Studia Semitica Neerlandica

Despite its centrality in mainstream linguistics, cognitive semantics has only recently begun to establish a foothold in biblical studies, largely due to the challenges inherent in applying such a methodology to ancient languages. The Semantics of Glory addresses these challenges by offering a new, practical model for a cognitive semantic approach to Classical Hebrew, demonstrated through an exploration of the Hebrew semantic domain of glory. The concept of ‘glory’ is one of the most significant themes in the Hebrew Bible, lying at the heart of God’s self-disclosure in biblical revelation. This study provides the most comprehensive examination of the domain to date, mapping out its intricacies and providing a framework for its exegesis.

English:
In Die biblisch-hebräische Partikel נָא im Lichte der antiken Bibelübersetzungen Peter Juhás addresses the function of the much-debated particle -nā in Biblical Hebrew from the point of view of the most important ancient Bible translations (Greek, Syriac, Latin). His research combines textual criticism, translation technique, discourse pragmatics, and the study of politeness in language.

A systematic and comprehensive investigation of the evidence shows that the pragmatic function of this particle is strongly conditioned by the context and cannot be explained by a simple unified denominator. Hence an approach applying a differentiation of various discourse levels proves oneself to be very helpful for the interpretation of this complex particle.

Deutsch:
In der vorliegenden Monographie untersucht Peter Juhás die Funktion der viel diskutierten biblisch-hebräischen Partikel -nā im Lichte der wichtigsten antiken Bibelübersetzungen (LXX, Pšīṭtā und Vulgata). Dabei werden Textkritik, Übersetzungswissenschaft, Diskurspragmatik und Höflichkeitsforschung kombiniert.

Eine systematische und umfassende Untersuchung der textuellen Evidenz zeigt, dass die pragmatische Funktion dieser Partikel von jeweiligem Kontext stark konditioniert ist und mit einem einfachen gemeinsamen Nenner nicht erklärt werden kann. Ein Zugang, der verschiedene Diskursebenen unterscheidet, erweist sich daher für die Interpretation dieser komplexen Partikel als sehr hilfreich.

In A Discourse and Register Analysis of the Prophetic Book of Joel, Colin M. Toffelmire presents a thorough analysis of the text of Joel from the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistics. While traditional explorations of Joel generally engage the book from an historical or literary perspective, here Toffelmire examines syntactic and semantic patterning in the book, and builds from there toward a description of the linguistic register and context of situation that these linguistic patterns suggest. This work also showcases the usefulness of discourse analysis grounded in Systemic Functional Linguistics for the analysis of ancient texts.

In this study on the kābôd of YHWH biblical texts are approached from a canonical perspective, and the synchronic approach prevails over the diachronic. Ben Sira characterized Ezekiel as the prophet who saw the appearance of the glory of God. This characterization is not based on the number of occurrences of kābôd in Ezekiel. The peculiarity of Ezekiel is that kābôd is used almost exclusively as a hypostasis of YHWH. Ezekiel’s description of the kābôd of YHWH is more elaborate than any other Old Testament writer’s, and it highlights the dual and paradoxical nature of the divine kābôd as both defying verbal description and being potentially visible. This research highlights especially the importance of the visible aspect.

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.

The Peshitta Institute Leiden is fulfilling its aim of producing a critical edition of the Old Testament in Syriac according to the Peshitta version. As this critical edition becomes available, Translation Technique in the Peshitta to Ezekiel 1-24: A Frame Semantics Approach takes its role in providing perspectives on the value of the Peshitta to Ezekiel in Old Testament textual studies.

Godwin Mushayabasa uses the cognitive linguistics approach of frame semantics to determine what techniques were used to translate Ezekiel 1-24 from Hebrew to Syriac. He observes that the Peshitta was translated at the level of semantic frames, producing a fairly literal translation. In achieving this, the author also invokes interdisciplinary dialogue between biblical textual studies and cognitive linguistics sciences.

In this volume twelve contributions discuss the relevance, accuracy, potential, and possible alternatives to a literary reading of ancient Jewish writings, especially the Hebrew Bible. Drawing on different academic fields (biblical studies, rabbinic studies, and literary studies) and on various methodologies (literary criticism, rhetorical criticism, cognitive linguistics, historical criticism, and reception history), the essays form a state-of-the-art overview of the current use of the literary approach toward ancient Jewish texts. The volume convincingly shows that the latest approaches to a literary reading can still enhance our understanding of these texts.

