Jeremy Thompson Catholic PhD in Biblical Languages, Programmer, Runner

Yesterday when I posted about the difficulty that I sometimes have in seeing humor in Biblical passages Tim Bulkeley left a comment with a link to several posts that he has done on his 5 minute Bible site.  I listened to the post on Esther and Jonah and realized that this is just the kind of stuff that I often miss.

In his post on Esther, Tim also mentions that the humor there is something that he missed for a long time too.  But, it took a change of perspective in seeing how someone else, namely children at Purim take the story.

In that spirit, check out Tim’s posts on humor here that will perhaps offer the change of perspective that some of us need to recognize humor in the Hebrew Bible, at least in some places.  I don’t want to spoil your listening, but I’d recommend listening to the one called “Jonah: Thoroughly Fishy!”

When reading the Book of Jonah I’ve never really thought about the absolute fast being imposed on the animals and how difficult it would have been to keep a horse from drinking.  Or, I’ve never really conjured up a mental image of what it might have looked like for the animals to be strutting around in their sackcloth.

But, after listening to his post, I’m not sure I’ll be able to read those passages in Jonah again without those thoughts coming to mind.

This morning I was listening to a lecture by Amy Jill Levine in her Old Testament course for the Teaching Company.  She was talking about some of the more humorous passages in the Book of Judges.  There is the whole deal about Eglon being fat and Jael figuratively emasculating Sisera.

I’m aware that there is humor in the Bible, but I feel like I often times miss it when I’m doing ordinary reading or listening to a reading in church.  I think a main part of the reason for this is the perceived seriousness of the context in which the readings often take place for me.

I guess I’m never sitting in mass listening to the lectionary readings thinking: Oh man, that was absolutely hilarious!  And, if I did, I’m sure that I would get a solemn scowl from some of the people sitting around me like: “Jesus doesn’t love you very much when you laugh at the Bible young man.”

I’m pretty sure they teach the lectors to have a reverent demeanor when they are reading.  And, I guess that works often times.  But, that’s not really to conducive to getting jokes across.

The other part of it I suppose is that being so distant from the culture of Ancient Israel the jokes are almost like inside jokes.  Even when I do get the joke, it is almost like that uncomfortable feeling when you’re in a group of people and you laugh after everyone else does.  And, then everyone looks at you like, “What are you laughing at?  You couldn’t even possibly get that joke lame-o.”