Post date: Dec 06, 2008 12:22:31 PM
[xix] Dr. Joseph Pipa argued in a 1998 article “In Genesis 2:19, it communicates the idea of logically anterior circumstances. Waltke and O'Connor list pluperfect as a sub variety of epexegetical use. After interacting with Driver, they say, "Moreover, wayyqtl in the received text, the object of our grammatical investigation, must be understood to represent the pluperfect." They offer two examples of this usage from the Pentateuch (Num.1:47-49; Exod.4:11-12,18). Moses, in fact, uses the waw consecutive for logically anterior acts or as a pluperfect throughout Pentateuchal narrative. For example, in Exodus 11:1 Moses inserts a waw consecutive as a pluperfect into a sequential narrative in order to introduce a revelation previously given to Moses: "Now the Lord said to Moses, 'One more plague I will bring on Pharaoh and on Egypt...'" This section begins with the waw consecutive, but Moses introduces it in the middle of his last interview with Pharaoh (Exodus 10:24-11:8). As such 11:1-3 serves as a backdrop, a flashback so-to-speak, for his message to Pharaoh. The NIV translates Exodus 11:1 in the same way as it does Gen.2:19, "Now the Lord had said to Moses,..." For the sake of emphasis, Moses would use the waw consecutive as a pluperfect and then resume the chronological sequence of his narrative.”
http://www.thefirstsixdays.com/TheQuestionofDays.htm
The use of waw consecutive to communicate sequential, past tense material is the expected style for a historical book like Genesis. If the author of Genesis wanted to preserve past-tense, sequential material, we expect his literary style to include a consistent use of the waw consecutive. What is significant for this point is that the waw consecutive appears 55 times in the thirty-four verses found in Genesis 1:1–2:3. Thus, the use of the waw consecutive in the prologue to the historical narrative of Genesis, Genesis 1:1–2:3, is consistent with the narrative material found in the remainder of Genesis. If Moses did not intend the creation account to be taken sequentially, then why did he so frequently use a grammatical form that is regularly used for sequence?78 My argument is not that waw consecutive always denotes sequence, for, within a narrative sequence, it may occasionally represent non-sequential action that is anterior to the main-line narrative and consequently be rendered as a pluperfect (past perfect),79 but that waw consecutive is generally used sequentially as a preterite in narrative literature.8
http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/aid/v2/n1/framework-interpretation-critique-part-one
PLUPERFECT
Of or being a verb tense used to express action completed before a specified or implied past time.
A common use of this prefix is with a short form of the prefixed conjugation of the verb in a special construction with the letter following the prefix (usually) doubled. This form, generally called the "waw consecutive," usually denotes sequence in past narrative. But sometimes the action is not successive in a strict sense. It may denote logical sequence (cf. Gen. 2: 1; 23 :20; Deut 3 :8) or action that is actually prior to the preceding verb, i.e. it functions as a pluperfect (cf. Gen. 19:27; Num. 1:48; II Sam 12:27; I Kgs 12:13; passim). W. Martin refers to this last usage as dischronologized narrative ("Dischronologized Narrative in the Old Testament," Vetus Testamentum, Congress Volume, Rome, 1968: 17986). This use explains the apparent contradiction between Gen. 1:24-26 and Gen. 2:19. The latter passage means "and the Lord had formed."
http://ldolphin.org/waw.html
If the "waw consecutive" always records a strict sequence, we have Adam
created before the beasts and birds which he is called upon to name. Dr.
Pipa suggests two possible explanations for this construction, but the point
is that he maintains that beasts were created first not *because of* the
"waw consecutive" but *in spite of* it. He also points out other uses of
this construction to describe non-consecutive events (Ruth 2:3, Jud 16:23,
1Sam 18:11, Num 1:47-49, Ex 11:1).
http://www.outersystem.us/creationism/CPA16.html