In The Qumran Manuscripts of Lamentations: A Text-Critical Study, the first large-scale investigation of the topic, Gideon Kotzé establishes how the four Lamentations manuscripts from Qumran present the content of the biblical book. Kotzé takes as his point of departure the contributions of the Dead Sea scrolls to the discipline of Old Testament textual criticism and treats the Qumran manuscripts of Lamentations, the Masoretic text and the ancient translations as witnesses to the content of the book and not only as witnesses to earlier forms of its Hebrew text. By focusing the analysis on variant readings and textual difficulties, the study arrives at a better understanding of these manuscripts as representatives of both the text and the content of Lamentations.

In prophetic and poetic literature of the Old Testament references to textual participants are inconsistent with regard to their gender, number and person characteristics. Oliver Glanz for the first time provides a systematic study of the phenomenon of participant-reference shifts. The study is restricted to the book of Jeremiah and reflects upon the methodological conditions that should guide the analysis of participant-reference shifts.
Focusing on computer assisted pattern recognition the research suggests that Jeremiah's participant-reference shifts should not be understood from a diachronic perspective. Understanding the origin and function of participant-reference shifts rather from the perspective of syntax, text grammar and rhetorics proves to be more consistent with the textual evidence. With this insight participant-reference shifts no longer have to distort textual coherence.

In The Role of Zion/Jerusalem in Isaiah 40–55: A Corpus-Linguistic Approach Reinoud Oosting offers a linguistic and literary analysis of the Biblical Hebrew text of Isaiah 40-55, focusing on the depiction of Zion/Jerusalem in these chapters. The analysis shows that the designations 'Zion' and 'Jerusalem' are not used interchangeably but are instead two sides of the same coin. The name 'Zion' is related to the return of the Israelite exiles from Babylon, while the name ‘Jerusalem’ is related to the rebuilding of the city of Jerusalem. Concentrating on the linguistic and literary features of Isaiah 40-55, Reinoud Oosting proves that the signals in the text are extremely helpful for current readers to grasp the meaning of this ancient text.

The Book of Job in Form presents to the reader a platform for a personal and intensive encounter with a great work of art. Its bilingual centre offers the text in Hebrew and English, and shows the forty poems in their original form, in 412 strophes and 165 stanzas. The commentary points out how these proportions and the remarkable precision of the poet (who counted syllables on all text levels) affect the thematics of the book, so that the portrait of the hero can be redrawn; his stubbornly defended integrity meets vindication and his last words, generally misunderstood, require a positive understanding. The poetry and its slim framework in prose are a unified composition which deserves a synchronic approach.

The theme of this volume in honour of Eep Talstra is ‘Tradition and Innovation in Biblical Interpretation’, with an emphasis on the innovative role of computer-assisted textual analysis. It focusses on the role of tradition in biblical interpretation and of the innovations brought about by ICT in reconsidering existing interpretations of texts, grammatical concepts, and lexicographic practices. Questions addressed include: How does the role of exegesis as the ‘clarification of one’s own tradition, in order to understand choices and preferences’ (Talstra) relate to the critical role which Scripture has towards this tradition? How does the indebtedness to tradition of computer-driven philology relate to its innovative character? And how does computer-assisted analysis of the biblical texts lead to new research methods and results?

How did two separate peoples become one? All the signs are that the creation of a unified Israelite kingdom under King David had failed to erase the differences between the Northern and Southern tribes. This book sets out to highlight these essential differences between Judah and Israel as they appear in various parts of biblical literature. Each of the four chapters of the book focuses on a different aspect of evidence. The first studies the prophet narratives, to elicit the differences between Northern and Southern prophets. The second chapter examines the differences between the Jacob narratives, which are based on mostly Northern traditions, and the Abraham narratives. The third chapter deals with the evidence of traditions: the Exodus tradition, which is essentially Northern, versus that of Zion and the House of David. The final chapter relates the reunification to the initiative of King Hezekiah.

Linguistics and hermeneutics are often regarded as two mutually exclusive scholarly disciplines. Recent decades, however, have witnessed the rise of linguistic approaches that take meaning back to the heart of their inquiry and can be fruitful for textual interpretation. This book applies the insights of two such approaches, i.e. functional grammar and cognitive semantics, to the study of Biblical Hebrew with a specific focus on Job 12-14. The result is two-fold. The study offers a detailed linguistic analysis, providing many new insights in the linguistic peculiarities of the text and Biblical Hebrew in general. Moreover, it proposes a fresh exegetical reading of Job’s longest and central speech in the book.

