Questions Raised by How Questions Raised by the Distribution of

59 versions, such at the NIV and NRSV , leave no trace of the occurrence of , except Esth 1:1 in NIV : This is what happened… What does signal in this book-initial position? Is it an indicator of narrative? If marks text as narrative, why does initiate certain books and not others which appear to have the same narrative character? Obviously there is more than one way to start a book, but the analysis of needs to take facts like these into account and avoid general statements about frequently starting a book.

4.1.2 Questions Raised by How

is Used in Jonah There are five occurrences of in the brief text of Jonah. The word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai saying, 5 + 8 Jonah 1:1 The LORD hurled a great wind on the sea and there was a great storm on the sea +G 6 +G Jonah 1:4 Jonah was in the stomach of the fish three days and three nights. ? C + + ? Jonah 2:1 The word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time, saying, + Jonah 3:1 When the sun came up, God appointed a scorching east wind, - ; ? : Jonah 4:8 The occurrences at 1:1 and 3:1 are identical in structure, other than the use of 5 in 1:1 to introduce Jonah and of in 3:1 to make it explicit that it is the second time. Four of the five occurrences are followed by noun phrases, but the fifth is followed by the preposition and an infinitive construct. To what extent do these details of the syntactic environment affect the function of ? Do these occurrences have any 60 structural significance within the book? For example, it could be argued that the occurrences at 1:1 and 3:1 initiate two major divisions of the book. However, is this a function of or would the same division be there because of the parallel structure even if were not present? Do the other three occurrences of have any other function in the book? Is there some significance in marking the storm, Jonah being in the fish’s belly, and the sunrise with ? Are these pivotal events within the book that merit a discourse marking? These are the kinds of questions that motivated further research.

4.1.3 Questions Raised by the Distribution of

in Genesis Plotting the distribution of in Genesis revealed other facets of its use that needed explanation. One of the first observations was that the many verbal uses of required separate analysis. The frequent occurrence of in Gen 1 did not appear to be the result of any macro-syntactic function of the word, but rather a product of its use as a verb. This raised the question of how many other occurrences of might actually be “nothing more” than the WAYYIQTOL form of . The most puzzling aspect of the distribution of in Genesis is the high frequency of occurrence in chapters 38 and 39 after only one occurrence in all of chapters 36 and 37. What factors would give rise to this sudden increase in frequency? Is this produced by a difference in genre or text-type? Is there some macro-structure that is marked by these occurrences of ? This enigmatic behavior of requires further exploration. 61

4.1.4 Questions Raised by van der Merwe’s Study of