— Yiqtol as Evidential Strategy in Biblical Hebrew

Abstract

The goal of this study is to argue that the — yiqtol construction has an evidential meaning when employed with reference to the past. The yiqtol functions in these situations as an evidential strategy and is used to express the source of information. For instance, Exod. 15:1, which famously begins with , should be understood as ‘then (as reported / as they say) Moses sang’. The words added between brackets refer to the source of information. In most biblical passages where this rare and puzzling construction is attested the evidential yiqtol appears with deictic markers that tie the world of the narrative to that of the authors and of the audience. Interestingly, paratextual elements and redactional observations support the idea that we are dealing with evidential strategies. Finally, the Hebrew Bible seems to contain additional instances of the evidential yiqtol in a similar construction ( — yiqtol).