This monograph exhaustively investigates the semantic domain of ‘gift’ in Ancient Hebrew, which comprises 28 substantives. The investigation firstly focuses on the syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations that determine the meanings of each individual lexeme and subsequently provides an overall picture of the developments and extensions of the whole lexical field across the different layers of Ancient Hebrew. The investigation sheds new light on the debated issue of the so-called sectarian Qumran writings, by demonstrating that they attest to distinctive patterns of lexical organisation that are not found elsewhere in Ancient Hebrew. The appendix finally discusses the feasibility of drawing concept related conclusions on the basis of linguistic data, thus sketching a possible map of the concept of ‘gift’.

A long discussed theme concerning Ezekiel 18 and 20 is the relationship between collective and individual responsibility. In the first half of the twentieth century the discussion appeared to end as a result of the introduction of the corporate personality by Henry Wheeler Robinson (1872-1945). This concept became heavily discussed and was dismissed on the grounds of its superseded theoretical basis. The continuing use of the concept requires a redefinition and a new theoretical basis which is provided by the multimodal framework by Geoffrey Samuel from the field of cultural anthropology. Before applying the concept, Ezekiel 18 and 20 are studied extensively relative to textual criticism, philology, grammar, and structural analysis.

This monograph contributes to a better understanding of the Book of Chronicles. The past forty years have seen a complete transformation in the study of the Book of Chronicles. The former domination of Chronicles by parallel texts in the Books of Samuel and Kings made way for studying the historical, sociological, literary, theological, and ideological aspects of Chronicles in their own right. This book/document is now increasingly recognized as being of major interest to the Second Temple Period.
Reading the book of Chronicles, it appears that the Chronicler is constantly transforming Israel's tradition(s) into a new theological and ideological system. In this study, attention is, therefore, paid both to specific texts, such as 1 Chronicles 17; 21; 2 Chronicles 20; 26, and to particular central themes, such as the special function of Jerusalem, and the peculiar way of how the Chronicler presents prophets, war narratives, and genealogies.

In this study, the war stories from the Old Testament book of Kings are compared to ten extrabiblical texts. Narratological analysis is applied to deconstruct the ideology of the respective literary compositions. The Old Testament ideology of war seems to be neither typically Israelite, as Gerhardt von Rad put it, nor commonly Ancient Near Eastern, as Manfred Weippert thought it to be. This poses the question whether the reading experience of biblical war stories is so very different from, for instance, Assyrian royal inscriptions, both in terms of its literary value and its ideological bias. Narratological analysis turns out to be a strong tool for explaining the similarities and distinctive features of the respective texts.

Several decades ago canonical criticism came to dominate the study of the canon and even indeed all of biblical studies by its emphasis on the biblical canon's dogmatic content. An investigation of this canonical criticism brings its weak points to light: most notably the insufficient attention that is given to the canon's historical development.

This new historical study begins with the earliest stages of the process of forming the canon rather than its final stages as most studies do. It shows how the canon, in essence, was already formed in the early stages of its historical development. It is essentially, synchronically, an authoritative unification of a range of traditions within the faith community, and diachronically, the guide that draws the dynamics of these traditions beyond their discontinuities to produce a continuity.

In Biblical Hebrew texts, individuals and groups are referred to according to specific rules and conventions. How are participants introduced into a text and traced further? When is this done by means of proper names, when by nouns, and when by pronominal elements? In this book, examples from many Biblical passages illustrate the patterns involved. These rules help to solve problems of participant reference in controversial passages.
But it is not enough to know who are the participants; one needs to establish why they are referred to the way they are. Main characters in a text are referred to differently from others. Certain devices of participant reference help to indicate paragraph boundaries.
Unusual references to participants aim to be noticed and have rhetorical impact. Proper names may occur where one would have expected a pronominal element (or vice versa). Participants may be mentioned in an unexpected order. Special attention is given to such unusual reference devices and the rhetorical strategies involved: climax, suspense and implicit comment. In a translation, these strategies should still be as clear as they are in the source text. So how have reference devices been handled in ancient and modern translations?

