Humor In The Bible? (Jesus, translation, scriptures, Biblical, God)

[cardero]

Is there any humor in the Bible? Are there certain scriptures that can make us laugh or is the book to be taken seriously?

[Aqualung]

There's stuff in there that makes me laugh a lot. Like one time I was reading Ezekial in some translation (I don't remember, but it might have been NRSV) but God kept reffering to him as "son of dust" like every other verse, which made me laugh. Proverbs makes me laugh too, becuase it's like 5 proverbs, just repeated in slightly different language.

[angellous_evangellous]

Originally Posted by cardero

Is there any humor in the Bible? Are there certain scriptures that can make us laugh or is the book to be taken seriously?

Yes, there is humor in the Bible.

Unfortunately for us, we simply have to understand what was funny "back then" to "get" the punchlines. It really is speculation on many verses.

Humor in the Bible
M. C. HazardThe Biblical World, Vol. 53, No. 5. (Sep., 1919), pp. 514-519.
Hazard reviews Judges 9.7-21 as a bit of irony with a tree that doesn't produce fruit. Other possibilities include 1 Kings 18.22-40; Job 13.7-12; Proverbs has plenty of humor - too much to list.

It is likely that Jesus used humor. Matt. 21.23 is listed as an example.

I'm not sure how much Hazard has convinced me. It seems to me like an entire research paper could be devoted to interpreting a passage as humorous, but I definately think that it's possible. FWIW, I've seen some fellows try and prove that certain passages were funny and it did not go over very well. It is exceptionally difficult to prove.