Studies in Hebrew and Aramaic Syntax, Presented to Professor J. Hoftijzer on the Occasion of His Sixty-Fifth Birthday (review)

Hebrew Studies 34 (1993) 151 Reviews whole offers a clear model for how history may sometimes be reconstructed when we have only very limited evidence. We are now in an era of growing skepticism, when many biblicists are beginning to doubt the possibility of writing a political history of the early monarchy. At such a time, Jones's The Nathan Narratives serves as a reminder that many scholars think such historical projects, though they inevitably involve great guesswork , are worthwhile and can yield interesting results. Marc Brettler Brandeis University Waltham, MA 02254 STUDIES IN HEBREW AND ARAMAIC SYNTAX, PRESENTED TO PROFESSOR J. HOFTIJZER ON THE OCCASION OF HIS SIXTY-FIFTH BIRTHDAY. K. Jongeling, H.L. Murre-Van den Berg, and L. Van Rompay, eds. Studies in Semitic Languages and Linguistics, XVII. Pp. xvi + 219. Leiden: EJ. Brill, 1991. Cloth, G 120. More than most Festschriften, this one is focused upon one field, close to the heart of the man being honored. It consists of a brief preface on Hoftijzer's scholarly career in Leiden along with his complete bibliography and sixteen papers by friends, colleagues, and admirers. Two are written in German, "Die Inkongruenz im Buch Qoheleth" by w.e. Delsman, and "Die Partikel rR als Konjunktion und Interjektion im biblischen Hebraisch" by M. J. Mulder; the rest are in English. Most of the Dutch scholars write very good English indeed; several of them acknowledge the stylistic assistance of a native Anglophone. The publisher, who is known for high quality (and high prices), has reproduced the original characters-with or without pointing-very legibly. It is regrettable that some of the authors submitted typescripts with a phonetically defective transcription, instead of the Hebrew or Aramaic characters; only incidentally, however, does this shortcoming detract from the analysis of syntax. The papers deal, for the most part, with long-recognized difficulties, to which the authors contribute at least an up-to-date review of the evidence and, in some cases, a real advance over their predecessors. The syntactical distinctions are so subtle that success consists not in formulating a precise rule but rather in hitting upon an apt paraphrase in English (or some other Hebrew Studies 34 (1993) 152 Reviews non-Semitic language). For instance, E. Talstra ("Hebrew Syntax: Clause Types and Clause Hierarchy," pp. 180-93) analyzes 1 Kgs 2:8-9, and concludes-on the basis of several weighted factors-that the last clause C,'MfD C,:l ,n:lfD nM n"m, depends upon nl)"', rather than upon any other clause, nearer to it or further away. He arrives at a "communicative or semantic" rendering: ... For you are a wise man. (I am sure) you will know whallo do with him. (I am sure) you will bring him down ... [ellipses in original] While I agree with Talstra's sense of what is implied-"(I am sure)"-my feeling for English expression runs to something more colloquial, and at the same time more literal: "and you'll know what to do to him; you'll send him down ..." The clauses in 2:9 are typically Hebrew in their continual PARATAXIS, employing the connectives -, and ';) (except for the object c1ause,C, i1fDl)n 'fDM nM). To translate it clearly, however, in each passage you must search for the neatest semantic counterpart in your own language. Gideon Goldenberg ("On Direct Speech and the Hebrew Bible," pp. 7996 ) brings out an important contrast between "the verb higgTd. 'tell'" and "the verb'iimar 'say'." The former with kT always introduces an indirect quotation; the latter, with or without kr, normally introduces a direct one. Nevertheless, a first or second person point of view in the verb "say" may bias the form of the quotation; for example, "Job xxxv 14 'all kr-lomar 10 lsuramnu 'although thou sayest, Thou seest him not'. In fully-direct speech it must have been 10'lisurtennu in the 1st person." K. Jongeling ("On the VSO Character of Hebrew," pp. 103-111) disproves a surprising assertion of the master grammarian Jotion, "L'ordre des mots dans la proposition verbale ...est normalement: Sujet-Verbe," and shows with tables how untypical that order is in the book of Ruth, which Jotion himself...