John T. Willis, ACU professor and author of many books on the Bible, recently wrote,
As YOU study and meditate on the Bible and on life, be sensitive of the importance of humor, of various types of laughter. This is a powerful communication of speech.
He offers several examples of humor found in the Bible. Can you think of any others?
I’ve often suggested that Jesus, like any good rabbi, often used humor in his parables and other lessons. Can you think of some examples where his lessons make better sense if we imagine he taught with a twinkle in his eye?
I always thought that a portion of the story of the woman who touched Jesus' robe to be cured had a slight humorous side to it…It is recalled by Matthew, Mark and Luke but in both Mark and Luke, Jesus asks an odd question. The crowds have pressed in on him. One can imagine the pushing and shoving to get close to Jesus might have been similar to the paparazzi of today crowding in to get THE picture of THE movie star. And, when the lady touched him, Jesus turned and asked "who touched me."….Luke recalls that Peter speaks for the group and in modern day speech, Peter asked…Are you kidding me? There is a crowd surrounding you, pressing in and nearly knocking us over and you ask, "who touched me.?" I'm sure that Peter was thinking that Jesus might have been out in the sun too long that day…:)
Two examples come to my mind immediately:
Our worries don't let us grow, nor let they live us longer – imagining a person who tries anyway is quite funny …
This too is said with a twinkling of His eye, because these examples are so absurd … and just when everyone would say, "But I am not like this! No one is! Haha!", He continues: "You are evil." And here Christ is very serious again.
Alexander
Too bad that in the Bible we don't have the emoticons ; – )
Well, I can share an experience I had as a new believer. I was taking an Old Testament Survey Class. I really knew nothing regarding the scriptures. I was brought up Lutheran, but we heard sermons and had Catechism. I memorized the ten commandments and some other things, but beyond that, I didn't know much more than that God existed and He loved me. Anyway, I heard the teacher telling the part in Numbers 11:18-20. "You want meat to eat, I'll give you so much meat to eat that you'll eat till you're sick to your stomach and it comes out your nose." (teachers paraphrase) I asked the teacher, "Does it REALLY say that?" So I looked in my Bible and was stunned that God would talk that way. I thought in my heart, "I didn't know God had a sense of humor, I want to know more of this God I had decided to serve." And it was at that point that I began to seek Him and His word more diligently. He had become a God who was "personal" to me.
Humor and irony are closely related — often the same thing. A happy ending emerging from a seemingly hopeless situation can be both ironic and humorous. The big picture of the gospel is a great example of this. See Dante's "Divine Comedy" … Or just do a Bible search for laughter to see some God-ordained reasons to laugh… and some that are not.
Psa 126:1 A song of ascents. When the LORD brought back the captives to Zion, we were like men who dreamed.
Psa 126:2 Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy. Then it was said among the nations, "The LORD has done great things for them."
Psa 126:3 The LORD has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy.
The article mentioned some of Jesus' preposterous word pictures like the log in your eye. Another would be when he told the Pharisees they were straining gnats and swallowing a camel. LOL! Humor works because it exaggerates to get across something true. The Daily Show and the Colbert Report are good examples of this.
Another statement that must have included a twinkle in His eye is when He told His disciples, "I am now giving you a new commandment: Love one another." Are you kidding me?! 🙂 They had spent three years with Him learning this and seeing it acted out in His actions. He had also already said the Law and prophets hang on two commandments about love. He was being sarcastic when he called it a "new commandment" just to get their attention. What he meant was this is the most important commandment, as they had seen and heard so many times.
I think Paul must have spoken with irony when he said, "No doubt there must be divisions among you so you will know who is approved"
I have certainly seen people who value "the issues" so they will know whom they may safely fellowship!
As with so many things, you have to have it to notice it.
As with so many other things, your culture helps you understand humor or causes you to miss it entirely.
I wonder about the commend in Isaiah 26:18 where the Jews "brought forth wind" and does that really mean what it sounds like?
Or how about the cannanite woman and Jesus in Matthew 15:21-28. Hearing how loving he was, this must of been suck situational irony.
I can hardly imagine Jesus ever teaching without a *twinkle* in His eyes.
That said, it seems to me the *twinkle* was brighter than ever when he made his first two post-resurrection appearances to the disciples huddled behind lodked doors. First with the ten and then with Thomas too, I can feel his smile through every word of the accounts.
My Lord is a smiling and welcoming Lord. How about you?
Imagine a deacon of the church in Galatians reading Paul's epistle regarding circumcision. He gets to the verse —
(Gal 5:12 ESV) 12 I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves!
I bet someone on back row laughed so hard he hurt himself — all the while the rest of the assembly tried to stare him into silence!
Read this in a whiny voice.
(Pro 19:13 ESV) 13 A foolish son is ruin to his father, and a wife’s quarreling is a continual dripping of rain.
(Pro 21:9 ESV) 9 It is better to live in a corner of the housetop than in a house shared with a quarrelsome wife.
(1Ki 18:26-27 ESV) 26 And they took the bull that was given them, and they prepared it and called upon the name of Baal from morning until noon, saying, “O Baal, answer us!” But there was no voice, and no one answered. And they limped around the altar that they had made. 27 And at noon Elijah mocked them, saying, “Cry aloud, for he is a god. Either he is musing, or he is relieving himself, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened.”
Kind of crazy to hide from God — the all-seeing, all-knowing One — because you’re naked. And how likely is it that God will believe it’s really all Eve’s fault.
(Gen 3:10-12 ESV) 10 And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” 11 He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” 12 The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.”