Bonds of love offers a fresh interpretation of a selection of prophetic texts that present the covenant relationship as a marital relationship. The accent in this study is on method: historical and biographical categories such as ‘the prophet’ and ‘his career’ are left aside in order to concentrate on the composition and internal cohesion of the text. The reading strategy developed in this book is both synchronic and communication-oriented. Since prophetic texts essentially consist of speech, it is insufficient to study the text in abstraction from the audience that it addresses. The texts have a communication purpose, and a three-part model is developed in order to investigate the communication effects of the text on the implied audience and the contemporary reader.
The studies of Isaiah 50 and 54, Hosea 1-3 and Jeremiah 2-3 reveal that a synchronic interpretation of these texts can be very fruitful. Larger patterns of coherence come to the surface when one refrains from the procedure of atomizing the texts in original and secondary parts.The final chapter is devoted to the theological implications of the marriage imagery. What intriguing model of divine and human partnership is presented here? And what sort of intimate interaction between Yhwh and Israel is precisely envisioned?

This work investigates the phonology of Tiberian Hebrew words ending on consonant clusters on the underlying level. This is achieved by first evaluating how these words were treated by traditional pre-generative grammars of Hebrew. This section of the study serves primarily to indicate the shortcomings in these explanations, and to indicate thereby the need for a generative study of these words. Thereafter the treatment of these words in terms of traditional generative phonology is discussed. In this section the explanations offered by two noted scholars in the field, Malone and Garr, are evaluated and compared. It is argued that these explanations are by far more adequate than the pre-generative explanations, but that they still miss some substantial linguistic generalisations. Finally, a proposal is offered for how these words can be treated in a non-linear approach to generative phonology.
In this section the focus falls primarily on syllabification and how the site of vowel epenthesis is predicted by this process. The contribution of this study is twofold: On the one hand it offers the first detailed analysis of an aspect of the standard textbook Tiberian Hebrew Phonology of Malone (1993). On the other hand, it opens up the study of Tiberian Hebrew phonology to more recent developments in phonological theory.

This book presents a comprehensive discussion of three famous poems which are studied as works of art. A full description of their prosodic regularity, as well as the variations on it, is given, and goes hand in hand with a detailed structural analysis of the lower and higher textual units. Great care is taken to find the correct delimitation of cola (half-verses), verses, strophes and stanzas, and, in the case of Deut.32, of its four big sections, after which all things fall into place.
The articulation of the higher units underpins the discursive or argumentative structure of Deut.32 and Job 3 and is a solid basis for an interpretation that tries to honour the thematic developments in these songs. In the case of Ex.15, of which the stanzaic division is already known, the attention shifts to the lower levels. The contours and rhythms of its short cola, and its verses and strophes are studied and accounted for. The chapter on Job 3 has a special feature. The count of premasoretic syllables is shown to be an essential part of the numerical perfection of this poem.
A major point of departure for this book, which is corroborated by its results, is that these poems are so complex (read: of such many-layered significance) that they cannot be given their due by a simple set of techniques or fixed canon of interpretive procedures. This poetry requires a flexible approach which tries to cover the full range of its brilliant usage of language, style and structure.

This book offers an account of the role of gemination as a grammatical and lexical feature of Akkadian and a comprehensive treatment of the nominal and verbal categories that are characterized by it. It argues that gemination is basically an iconic phenomenon: its presence correlates with an extension in the meaning of the word vis-à-vis that of the corresponding word without gemination. This semantic extension is often realized as plurality; in other cases gemination has been subject to a process of grammaticalization, through which it has acquired a more abstract function, mostly that of underlining a high degree of salience or transitivity. Particular attention is paid to the D-stem, which is discussed exhaustively for the first time here. It is the most important and the most controversial of the verbal stems not only in Akkadian, but also in Semitic as a whole.
It is shown that the use of the D-stems of transitive verbs is mainly determined by various kinds of verbal plurality. With regard to the "factitive" D-sems of intransitive verbs a new and more nuanced definition is given of the concepts of factitivity as opposed to causativity; this allows a more satisfactory account of the relationship between the D-stem and the causative S-stem. The book includes detailed discussions of many individual verbs and passages from Akkadian texts. Lists of words with gemination and extensive indexes provide valuable
reference material.

The paucity of material, which has limited the study of Aramaic for too long, is gradually being alleviated. An ever growing body of well-edited texts is being made available to the scholarly world. These publications have provoked a number of important and penetrating linguistical and grammatical studies. Generally, however, corresponding literary studies of these texts are still lacking. The present work is an attempt to add a literary approach to the earlier analyses.
The study deals with Aramaic poetry of the period between c. 100 B.C.E. and c. 600 C.E. The discussion of the textual material is organized in a number of levels, one superimposed upon the other. The basis is formed by a close exegetical and literary reading of the poems to elucidate essential elements of content, style and form. Particular attention is paid to structure and composi tion as a function of the content of the poems, and to the use made by the poets of stylistic devices as structural elements.

