Contemporary Examinations of Classical Languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, Syriac, and Greek) Perspectives on Linguistics and Ancient Languages 8 Series Editor Terry C. Falla Editorial Board Index Editor James K. Aitken Georgia Kate Kelly Aaron Michael Butts Daniel King Wido van Peursen Perspectives on Linguistics and Ancient Languages (PLAL) contains peer-reviewed essays, monographs, and reference works. It focuses on the theory and practice of ancient-language research and lexicography that is informed by modern linguistics. Contemporary Examinations of Classical Languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, Syriac, and Greek) Valency, Lexicography, Grammar, and Manuscripts Edited by Timothy Martin Lewis Alison G. Salvesen Beryl Turner gp 2016 Gorgias Press LLC, 954 River Road, Piscataway, NJ, 08854, USA www.gorgiaspress.com Copyright © 2016 by Gorgias Press LLC All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise without the prior written permission of Gorgias Press LLC. 2016 ܝ 1 ISBN 978-1-4632-0656-7 ISSN 2165-2600 A Cataloging-in-Publication Record is Available from the Library of Congress. Printed in the United States of America TABLE OF CONTENTS Table of Contents .......................................................................................................... v Series Preface ................................................................................................................ vii The Complexity of Simplicity ..................................................................................... ix Editors and Contributors to this Volume ................................................................. xi Introduction ................................................................................................................. xiii Acknowledgements ..................................................................................................... xix Abbreviations .............................................................................................................. xxi EXAMINING VERBS: PUTTING SYNTAX INTO LEXICA AND GRAMMARS Chapter 1 Who commits adultery with whom, and why it matters in a lexicon ............................................................................................................. 1 BERYL TURNER Chapter 2 Soundings with regard to Verbal Valency in the Peshitta Old Testament ............................................................................................................. 19 JEROME A. LUND Chapter 3 How do Hebrew Verbs Differ? A Flow Chart of the Differences .. 33 JANET W. DYK Chapter 4 Valency: The Intersection of Syntax and Semantics ............................ 53 JOHN A. COOK Chapter 5 How to Classify Hebrew Verbs: Plotting Verb-Specific Roles ......... 67 NICOLAI WINTHER-NIELSEN Chapter 6 The Proper Role of Valency in Biblical Hebrew Studies ................... 95 A. DEAN FORBES EXAMINING PARTICLES: LEXICAL CORRESPONDENCES AND LEXICAL DEVELOPMENTS and Greek ἰδού הִ ֵ נּ ה in rendering Hebrew ܳܗܐ Chapter 7 The use of Syriac or ἴδε in the Peshitta to Genesis and the Gospels ....................................... 113 MATS ESKHULT Chapter 8 The Function and Etymology of the Aramaic Particle Lm: A Re-Examination ............................................................................................ 121 NA’AMA PAT-EL v vi CONTEMPORARY EXAMINATIONS OF CLASSICAL LANGUAGES EXAMINING MANUSCRIPTS AND TEXT-CRITICAL MATTERS Chapter 9 Exploring Patterns of Accentuation in BL Add. MS 12138 (the East-Syrian “Masora”): Perspectives and Possibilities ....................... 139 JONATHAN LOOPSTRA Chapter 10 Embedded Oracles: Sortilege in a Syriac Gospel Codex ............... 167 JEFF CHILDERS Chapter 11 The Lexicon of the Tabernacle Accounts in the Syrohexapla Version of Exodus ............................................................................................ 187 ALISON G. SALVESEN Chapter 12 Towards a New Critical Edition and Translation of Ishoʿdad of Merw’s Commentary on the Gospel of John with an Identification of his Sources ................................................................................................................ 201 JOHAN D. HOFSTRA Chapter 13 The Hebrew as a Text Critical Tool in Restoring Genuine Peshitta Readings in Isaiah .............................................................................. 239 JEROME A. LUND Index ............................................................................................................................ 251 SERIES PREFACE —a life’s work in the agony and sweat of the human spirit, not for the glory and least of all for profit, but to create out of the materials of the human spirit something which did not exist before. William Faulkner Perspectives on Linguistics and Ancient Languages contains peer-reviewed essay collections, monographs, and reference works. It is a publication of the International Syriac Language Project (ISLP), an interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary group which meets annually to reconsider the theory and practice of ancient-language research and of ancient-language lexicography. The study of ancient languages is a time-honoured field of endeavour. Lexicography is an equally venerable and even more ancient tradition. Modern lexicography, the art and science of dictionary making, began about four centuries ago. But pre-scientific lexicography has ancestors in many ancient languages and stretches back four millennia. Yet as old as lexicography and ancient-language study are, on the time-line of history they were conceived only recently when compared to the emergence of human language, which may go back, say, a 100,000 years: lexicography about an hour ago and modern lexicography around five minutes if we reduce the life span of language to a twenty-four hour period. The related discipline of modern linguistics is more recent still, beginning in the mid-nineteenth century and experiencing rapid growth in the latter half of the twentieth century. Because it is the science of the study of language, it became an integral part of ancient-language inquiry and adopted the lexicography of ancient and contemporary languages as one of its sub-disciplines. Today, lexicography, no less than ancient-language research, is a mature discipline in its own right. All three—linguistics, ancient-language study, and lexicography—therefore stand beside each other rather than one being subordinate to the other. For ancient-language research the dictionary is a primary resource. For its part, ancient-language lexicography in its microscopic probing, quest for the larger perspective, and provision of various forms of information, must draw on all aspects of ancient-language study. In contemporary inquiry, both disciplines are vii viii CONTEMPORARY EXAMINATIONS OF CLASSICAL LANGUAGES inextricably linked to developments in modern linguistics. Sound lexicography requires sound linguistic theory. Linguistic theory and practice are implicit in a methodology for ancient-language study. The aim of this series is therefore to address the disciplines of ancient-language research, lexicography, and issues of linguistics as they relate to a contemporary approach to the other two. The aim of the ISLP to be also interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary in its research is motivated by three primary factors. The first is that many linguistic disciplines meet in the investigation of ancient languages and in the making of modern lexica. The second is that developments in the study of one language, theoretical and applied, are often pertinent to another. The third is that the development of electronic ancient-language data and lexica require attention to advances in computational linguistics. Thus our planning for a lexicon for a particular language for a new generation is not pursued in isolation, but embraces an understanding of what is taking place in the study of other ancient languages and in the wider worlds of lexicography, linguistics, and digital technologies. Terry C. Falla Series Editor THE COMPLEXITY OF SIMPLICITY The prefaces to this series and to the PoSL series preceding it tell the story of the International Syriac Language Project (ISLP) from its beginnings to the present. These prefaces allow each volume to be read in the context of an evolving interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary project. In this publication we welcome the results of a new initiative: in 2012 in response to an unforseen opportunity, Janet Dyk, with the support of A. Dean Forbes, suggested a specially convened mini-ISLP session at the Annual Meeting of SBL in Chicago. The four-paper session was devoted to a one-off “in depth” study of valence and language variation. These papers form an important part of this volume and complement other articles on valence published in this series. We record here our gratitude to Janet and Dean for their initiative. Most of the other articles were presented earlier in 2012 as ISLP research papers at the XIth Symposium Syriacum in Malta and at the International Organization for the Study of the Old Testament in Munich 2013. And once again the quality of the series has been enriched by other scholars who accepted our invitation to contribute to one or another of the volume’s themes, and I express here on behalf of the ISLP our appreciation to the authors for their participation. Another