BIBLE HISTORY DAILY

Laughter in the Bible? Absolutely!

Robin Gallaher Branch on the lighter side of the Bible

“The heart knows its own bitterness, and no stranger shares its joy.”—Proverbs 14:10
“A cheerful heart is a good medicine.”—Proverbs 17:22

Lighten up! Laughter is an important, and often overlooked, literary element in the Bible. Perhaps Vincent Van Gogh’s Still Life with Bible could have used more pigments from his floral paintings? Photo: Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam/Vincent van Gogh Foundation.

I remember one day resolving to do arduous work in 2 Chronicles. Studiously plowing through the reigns of Solomon through Jehoshaphat, I came to 2 Chronicles 21:20 and laughed outright. The text reads, “Jehoram was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eight years. He passed away, to no one’s regret, and was buried in the City of David, but not in the tombs of the kings” (italics added). Being a wordsmith myself, I smiled at this bygone scribe relieved at this monarch’s death. Evidently Jehoram was not well liked. The editorial statement provides a light touch—comic relief, if you will—to the Chronicler’s usually routine kingship formula.

As I study and teach, I find I read the Bible ever more slowly, and as I do, I smile more and more frequently. I listen for its humor. My emotions span sorrow, understanding or joy as I empathize with the characters who cross its pages. I chuckle at many passages, even while acknowledging the sadness they may contain. Consequently, I believe it’s possible to read many verses, stories and even books through the lens of humor, indeed to see portions of the Bible as intended to be very funny. An appropriate response is laughter. I’ve come to this conclusion: Humor is a fundamental sub-theme in both testaments.


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Laughter in the Hebrew Bible

Let’s start with an umbrella verse, Ecclesiastes 3:4: “A time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance.” The Biblical text, always practical, acknowledges human emotions and makes boundaries for their proper use.

God’s Laughter in the Hebrew Bible

Let’s look at God’s laughter. After all, he’s the creator.

Consider Psalm 37:12-13: “The wicked plot against the righteous, and gnash their teeth at them; but the Lord laughs at the wicked, for he sees that their day is coming.” Laughter here shows the impotence of the wicked and the futility of their plots and gnashings against the righteous. Why? Because, as the psalm answers, those who hope in the Lord will inherit the land and the Lord knows the wicked face a reckoning.

God directs the same kind of laughter toward earthly hotshots who think their power exceeds his. Psalm 2:2, 4 declares that when “the kings of the earth take their stand,” marshalling themselves “against the Lord … and against his Anointed One,” then “the One enthroned in heaven laughs.”

But Zephaniah 3:17 illustrates joy, a different aspect of God’s laughter and character, one more consistently expressed throughout the Biblical text: “He will take great delight in you … he will rejoice over you with singing.” My students often are amazed that the idea of rejoicing carries with it the idea of physical activity. The verse presents this possibility: God’s delight can entail joyful songs and public dancing.

Who Is Responsible?

One story that makes me laugh is the conversation taking place somewhere on Mt. Sinai between God and Moses. The recently-released Hebrew slaves are sinning by worshipping a calf made of gold and declaring that it, not the Lord, led them out of Egypt (Exodus 32:4-6). Neither God nor Moses wants these rowdies at this moment. Like a hot potato, responsibility for the former slaves passes back and forth between them.


Robin Gallaher Branch has written several Bible History Daily-exclusive character studies. Read her commentary on Judith, Barnabas, Anna and Tabitha.


The Lord swaps first, telling Moses the reveling Israelites are “your people” (v. 7) (italics added). But Moses quickly catches on. He declines association with them. As far as Moses is concerned, these people are not his! Morphing into intercession mode and speaking in what no doubt is a respectful tone, Moses rejoins, “O, Lord, why should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand?” (v. 11) (italics added). He reminds the Lord of his promise to his servants Abraham, Isaac, and Israel to make their descendants “as numerous as the stars in the sky” (v. 13). This scene’s humor softens the chapter, which ends sorrowfully. The Israelites’ sin leads quickly to the deaths of many by plague, and thus the chapter ends (Exodus 32:35). The chapter’s structure incorporates dialogue, rebellion, crisis, and punishment.

