The theology of time in the Old Testament (philological commentary on Ex 3:7-17)

The article is a brief study of the functions of time in the Hebrew text of the Old Testament. Initially, an overview of the semantics of conjugations of the Hebrew verb is given, the features of the formation of two verb forms, «perfect» and «imperfect», are revealed, and some problems of the origin of the tense system in Hebrew are also considered. The second part of the article is devoted to the practical side of the problem. Exodus 3:7-17 is used as an example which contains important Old Testament theological ideas. A holistic view of the original text leads to the conclusion that «biblical» time is relative and should be determined solely by the context.