Ancient Hebrew had no Future Tense: Whatever You've Got, You've Got It Wrong

When you are reading, translating, trying to understand the Scriptures, give their meaning a wide berth; i.e., a wide place to anchor. Whatever you've got, you've probably got it wrong, so give it some leeway. Read it as a neighborhood: -- "It has this flavor . . . "

I do not know ancient Biblical Hebrew or Aramaic. I have read Robert Young's Introduction to Young's Literal Translation of the Holy Bible, which stresses emphatically that the ancient Hebrew had a past and a present tense, but no future tense. That may or may NOT be true. Their language had aspects of action: either the action was perfect (completed) or imperfect (uncompleted). So I looked around the Internet a little bit to search a little deeper. OMG. Hebrew teachers, language specialists, Rabbi's, ancient sages -- everyone making a pitch yea or nay on the subject. "Yes, they did," "No, they didn't," "They had this," "Yes, they had that, but it didn't mean that," "It doesn't matter what they had; even if you got it right, you still understand it wrong."

Holy cow. I'm not kidding. You'd think the Bible COULDN'T possibly be read and understood. My solution: read it and let God sort it out. He's big enough to control the universe, so He's big enough to teach me also what He means. That goes hand-in-hand with controlling universe. My mini-search was rewarding in substantiating my conviction biblical meaning is broader that we allow, more like a flavor or color of meaning. I had just the night before realized that Exodus 3:14 could be translated, "I - I (am) evolution." I.e., God is the ONLY thing evolving. We are GP Zero of that evolution -- that's what we are HERE for. If you have been following this blog, you'll know that I've translated that verse about twenty different ways -- all correctly, too.

So, as Mickie Silberling advised me in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, in 1977, "LIGHTEN UP." Don't take everything so seriously. You are wrong on almost everything, anyway.

Is it true that there are no verb tenses (past, present, future) in Biblical Hebrew? (Read a number of the responses.)

Hebrew Tenses (Read the medieval and other commentators given!)

Biblical Hebrew Grammar for Beginners (The vav-consecutive was supposedly dismantled and rejected by Young.)

Hebrew Tenses (Another, different.)

Enjoy! And LIGHTEN UP!!