What is the significance of word-order variation in Isaiah 40-55? This work attempts to answer that question through the application of a functional linguistic model.
A model is outlined which is drawn primarily from Functional Grammar and a metalanguage is developed which also incorporates insights and terminology from Prague School linguistics and Discourse Analysis.
According to this model, all languages develop a basic functional pattern into which constituents are placed in a consistent, familiar order according to the function which those constituents serve in a discourse context. Additionaly, languages develop special positions which can be used to mark constituents with certain functions (Topic, Theme, Setting, Focus, Tail, Vocative and Parenthetical).
A functional pattern (the basic pattern plus the special positions) is outlined for the language of verbal clauses in Isaiah 40-55. Also, rules are written which describe the placement of constituents in the functional pattern. Each of the functions outlined in the model and defined in the metalanguage is illustrated in the language of Isaiah 40-55. Finally, there is a chapter which outlines the many defamiliar, or poetic, patterns found in Isaiah 40-55 due to the foregrounding of the language.
In conclusion, it is observed that the order of constituents in the language of Isaiah 40-55 frequently does not emulate the basic functional pattern. Two explanations are demonstrated for this phenomenon: first, Deutero-Isaiah makes frequent use of special positions to mark certain functions; and second, the language of Isaiah 40-55 is foregrounded, or poetic, and highly defamiliarizing.

According to the opinio communis of the exegetes, the sin of Moses is one of the most difficult conundrums to resolve in the history of interpretation. This Pentateuchal puzzle has not only perplexed ancient and modern exegetes but has also produced a multiplicity of answers. A plethora of explanations proposed by exegetes on the sin of Moses appears to be strong on conjectural ingenuity but weak on textual evidence.

A fresh exegetical probe is therefore warranted using a hermeneutical strategy whereby a narrative approach is attempted in order to understand Num. 20:1-13 in the light of Exodus 17:1-7. These narrative analogies are part of a distinctive feature in the Hebrew narrative style labelled Type- scene.

The main thrust of this book is that the sin of Moses recorded in Numbers 20:1-13 is linked to the unlawful and wilful act of trifling with the sacred staff in striking the rock. This is because the staff of Moses has already become the staff of God (Exod. 4:20;17;9).

Moses' abuse and misuse of the staff constitutes an act of lese-majeste because it is seen as an act of rebellion against YHWH's authority. Inevitably, Moses eclipses YHWH's personality, presence and power in the eyes of the people. His condign punishment is the forfeiture of the privilege of leading the people into the Promised Land.

The present study investigates the function of the verbal forms in biblical Hebrew narrative, using the Joseph story (Gen. 37-50) as a corpus. It demonstrates how the 'tense', 'aspect' and 'sequentiality' function as factors in the choice of the verbal forms in both main clauses and subordinate clauses.
The tense distinction past vs. non-past basically works as a factor in the choice of the freestanding conjugations, except for the stative verb, the verb with a stative sense, the passive construction, or the performative utterance. Moreover, the traditional aspectual opposition complete vs. incomplete also corresponds to QATAL (*qátal) vs. YIQTOL (*yaqtúlu). There appears to be not much difference between these oppositions in describing the function of the above verbal forms (esp. ch.2).
Furthermore, the opposition non-sequential vs. sequential discriminates functionally between YIQTOL and (w,) QATAL (*qatál) in the non-past context, between QATAL and (waY)YIQTOL (*yáqtul) in the past context, and between the IMPV (coh., impv. and juss.) forms and (w,) QATAL (*qatál) in the hortatory context. In each context the former functions as a non-sequential form and the latter as a sequential form.
The phenomenon of sequentiality is purely syntactical. It controls the flow of the story as a discourse function; the non-sequential form stops the flow (i.e. stand still), while the sequential form lets the story flow on.
A thread of discourse is usually traced by sequential forms, but it may include non-sequential forms to signal the difference of discourse level or a discourse boundary. Or each form could play an opposite role to produce special literary effects (chs. 3-7).
Finally, a verbal form in the subordinate clause is chosen not from the viewpoint of the deictic centre of the narrator, but from that of the immediate participant in the main clause (ch. 8).

Narrative Art and Poetry in the Books of Samuel is the vast undertaking to interpret all the material in Samuel. Everything that the text has to offer can only be understood and appreciated to the full, and its interpretation can only lay claim to full validity by means of an integral view. Therefore the author has developed a textual model which regards and covers the composition of the Samuel books as a hierarchy of twelve levels.

