Profecía y Sintaxis: El Uso de las Formas Verbales en los Profetas Menores Preexílicos. (Prophecy and Syntax: The Use of the Verbal Forms in the Pre-Exilic Minor Prophets) [Spanish] (review)

Hebrew Studies 45 (2004) 336 Reviews PROFECÍA Y SINTAXIS: EL USO DE LAS FORMAS VERBALES EN LOS PROFETAS MENORES PREEXÍLICOS. (Prophecy and Syntax: The Use of the Verbal Forms in the Pre-Exilic Minor Prophets) [Spanish]. By Francisco Javier del Barco del Barco. Pp. xiii + 259. Madrid: Instituto de Filología, 2003. Paper, € 23,83. $28.69. Discourse studies of the Hebrew verb are based on the premise that the traditional, sentence based, semantic analyses of the Hebrew verb are inadequate and ultimately unsuccessful in explaining the Hebrew verbal system as a system. Del Barco begins his study of the Hebrew verb from this premise (pp. 1–2). However, in contrast to previous discourse studies, which have largely focused on narrative discourse, del Barco examines the verb in the pre-exilic prophetic books of Hosea, Amos, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah. Del Barco begins with a justification of his approach and choice of database , followed by a survey of some earlier studies of the verb, focusing on some of the more prominent discourse studies such as those by Talstra, Longacre, and Niccacci (chap. 1). In the second chapter, del Barco presents statistics on the occurrences of verb forms in the database. In chapters 3–6, del Barco analyzes the distribution of the verb forms weqatal, wayyiqtol, qatal, and yiqtol in the database. In chapter seven, he analyzes selected texts, drawing on his conclusions from previous chapters (Amos 6, Nahum 2, Zephaniah 1). Finally, del Barco offers in his concluding chapter a recapitulation of the results of his analysis of the individual verb forms and summary of the types of discourse found in the data. Del Barco’s main concern is with the four verb forms to which he devotes a chapter each: weqatal, wayyiqtol, qatal, and yiqtol. Like many recent discourse-based models, del Barco views the waw-prefixed forms (weqatal and wayyiqtol) as distinct from the other pair of forms in that they usually occur in verbal chains denoting sequentiality or temporal succession. Thus, he looks first at chains of weqatal and wayyiqtol and then deals with the handful of individual instances of these forms in the data. Del Barco states that chains of weqatal occur in predictive discourse with future time reference and in descriptive types of discourse (e.g., lament) without an explicit temporal reference (p. 89). The form occurs alone (i.e., not in a chain) in predictive discourse, most often following yiqtol (p. 97). Chains of wayyiqtol occur less frequently in the database. Most often they are headed by a qatal verb, and together form a brief narrative sequence (p. 126). Unlike the waw-prefixed forms, qatal and yiqtol may appear in a variety of positions in the clause. Thus, del Barco organizes his discussion of these two forms syntactically—whether they appear initially in the clause, or are preceded by waw conjunction, by a particle, or by another constituent. Del Hebrew Studies 45 (2004) 337 Reviews Barco observes that qatal occurs in three syntactic contexts: by itself (with anterior or perfect meaning), with waw conjunction (a rare occurrence), and following a variety of subordinating conjunctions (p. 158). Yiqtol occurs at the beginning of the clause with three different functions: as a modal form, as the antecedent to a chain of weqatal forms, and in one half of a protasisapodosis construction or parallel bicola (pp. 194–195). Yiqtol prefixed with waw shows a close connection with what precedes or expresses a jussive sense, and the form also follows various subordinating conjunctions (p. 195). Del Barco presents a wealth of statistical detail regarding the verb forms in pre-exilic minor prophets. He also breaks new ground by examining largely poetic prophetic books rather than prose narrative, as in most previous studies. Del Barco begins his concluding chapter optimistically, with the claim that his study has shown that the syntactic analysis of the Hebrew verbs is an integral part of grammatical analysis and leads to a better understanding of the biblical text (p. 219). Further, he reiterates that the failure of traditional sentence-based approaches to the verbal system justifies his discourse approach , and that in contrast to the numerous exceptional examples that sentence-based...