lee, Rödiger, and every other Hebrew Grammarian of name, that it is so in numberless places, and because there are thousands of instances where the Common English Version, and all other versions, ancient and modern, do rightly translate it as a present.
2) Because there are numerous passages where it cannot possibly be a, future; and as it is impossible, in the very nature of things, for a real future to express present time,—whereas it is very common, in almost all languages, rhetorically to express futurity by a present—it must be a present, and not a future.
3) Because in all the Cognate Semitic Dialects it is regarded as a present.
II. The form of the Hebrew verb qatal denotes a past (perfect or imperfect). It is also used idiomatically:—
1) To express a gentle imperative; this is universally agreed by all Hebrew Grammarians to be the case when it is preceded by a regular imperative, e.g., " Speak and say," lit., Speak, and thou hast said; but this limitation of theirs arises from imperfect acquaintance with the facts of the case, as there are many passages where there is no imperative preceding, yet where the past tense is used to express a command, e. g., Zech. 1. 3, "And thou hast said," i.e., "Say thou." This idiom is also admitted to be common in all the Cognate Semitic Dialects.
2) To express a fixed determination that a certain thing must and shall be. This idiom is distinctly admitted by the above-mentioned Hebrew Grammarians, and is common, not only in the Cognate Semitic Dialects, but in the Greek New Testament, and also in the Greek and Latin Classics, as shown by Stuart, Winer, Macknight, Kühner, and others.
III. The Waw Conversive is Unnecessary. It is based upon superficial data, for:—
1) It supposes yiqtol to be an exclusively future form, which is not the case.
2) It ignores the idiomatic use of the past tense to express a "fixed determination," which is admitted by all Hebrew Grammarians.
3) It casts the utmost uncertainty over the language, as, on the very same principles by which waw is supposed to be conversive, the particles once, behind, not, yea, when, how? also, lo, because, so, except, why? therefore, whence? what? and who? must be held to be conversive likewise—which no sane man will venture to maintain.
4) It does not explain all the phenomena of the case, for there are numberless passages "where a past tense is preceded neither by a future nor by an imperative (as the rules of Waw Conversive imperatively require), yet, when it is converted in the Common English Version, and with as much propriety as in any of those instances which are supposed to be indisputable."
5) It is unparalleled among all the other languages of the world—ancient and modern, eastern and western.
It is found in no other composition in the Hebrew Language; in all the most ancient, and valued, and voluminous Hebrew writings it is wanting;—the Talmudim, the Penishim, the Midrashim, have it not. If the Hebrew language ever had a Waw Conversive, is it at all likely that it should suddenly, totally, and unobservedly drop out of existence?
The result of the whole is: That the Waw Conversive does not exist in the Hebrew Bible, and is Unnecessary, Imperfect, and Unexampled in any language.
It has only a traditional existence, being the too hasty generalization of some ancient grammarians, who observed that the Septuagint Translators had—with the freedom which characterizes their whole work both in style and sentiments deemed the Hebrew idioms too colloquial for the fastidious Greeks, and too simple for the dignity of literary composition; and as all succeeding translators, without an exception, were under the spelt of the sacred character of that Version, it is no wonder, though much to be regretted, that their example was followed. Of late years there has been a very strong tendency in translators and expositors to adhere more than ever to the exact form of the Hebrew and Greek Tenses, but the present Translation is the first and only one in which it is carried out systematically.
