The function of vav-consecutives in Genesis 1-2:4

[Ben S]

As has long been pointed out, several patterns of repetition emerge in the P account of creation. I'm interested in discussion of one in particular, namely, the "God said, let there be X" which is followed by a vav-consecutive of 'sh or something similar. For example, 1:6-7,

God said "let there be a dome in the midst of the heaven, and let it be a divider between the waters." Then/So God made the dome, and divided...etc.

With this pattern, does the vav-consecutive mark consecution, i.e. God announces what he's going to create and then creates it? Or does the second phrase summarize and restate what he has just done through divine fiat? And is there a third option?

[Kirk Lowery]

Ben,

The wayyiqtol conjugation (earlier, the waw-consecutive) is recognized as the "narrative" conjugation: it signals that we are in a story. The previous act in the story was "and God said" in the wayyiqtol chain; then something happened next, marked by the next verb also being wayyiqtol.

I would not say that God speaking was an announcement and then he created something. Rather, the act of speaking is the act of creating. God speaks and it occurs. So I would answer your question that the wayyiqol marks sequence -- in this case temporal.

That's how I understand what's going on.

Kirk

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[kwrandolph]

Ben:

With this pattern, does the vav-consecutive mark consecution, i.e. God announces what he's going to create and then creates it? Or does the second phrase summarize and restate what he has just done through divine fiat? And is there a third option?

It’s not only here, but throughout Tanakh, that one of the functions of the Qatal is to introduce an action or mark the main action when in indicative mood. The Yiqtol is used to indicate a secondary, continuing or follow-up action when in indicative mood. As such, would it be called a “secondary indicative”? (Yiqtol is also used when in subjunctive mood, to indicate intent, possibility, and a few other non-indicative actions) This pattern is very common in narrative, but also found in non-narrative sections.

One of the things to watch out for is that secondary action can come in the sentence before the main action, as in Genesis 2:5.

Another thing to keep in mind is that the waw prefix has a wider range of meaning than the English “and”, sometimes can be translated as “that”, “so that” or “in order that”. But usually it’s used to indicate continuation, next action. In Genesis 1:1–2:4 this is the account of the creation with the narrative starting in Genesis 1:1 and continuing through Genesis 2:3. Genesis 2:4 sums up the preceding.

Karl W. Randolph.

[Ben S]

Thanks
As background, I did a MA then PhD work in Semitics at Chicago, but it's been about 10 years; I'm just not nearly as enmeshed in minute nuance and technicalities as I was back then.

At least in my example of 1:6-7, there are only wayyiqtol forms, no qatal or yiqtol. It's the vayyiqtol of the 2nd phrase that made me wonder if the first phrase was a declaration (not creation by fiat), since the prima facie reading of vayya'as would seem to indicate something like "and then (after speaking) God made the firmament."

In other words, these phrases of fulfillment/result are roughly synonymous with the repeated phrase vayyehi ken, "and it was so."

Ben Spackman

[Kirk Lowery]

Ben,

Then it may interest you that I did my PhD at UCLA in the late 70s and early 80s in Northwest Semitics under Stanislav Segert. And forgive me for the pedantics: my dissertation (1985) was on Hebrew discourse grammar. Back in those days we were justifying and validating wayyiqtol and finessing its text-level semantics. And I'm teaching a doctoral seminar on Hebrew text linguistics this semester. So all this is fresh for me.

[kwrandolph]

At least in my example of 1:6-7, there are only wayyiqtol forms, no qatal or yiqtol. It's the vayyiqtol of the 2nd phrase that made me wonder if the first phrase was a declaration (not creation by fiat), since the prima facie reading of vayya'as would seem to indicate something like "and then (after speaking) God made the firmament."

In other words, these phrases of fulfillment/result are roughly synonymous with the repeated phrase vayyehi ken, "and it was so."

Ben Spackman

Ben:

Grammatically speaking, the use of the Yiqtol in isolation does not necessarily mean that the following is consecutive, it could be concurrent. The context gives clues which is which.

Adding a waw prefix to a Yiqtol doesn’t change the meaning that the conjugation imparts to the verb. This was brought out in the PhD dissertation of Rolf Furuli, who has been on this discussion group.

Proverbs 31, though it is poetry, gives examples of how the Yiqtol is used as a secondary indicative: verse 11 the phrase containing the Yiqtol starts with a waw, but the verb itself is at the end; verse 13 the waw is prefixed onto the Yiqtol; verse 14 the waw is absent, but the Yiqtol present.

In narrative, the same pattern is followed, where the waw prefixed onto a Yiqtol merely indicates a continuation of the narrative. Even in narrative, the time sequence can be consecutive, or concurrent, one needs to look at each individual context to see which is which.

Karl W. Randolph.