HEBREW TENSES ILLUSTRATED BY THOSE OF OTHER LANGUAGES
RABBINICAL WRITINGS.
THE oldest writings in the Hebrew language, after the Old Testament, are the Talmuds, large portions of which we have examined to find some examples of Waw Conversive, but in vain; we have not found a single instance of a preterite converted into a future, or any thing that bears the slightest resemblance to it.
With the same view we have read large portions of the best Rabbinical Commentators, Kimchi, Jarchi, Aben-Ezra; the Jewish Prayer-books, the Hebrew translations of the New Testament, of the Pilgrim's Progress, of Dr M'Caul's Old Paths, and have looked over other Hebrew works too numerous to mention, and all with the same negative result. How is it at all possible that the Hebrew language, as found in the Old Testament, can have a Waw Conversive, if it be wanting in all the oldest and most valued later Hebrew writings? Can credulity go farther?
The astounding fact is: that, out of the hundreds of languages which are, and have been, spoken on the earth, not one, except the Hebrew, is supposed to have the Waw Conversive; while, out of the hundreds of volumes which have been published in the Hebrew language, not one, except the Old Testament, has the Waw Conversive!
SAMARITAN.
NICHOLLS writes:—"Some verbs include, under the perfect form, both a perfect and present tense, . . . we sometimes find a future circumstance related in the perfect tense, as something that has actually taken place, the design of the writers in this case was to mark the future occurrence as something already evidently decreed and decided on, and therefore as it were accomplished: thus Ge. 15. 18, 'To thy sons have I given the land.'
"The peculiar use of Waw, called Waw Conversive among the Hebrews, is unknown to the Samaritans, Chaldees, and Syrians.
"The future tense, besides the force of a future, seems to have the force of a present; as Ge. 37. 15, 'What seekest thou ?' Ex. 5. 15, 'Why do ye do so?'"—Grammar, p. 93, 94.
ETHIOPIC—ANCIENT.
LUDOLPH writes:—"Praesens tantum in subjunctivo occurrit: nam indicativi futuro utuntur pro praesenti; quod quidem nostro idiomati assuetis oppido incommodum adetur, sensus tamen, constructio, longusque usus, huic defectui succurrit.
"Praeteritum ... continet autem sub se caetera praeterita latinonim, imperfectivum, et plusquam perfectum indicativi et subjuuctivi, nec non futurum subjunctiva, si particulae id poscant, ut Ps. 50. 17; 54 12, 13.
"Excipe halë, defectum, quod praesentis et imperfecti indicativi significationem habet, est, erat, adest, aderat."
"Futurum, ut dixemus, hic etiam pro presenti indicativi est."—Gram. p. 19, 20.
AMHARIC.
ISENBERG writes:—" The Abyssinians have not, strictly speaking, more than two divisions of time, i. e., the past and the present; the present being used also for the future.... The present, which might be perhaps with propriety called aorist [?] because it is applicable to the future, as well as to the present tense, is a form composed of the contingent and the auxiliary.
"Whether this form, when it occurs, is intended for the present or the future, generally depends on the context. In order, however, to have no doubt when they speak of future things, they use the simple contingent form with additional particles, I have [am] to be honourable; time is for me [to come] that I am to be honourable.'
"The simple preterite of the indicative is used . . . for the present or immediate future. . . . 'I am gone,' i. e., if you allow me I go now; or when a person is frequently called, and does not come, he at last answers, [I have come, I have come, i. e.] 'I come, I come.'
"The present indicative is used for both the present and the future tenses.
"The future time is generally expressed by the same forms which serve for the present, except the aoristic construction. In page 66 of this work we pointed out a decidedly future form, besides which they make use of the contingent with al and dohonal; but these two latter forms are not confined to the future; they are also used for the present tense."
MALTESE.
GESENIUS writes:—" Ich folge der Anordnung der Grammatiker für die arabische vulgar-sprache, in welcher bekantlich, wie in Maltese, das Fut. praesent ist.—P. 16.
COPTIC.
TATTAM writes:—"Instances frequently occur, in which the present tense is used for the perfect, and also for the future.
"The future tense and future participles are sometimes used to express the present and perfect tenses."—Grammar, p. 61–66.