Then there’s this line —
(Gen 3:17 ESV) 17 And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
Not that quoting 3:17 to my wife has ever actually done me any good …
I get big laughs when I teach Gen 3. I think the rabbis of old did, too.
Here’s an example of truly clever woman:
(Gen 31:34-35 ESV) 34 Now Rachel had taken the household gods and put them in the camel’s saddle and sat on them. Laban felt all about the tent, but did not find them. 35 And she said to her father, “Let not my lord be angry that I cannot rise before you, for the way of women is upon me.” So he searched but did not find the household gods.
And my all-time favorite —
(2Ki 9:20 ESV) 20 Again the watchman reported, “He reached them, but he is not coming back. And the driving is like the driving of Jehu the son of Nimshi, for he drives furiously.”
Many of my friends are sons of Jehu. You know who’s approaching long before you can see their faces because you can recognize their driving.
TNTalmid,I think you may be reading correctly.
I always thought it was a hoot that God made the Philistines make golden replicas of their emerods (hemerrhoids) with which He had afflicted them in order for Him to remove their illness. (I Sam 6:5) Maybe those Philistines had hard hearts but God made sure their behinds were tender! Surely His hand was sore upon them!
And what about Jermemiah (30:6) making fun of the Israelites for acting like women panting in childbirth instead of being confident of God’s protection? He says roughly,” Ask around and see if anyone has ever heard of men having babies? NO? Then why are all of you screaming and holding onto your stomachs with such pale faces? This is a great thing how you are all in labor, but God will save you in spite of your howling.”
Who can forget Paul wishing that the teachers of the circumcision (those who “cut around”) were cut off all together? OUCH! Galatians 1.
Was there an element of humor in the feeding of the 5000? (Matt 14) The apostles said,”we should send them home to get something to eat. They’ve been listening to you all day”. Jesus’ response? “Oh ,no, fellas, don’t send them away. Don’t you have a little something to share from your lunch box?” And one of them says ‘well, Ive got a couple of fish sandwiches.” Could Jesus have rolled his eyes a little or maybe smiled when He said, ‘Yeah that’s good; bring it over here,’ Don’t you think He was a little amused at how the apostles must have looked at Him as those fish and loaves were brought to Him. And afterward might He have asked them more than once, “now how many baskets were left over?”
Humor is kind of a hard thing to put on the printed page, but God gave us a sense of humor, so surely He uses it when dealing with us.
The stories tat have struck me as humorous are, 1. Balaam"s donkey talking and Balaam being so mad he just starts talking right back, and 2., the story of the Ammorites pretending to have travelled a long journey so the Israelites wouldn't kill them. Seems like, even today Jewish people love to laugh and joke.
Humor "between the lines."
Philip was one of the seven men chosen in Acts 6 to "wait on tables" (vs 2) for the widows among Grecian Jews (vs 1). But there is no specific record of any of the seven serving in this capacity at that time. Philip went to Samaria and to the Ethiopian (Ch 8), and he traveled about preaching until he reached Caesarea, where he located and apparently changed job descriptions. Later, staying in Caesarea on the way to Jerusalem, Luke referred to Philip as "the evangelist, one of the Seven" (Ac21:8). Then in vs 9, "He had four unmarried daughters who prophesied." So, do the math. With one wife, there was Philip and five women in the house, four of them busy "prophesying." Good thing Philip received all that training waiting on the tables for the women back in Acts 6. Later on, he probably put those table-waiting skills to good use at home.
Ellen, I love the Balaam story! ……Kind of an biblical Mr. Ed. Also, can't you imagine old Balaam speaking to that donkey the rest of his life and never quite knowing if he is going to get an answer back or not.
and aside from the scripture, what about the idea of all the cute domesticated animals which we love; our pet cats and dogs, the chickens, goats, parakeets, each seeming to have their own individual personalities and quirks. It is not difficult to imagine someone saying to their children "that parrot is just like your uncle Frank' he doesn't have a lick of sense." or "that kitty is such a good mother" . God didn't have to make these domesticate animals so adorable or funny but he did! I can remember riding a friend's horse and the 3 mules on the farm followed us around and seemed to be laughing, braying at the horse for having to carry us around. dan
I've always realized much humor in scripture. It's not silly humor, but more of a deep intellectual humor. Moses encounter with God at the burning bush; The fact that our all knowing God would ask Moses what was that in his hand and Moses said a staff, God tells him to throw it down and without warning it turned into a serpent; the funny part; Moses ran. I'm sure Moses knew it was God who caused it to happen,but natural instincts took over; I see snake…I run.
Jesus' comment about us straining at the splinter in our brother's eye while ignoring the plank in our own eye is classic.
The fact that God will forgive us based upon how we forgive others is just one way that shows God's wisdom is beyond anything our feeble minds can comprehend. God is basically giving us the rope to hang ourselves. That's kind of funny in a sick way. But, we will do it to ourselves.
Have you considered the humor in creation? Knowing Mr. Darwin would come along God takes spare bits of thre different animal groups and creates a duck-billed platypus. Watch monkeys at play, or any young animal. A God who takes pleasure in all of this is a God of joy. There is no way He tried to communicate with us through the Bible and left all of that joy out. And His humor runs the entire range: highbrow, lowbrow, scatological, slapstick, irony, sarcasm, straight up joke telling, hyperbole, everything but a "knock knock Joke."
Just God observing the things His creation, man, comes up with has to be funny to the heavenly host. Sometimes wonder if that is why He made man.
Todd, I agree.