A Treatise on the Use of Tenses in Hebrew and Some Other Syntactical Question (review)

Hebrew Studies 41 (2000) 229 Reviews The use of the word ilIDP~~ in the conditional clause: ,ipnc "l) 'nln' ,., mrl1'7 iWP~ ,,, ~'O 'n"il ("Had I known of your research, I would have written to you, asking for help") must be an error (it should perhaps be illDp~). The word ~'Ot' (p. xxxix) must be a typo (perhaps il~'Oil). The last word on p. xli should be "Arabic" not "Aramaic." While I believe that scholars who possess expertise in the field of modem Hebrew grammar, morphology, and syntax may view this work as somewhat superfluous, others, mainly scholars in other related fields such as Bible, as well as students and a lay audience who have interest in this field, should fmd the book very helpful. Indeed, the author wisely plays down readers' expectations. The book, he cautions, is not meant to provide the reader with a command of modem Hebrew (reading and conversing); rather, the book is meant to provide the reader, aided by a bilingual dictionary , with "reasonable facility through any scholarly article, book, or encyclopedia entry pertaining to biblical and related subjects." This, and even much more, the book accomplishes. Reuben Ahroni Ohio State University Columbus. Ohio 43210 ahroni.1@osu.edu A TREATISE ON THE USE OF TENSES IN HEBREW AND SOME OTHER SYNTACTICAL QUESTION. By S. R. Driver. With an Introductory Essay by W. Randall Garr. The Biblical Resource Series. Fourth edition. Pp. lxxxvi + 306. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1998. Paper, $30.00. This fourth edition of one of the most influential books on the biblical Hebrew verbal system is basically a reprint of the third edition that appeared in 1892. It is however, complemented by an 86-page introductory essay by Randall Garr. This contribution of Garr provides readers an insight into the methodological assumptions and theoretical frame of reference of Driver as a British scholar working at the end of the nineteenth century. However, the most important aspect of Garr's essay is his succinct overview of Driver, complemented by a critical analysis of Driver in the light of developments in this century in the fields of general, comparative and biblical Hebrew linguistics. These critical remarks Garr refers to as a Hebrew Studies 41 (2000) 230 Reviews "selective elucidation" (p. xxxv). They indeed constitute a worthy update of Driver's thirdedition. GaIT commences with the identification of three basic analytical principles that organize the biblical Hebrew verbal system in Driver's work, videlicet , (1) syntactic issues (e.g., whether a verbal form is accented, whether it occurs with or without a conjunction, whether it occurs in a conditional clause, and whether a particular type of circumstantial clause is involved), (2) morphological considerations (Le., which inflection pattern is used), and (3) Driver's understanding of the semantic concept 'aspect.' According to Garr, Driver did not benefit from earlier works of his English colleagues. Except for Ewald, his obligations to German scholars like Gesenius, BUtcher, and Olshausen are also underplayed. Furthermore, Driver did not regard the results of comparative philology of much help in his analysis of the biblical Hebrew verbal system. He, for example, rejected the possible explanations of the so-called waw-conversive by insights emanating from the field of Akkadian studies. However, whenever Driver did make use of comparative data, it was either from Arabic or Greek. According to Garr, Driver was in this regard very consistent His lack of appreciation for comparative studies did not change much from the first edition of his work in 1874 to that of the third edition in 1892. As far as his methodology is concerned, Garr points out that Driver was committed to taxonomic compilation of data concerning the verbal system. He would compile data at "the word-, clause-level and beyond" (p. xxvii) in terms of formal categories. With these categories as his point of departure, he would try to fmd a "hidden link of connection" to "order the chaos of the Hebrew verb" (p. xxvi). In this process Driver indeed had a very broad (and very modem) approach to the study of the biblical Hebrew verb; for example, he tried to determine the relation which an action introduced by a consecutive form...