{"id":1885,"date":"2020-12-10T11:17:09","date_gmt":"2020-12-10T09:17:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thehebrewcafe.com\/main\/?p=1885"},"modified":"2020-12-12T19:53:09","modified_gmt":"2020-12-12T17:53:09","slug":"a-recent-convert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thehebrewcafe.com\/main\/2020\/12\/a-recent-convert\/","title":{"rendered":"A Recent Convert"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"<\/a>As you might be aware, Jonathan<\/a> has been writing a series about the word order of the biblical Hebrew verbal sentence. The significance of that series and what he is arguing might be lost, however. Therefore, I wanted to write a short entry to let you know why I have become a recent convert to Cook and Holmstedt\u2019s proposal for the re-examination of the standard or \u201cunmarked\u201d word order in biblical Hebrew.<\/p>\n

Anyone who learned Hebrew through the standard channels will generally tell you that the normal word order in Hebrew is verb-subject-object<\/span> (VSO). That is, the verb appears first, then the subject, and then whatever other information (the object, adverbs, etc.). Take, for example, the following quote from the popular introductory grammar The Basics of Biblical Hebrew<\/em> by Gary Pratico and Miles Van Pelt (133 [\u00a712.14]):<\/p>\n

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In Hebrew, however, normal word order for a verbal sentence is verb-subject-object<\/em> as the following example illustrates.<\/p>\n

\u05d1\u05bc\u05b8\u05e8\u05b8\u05d0 \u05d0\u05b1\u05dc\u05b9\u05d4\u05b4\u05d9\u05dd \u05d0\u05b5\u05ea \u05d4\u05b7\u05e9\u05c1\u05bc\u05b8\u05de\u05b7\u05d9\u05b4\u05dd \u05d5\u05b0\u05d0\u05b5\u05ea \u05d4\u05b8\u05d0\u05b8\u05e8\u05b6\u05e5<\/span>
\nGod created the heavens and the earth (Gen 1:1).<\/p>\n

In this example, the verb is in first position (\u05d1\u05bc\u05b8\u05e8\u05b8\u05d0<\/span>), the subject in second position (\u05d0\u05b1\u05dc\u05b9\u05d4\u05b4\u05d9\u05dd<\/span>) and the two objects follow the subject (\u05d4\u05b7\u05e9\u05c1\u05bc\u05b8\u05de\u05b7\u05d9\u05b4\u05dd<\/span> and \u05d4\u05b8\u05d0\u05b8\u05e8\u05b6\u05e5<\/span>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

This is wholly incorrect for a few reasons, but you cannot blame these authors for making such a statement when even Gesenius, the most famous of biblical Hebrew grammarians, has the following to say (Kautzsch, 456 [\u00a7142f]):<\/p>\n

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According to what has been remarked above, under a<\/em>, the natural order of words<\/em> within the verbal sentence is: Verb\u2014Subject<\/em>, or Verb\u2014Subject\u2014Object<\/em>. But as in the noun clause (\u00a7141l<\/em>) so also in the verbal-clause, a variation of the usual order of words frequently occurs when any member of the sentence is to be specifically emphasized by priority of position.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

So, why has this topic occupied so much of Jonathan’s thoughts here on the blog of The Hebrew Caf\u00e9? Why does any of this matter for students of biblical Hebrew? And, how can we know for sure that the information on word order presented in these grammars is so incorrect?<\/p>\n

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Why Jonathan Writes on Word Order<\/h3>\n

The first reason that Jonathan writes about this issue is because he studied under Dr. John Cook, who has partnered with Dr. Robert Holmstedt in the creation of a new method of teaching biblical Hebrew. Included in this method is a novel perspective on the question of unmarked verb position and how the verb happens to move so frequently in Hebrew sentences as to cause confusion among even the most astute of Hebrew scholars. Studying under one of these paradigm-altering giants in the field affected Jonathan’s perspective on the importance of the question and, consequently, on the topics that he finds fascinating enough to write about in a blog.<\/p>\n

The fact that so many grammars present this issue incorrectly (in our view) drives Jonathan to call attention to the word order of the verses covered in our online lessons, trying to sort out what might be happening in the structure of the sentence\/verse to influence the way that it\u2019s constructed linguistically. He wants to correctly inform new students with regard to this issue, which is attracting more attention in recent years.<\/p>\n

Just as I didn\u2019t recognize the relevance of this topic when it was first raised to me a few months ago, so many people involved in Hebrew instruction do not realize that the traditional grammars relate incorrectly to this question. By bringing it up here in the blog, Jonathan is attempting both to provide information for those who are new to the study of the language and to further discussion on this important topic, calling it to the attention of those who have experience with reading Hebrew but haven\u2019t given much thought to word order.<\/p>\n

Why You Should Care<\/h3>\n

When Jonathan first raised the question of word order in our discussions (and then on the blog), I didn\u2019t see the significance of it. I came to Hebrew intuitively, having acquired the language basically naturally as the product of formal and personal study, free reading, involvement in the Israeli ulpan program, and daily living in Israel for the past decade and a half. I\u2019d been reading the Hebrew Bible for twenty years as a regular habit, yet I never considered the word order beyond what \u201cfelt right\u201d to me, which is generally how people come to language without analyzing it.<\/p>\n

As students (and teachers) of the language, we all are constantly searching for better ways to learn (and teach) it. In the early stages, the amount of information that needs to be learned in order to get to a place where you can begin to really<\/span> learn the language can be overwhelming. It has been said that the intermediate stage of learning any language involves unlearning<\/span> things that you learned in the basic stage. It seems counter-intuitive to give bad information in the beginning. Why not do what we can do give a better<\/em> picture of how the language works even in the first level? At least, to the best of our ability.<\/p>\n

By devoting time to the question of word order, there are lots of benefits that will come to your approach to the language generally.<\/p>\n