【研究ノート】 How did Ancient Israelites Perceive Time?: A Theoretical Proposal from Language Study

This paper aims at providing another perspective on a long-standing scholarly issue in Biblical Hebrew grammar, the issue of so-called “Tense or Aspect.” In the past few enturies, the question of whether the main function of the Biblical Hebrew verb is to express tense or aspect continues to attract scholarly attention. Calling attention to recent scholarly discussion on the concept of time in ancient and modern eras, this paper will attempt to establish a theoretical ground for the aspect theory. Based on Sacha Stern’s theory that the cognition of ancient Israelites was eventbased, differing from the time-based cognition that modern people suppose, the concepts of time in various theories of the BH verb will be assessed. Especially, the works of H. F. W. Gesenius, G. H. A. Ewald, Hans Bauer, G. R. Driver, S. R. Driver, E. J. Revel, Jan Joosten, and John A. Cook will be discussed. Through the discussion, it is hoped that a better understanding on how ancient Israelites perceived time will be presented.