Verbal System and Discourse Analysis of Selected Prophetic Oracles in the Minor Prophets
[Thesis]
Liu, Hua
Webster, Brian L.
Dallas Theological Seminary
2021
368 p.
Ph.D.
Dallas Theological Seminary
2021
Form critics have classified the prophetic oracles into various types based on their form, structure, content, and Sitz im Leben. But they exclude mapping the verbal system to the argumentation of the oracles from the scope of their analysis. Discourse analysis and the verbal system have been well developed in the narratives of the Biblical Hebrew text, but the prophetic oracles are still a field that has much room for research. This dissertation combines discourse analysis, form criticism, and a linguistically informed analysis of the Hebrew verb system to classify and describe the structure of prophetic oracles and to map the use of the verb system within discourse criteria. It focuses on the time reference, aspect, and Aktionsart of verbs and on discourse types in indictment, judgment, and woe oracles and their sub-units. The three prophetic oracle types have their own distinct literary features, though all include the judgment announcement as a basic structural element. Indictment (the basis for judgment) is a very common structural element for judgment and woe oracles, but it is excluded from some or is presented as an embedded element. An indictment oracle distinguishes itself from others by its introductory summons to hear and a woe oracle uniquely starts with a woe statement, but a judgment oracle only has a judgment announcement as its basic element. In addition to the basic structural elements, they frequently interweave supplementary sections for rhetorical purposes. Each of the oracle types comprises a variety of sections in multiple discourse types and each of the discourse units employ the verb system as distinct to their discourse type. The units work together in the larger text to meet the author's rhetorical purpose. This study shows that almost all oracles combine hortatory, expository, and predictive discourses as the compositional components of the literary work. Besides the optional introductory and closing techniques, which are summarized in this work, each of the paragraphs features its own verbal pattern and topic. This dissertation proposes modified verb-ranking charts from Longacre's predictive, hortatory, and expository discourse in the prophetic oracles. The ranking charts add two more discourse types: report and intention. It maps out the verbal patterns for each discourse type. Furthermore, it presents the TAM of yiqtol, weqatal, qatal, wayyiqtol, qotel, and jussive, and summarizes the time of verbless clauses in the selected corpus.