[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/hbo-2023-olivero-yiqtol-evidential-strategy-biblical-hebrew/)

[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [docs](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/) / [papers](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/) / [Ancient Hebrew](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/hbo/) / Yiqtol as Evidential Strategy in Biblical Hebrew

# Yiqtol as Evidential Strategy in Biblical Hebrew

**Authors:** Vladimir Olivero · **Year:** 2023 · **Venue:** Journal of Semitic Studies 68(2), 347–376 **Link:** [doi.org/10.1093/jss/fgad004](https://doi.org/10.1093/jss/fgad004) · **Licence:** [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

[**0** citations](https://openalex.org/works?filter=cites:W4378375684) openalex-snapshot · 2026-10-14[Journal of Semitic Studies](https://openalex.org/S1709330)[licence](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

- [Publisher's page](https://doi.org/10.1093/jss/fgad004)
- [PDF](https://academic.oup.com/jss/article-pdf/68/2/347/51942884/fgad004.pdf)
- [DOI 10.1093/jss/fgad004](https://doi.org/10.1093/jss/fgad004)
- [OpenAlex](https://openalex.org/W4378375684)

**Authors (1)**

1. [Vladimir Olivero](https://openalex.org/A5059930240) [ORCID](https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7926-6826) · h 0 · 0 citations · 13 works

Citations and author metrics from openalex-snapshot (2026-10-14); authors with the same name are not always told apart.

## What it is about

The full text is not in the library; this card rests on the publisher's abstract, and the ideas are provisional. The author argues that a yiqtol referring to the past can be an evidential: it marks that the speaker reports what is told rather than what the narrator vouches for. The test case is אָז יָשִׁיר מֹשֶׁה (Ex 15:1), read roughly as "then, as they say, Moses sang". Most passages with this construction carry deictic markers that tie the story world to the world of the author and audience, and paratextual and redactional evidence is adduced; the author finds further cases of the same construction elsewhere in the Bible.

## Ideas

- I1. Collect past-reference yiqtol in the Torah: a yiqtol after אָז or טֶרֶם/בְּטֶרֶם in narration, or in a narrator's aside, and list them with JPS 1917's tense. Separate the well-known אָז + yiqtol (Ex 15:1, Num 21:17) from the טֶרֶם type, which is ordinary grammar.
- I2. In `prag`, give such a narrator yiqtol a "reported" evidential reading (the narrator cites tradition) instead of future or habitual, as a measured, off-by-default rule.
- I3. In the verb chapter, add the evidential reading to the list of past uses of yiqtol beside the iterative and the preterite-yiqtol debate, with Ex 15:1 as the worked example and the abstract as source.

## For Mova

I1 is a query on the Torah trees (verb form + preceding particle) feeding [The verb](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/hbo/06-verb/) (yiqtol, the aspect–tense debate). I2 is a candidate rule in `tools/macula/src/prag.rs`, beside the narrator/character voice. I3 is a paragraph in `06-verb.md` and `09-discourse.md` (narrator's asides), to be checked against the full text once it is fetched (it is CC BY 4.0).

## Cite

The paper itself, not this card. BibTeX from the library's record of the work. [DOI 10.1093/jss/fgad004](https://doi.org/10.1093/jss/fgad004)

```
@article{olivero2023yiqtol,
  title = {{Yiqtol as Evidential Strategy in Biblical Hebrew}},
  author = {Olivero, Vladimir},
  journal = {Journal of Semitic Studies},
  year = {2023},
  doi = {10.1093/jss/fgad004},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1093/jss/fgad004}
}
```

- [← previous The intersection of syntax and poetry in the first Hebrew acrostic poem of Lamentations 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/hbo-2023-naude-intersection-syntax-poetry-first-hebrew/)
- [next → Rediscovered Fragments Shed New Light on a Proto-Masoretic Torah Scroll](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/hbo-2023-sanders-rediscovered-fragments-shed-new-light/)
- [↑ back to Ancient Hebrew](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/hbo/)