Re: The Verb HYH

Studium Biblicum Franciscanum (sbfnet@netvision.net.il)
Sat, 5 Apr 1997 11:24:01 +0200

The correlative pattern proposed here for Exod. 3:14b underlies several
Jewish interpretations, especially that of Midrash Hagadol: "As I was with
Abraham, Isaak and Jacob, thus I will be with you".
Compare Targum Ps.-Jonathan of Deut. 32:39: "See then that I am the one who
is (now) and have been (in the past) and I am the one who will be (in the
future)". Of course, this phrase recalls the title of Christ in Revelation
1:4 (and other passages): *ho on - kai ho en - kai ho erchomenos*.
Since Exod. 3:14 has been an issue also discussed in the Biblical Greek
list, I send the present message over to it too.

In the paper menioned above I also suggested an Old Egyptian parallel from
the Report of Wenamun 2:27-28 - a parallel both syntactic and theological.
The parallel suggested more that 50 years ago by A. Alt is to be abandoned.

As for the two passages from Job you find puzzling, they are poetry, and
poetry may not follow the same rules of prose. In any case, 12:4 can be
interpreted along the same line of prose. While 12:3 refers to the present,
12:4 refers to the future: "But I have understanding as well as you; I am
not inferior to you. Who does not know such things as these? (Still) I will
be (or: I am destined to be) a laughingstock to my friends, one who calls
upon God that he may answer him, a laughingstock of a just and blameless
man [i.e. a just and blameless man who is a laughingstock]".
In Job 17:6 *'ehyeh* parallels weqatal, which is OK, but the meaning of the
passage is obscure to me.

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