Re: The Fallacy of Prophetic Perfect
Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2021 6:22 pm
I am not an expert (yet) in Biblical Hebrew to be able to comment on these controversies, but I have a strong feeling that time as it was perceived by the old Israelites (and as potrayed in the Hebrew Bible) is significantly different from the way it is understood in the modern western thought (which is dualistic and materialistic). Qoheleth gives us a cyclical view of time in 1:9, besides other cycles of nature. Further, we perceive cause precedes effect on the time axis, but this has come into question even in Quantum Physics. The Delayed-choice quantum eraser experiment suggests retrocausality (meaning, some effects precede their causes, as viewed from our perspective).
I am YHVH, I change not (אֲנִי יְהוָה לֹא שָׁנִיתִי). Where there is no change there is no time. Time is essentially a relative measure of change (eg. seconds vs minutes on a clock). There is no absolute time. And if He changes not, then He exists all over the "time axis", and His prophets get caught up into "alternate realms" (whether one calls it psychic or spiritual) where they experience events in a diffrent time, possibly in an order of sequence that makes no sense here to us.
Hebrew tenses (esp prophetic, poetic) are directly connected to this phenomenon. Unless there is a paradigm shift in our thinking and worldview, I would expect this controversy about Hebrew grammar will go on for another century if not several. Hebrew grammarians must take into account the weird and the supernatural stuff we often find in the Tanakh to decipher it's grammar. Therefore I too prefer using “Qatal” and “Yiqtol”.
I am YHVH, I change not (אֲנִי יְהוָה לֹא שָׁנִיתִי). Where there is no change there is no time. Time is essentially a relative measure of change (eg. seconds vs minutes on a clock). There is no absolute time. And if He changes not, then He exists all over the "time axis", and His prophets get caught up into "alternate realms" (whether one calls it psychic or spiritual) where they experience events in a diffrent time, possibly in an order of sequence that makes no sense here to us.
Hebrew tenses (esp prophetic, poetic) are directly connected to this phenomenon. Unless there is a paradigm shift in our thinking and worldview, I would expect this controversy about Hebrew grammar will go on for another century if not several. Hebrew grammarians must take into account the weird and the supernatural stuff we often find in the Tanakh to decipher it's grammar. Therefore I too prefer using “Qatal” and “Yiqtol”.