This is the fourth and final volume of the author’s integrative reading of the Samuel material in its entirety. Vow and Desire turns to the beginning of First Samuel and describes chapters 1-12. They contain the thematic basis of the whole composition by relating the crucial transition between two periods. The Judges period, represented by Eli and Samuel, is drawing to a close and the new order shows us the prophet Samuel who finds himself forced to anoint Saul as king, and thus to inaugurate the monarchy.

Since the study of M. Lambert about the niph'al in 1990, hardly anything new has been published on this verbal stem. This study offers a new approach of the niph'al in Biblical Hebrew. It is studied in relation to the other passive-reflexive verbals stems. The book also presents an overview of all verbal roots of which niph'al forms occur.

Unlike earlier investigations on the changes Biblical Hebrew underwent over the ages, this study does not attempt to draw a broad picture encompassing various kinds of linguistic phenomena. The work stresses the need for a well-founded statistical and form-oriented methodology for the description of historical linguistic change in the Hebrew Bible.
With the aid of computer techniques the book concentrates on one major aspect of Biblical Hebrew, viz. the verbal tense forms. It examines the absolute and relative frequencies of these data in the books of Samuel, Kings and Chronicles in a comprehensive manner. In this way some of the established opinions concerning increase or decrease in the use of certain tense forms are confirmed, others contradicted, and new evidence is adduced.
In addition to the statistical analyses, Verbs & Numbers contains a complete inventory of the parallel passages where Chronicles has another tense form than the Vorlage. This makes it a valuable source of information for the interpretation of the book of Chronicles.

This study presents a thematic investigation of Ibn Daud's philosophical treatise ha-Emunah ha-Ramah [The Exalted Faith]. It examines the question whether current interpretation is correct in assuming that the thesis is primarily concerned with working out a synthesis between philosophy and religion, or whether, as Ibn Daud indicates at te beginning of the book, it is basically concerned with the problem of free will. In order to answer this question the author examines the structure of Ibn Daud's philosophical work by analysing its topics and their interrelation, and by paying attention to Ibn Daud's use of Biblical verses. Furthermore the study focuses on the Jewish and Islamic sources on which Ibn Daud drew, as well as the way in which he incorporated the philosophy of the Islamic Aristotelians al-Farabi and Ibn Sina into his own thought.

This book deals with Biblical Hebrew. Although it also relates to Old Testament interpretation, it is largely linguistic in character and is intended for linguists as well as scholars of Hebrew and Old testament. It discusses syntactic phenomena and correlations in the entire textual corpus of Deuteronomy 1-30 and is intended to contribute to a better insight into the Biblical Hebrew verbal system.
A wide variety of grammatical variables, referred to as parameters [e.g. verb form, subject, objects, adjuncts, conjunctions, word order, clause content, clause type], and their categories are examined. In the clauses of Deuteronomy 1-30, co-occurrences and co-occurrence restrictions of categories of different parameters are found.
It is taken for granted that the choice of the verb in a clause is influenced by characteristics of preceding and following clauses, especially the verb forms found in them. In order partly to account for these phenomena, connections have been made between clauses and their verb forms. This result in a consecutio temporum, the sequence of verb forms in a text.
Not only qualitative aspects of parameters and their categories are important, but also their quantitative proportions in Deuteronomy 1-30. Patterns are deduced from the frequencies of parameter categories and of their relationships.
The frequency tables are grouped together in the supplement separate to the book. In some tables, the categories of each parameter are listed with their freqencies and percentages. The other tables show the joint distribution of two parameters and their catagories.

Narrative Art and Poetry in the Books of Samuel is the vast undertaking to interpret all the material in Samuel. Everything that the text has to offer can only be understood and appreciated to the full, and its interpretation can only lay claim to full validity by means of an integral view. Therefore the author has developed a textual model which regards and covers the composition of the Samuel books as a hierarchy of twelve levels.
The Hebrew text is the long section which inextricably interweaves the demise of king Saul and the rise of David into a subtle and complicated dialectic of election and rejection. The author’s model of the ‘semiotic scale’ enables him to chart the different levels of the textual hierarchy and exactly determine the weight and range of action of each formal fact within the whole.

This study establishes as closely as possible the interrelationships of Peshitta manuscripts of Exodus (and, at the same time, of the Peshitta of the whole Pentateuch) in order to facilitate the use of the lists and apparatus of the edition of the text.