The Verbal System of the Dead Sea Scrolls

Tense, Aspect, and Modality in Qumran Hebrew Texts

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In The Verbal System of the Dead Sea Scrolls Ken M. Penner determines whether Qumran Hebrew finite verbs are primarily temporal, aspectual, or modal.
Standard grammars claim Hebrew was aspect-prominent in the Bible, and tense-prominent in the Mishnah. But the semantic value of the verb forms in the intervening period in which the Dead Sea Scrolls were written has remained controversial.
Penner answers the question of Qumran Hebrew verb form semantics using an empirical method: a database calculating the correlation between each form and each function, establishing that the ancient author’s selection of verb form is determined not by aspect, but by tense or modality. Penner then applies these findings to controversial interpretations of three Qumran texts.

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Preliminary Material
Pages: i–xii
2 Methodology
Pages: 70–125
5 Conclusion
Pages: 195–203
Bibliography
Pages: 205–218
Author Index
Pages: 219–220
Biblical Index
Pages: 221–222
Dead Sea Scrolls Index
Pages: 223–224
Subject Index
Pages: 225–228
Ken M. Penner, Ph.D. (2006, McMaster University), is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at St. Francis Xavier University. He is also writing a commentary on Greek Isaiah for Brill’s Septuagint Commentary Series.
The books is aimed at Hebraists, Qumran scholars, and Semitic linguists.
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