Biblical Humor Through Innuendo

Consider Genesis 18:10-15, wherein God informs Abraham and Sarah they will have a son by “this time next year” (v. 10). Sarah openly laughs, thinking she is worn out and now will have sexual pleasure again (v. 11). After all, she is about 89! We learn later that Abraham, probably about 99, also thought along sexual lines. He believed God could give him and Sarah descendants and make them parents even though he—as a man—was “as good as dead” (Hebrews 11:11-12). The idea of fathering a child at his age struck him as funny.

Humorous Books in the Hebrew Bible

Whole books in the Hebrew Bible have strong elements of humor. An ongoing humorous element in the Book of Esther is the number of banquets it mentions. There number at least 10, thereby forming the book’s structure and carrying much of its action. One wonders: Do these rulers do anything except dine and wine and plot and whine?


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We are meant to laugh and learn throughout the Book of Jonah. Yes, we can laugh at Jonah’s open disobedience of going west to Tarshish when God commands him to go northeast to Nineveh (Jonah 1:1-3); at Jonah’s “time out” to think about things in the belly of the great fish (1:17a); at his pouting, obstinate silence for three days while being digested (1:17b); at his being vomited by the great fish on dry land—somewhere probably in the Mediterranean world (2:10); at his terse, seven-word sermon to Nineveh (3:4); at his anger over the success of this sermon, the repentance of the entire city (4:1). But the laughter is sometimes tinged with sadness, for Jonah’s anger prevails and he never understands God’s compassion for those who do not know him and for their cattle (4:11). Indeed everything in the Book of Jonah—the sailors, sea, big fish, gourd vine, hot wind and the Ninevites—obeys God. Everything and everybody except one: Jonah. God shows his colors of compassion and mercy—and Jonah disdains them.

 

Humor in the New Testament

The New Testament, similarly, abounds with laughter. Jesus must have been a compelling personality to keep the attention of crowds for days and the steadfast loyalty of at least twelve disciples for three years. In addition to being a riveting teacher whose words brought life, he was likely the kind of personality that was just fun to be around.

For example, a crowd numbering about 5,000 men followed him to a solitary place (Mark 6:30-44). Jesus’ teaching evidently made people forget to eat, bring food or worry about work.

In his classic work The Humor of Christ, Elton Trueblood lists thirty humorous passages in the Synopic Gospels. In one way or another, they’re all one liners, parables or stories Jesus told. Trueblood thinks Jesus’ audience would have laughed at the image of those who loudly proclaim their righteous actions to others (Matt. 6:2) because it was all too prevalent. An audience would have found the idea of rulers calling themselves benefactors ludicrous (Luke 22:25)—because the working folks knew all too well it wasn’t so. No doubt the audience chuckled when Jesus commended the vociferous, obstreperous widow for her persistent pestering of the unjust judge and cited her as a successful model of prayer (Luke 18:1-8).


Read Robin Branch’s Bible History Daily feature “What’s Funny About the Gospel of Mark?”


Paul employs humor in his letter to the new church in Corinth (1 Corinthians 12:12-27). He addresses several problems reported to him. The problems—pride, exclusivity and attitudes of “I don’t need or want you”—could destroy the new church, for they counter the love Jesus taught. Instead of singling out by name troublemakers in Corinth, he allegorizes the situation in a humorous, non-threatening, open way: “The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I don’t need you!’ And the head cannot say to the feet, I don’t need you’” (v. 12:21). Paul affirms the need of all parts, and their need to function in unity, in the Body of Christ.

In the home of Jairus, a synagogue ruler, Jesus uses practical knowledge to break a tense situation. Jairus’ twelve-year-old daughter just died. Jesus, three of his disciples and the child’s parents fill the room (Mark 5:40). Jesus goes to the body, picks up the girl’s hand, says to her, “Talitha koum!” which means, “Little girl, I say to you, get up!” (v. 41). The girl immediately gets up and walks around the room (v. 42a). Mark records the reaction of those in the room as “completely astonished” (v. 42b); in other words, they’re probably stunned and silent. Jesus responds with something practical: He tells them to give her something to eat (v. 43). A natural human reaction—when grief is turned to unexpected joy as when a dead girl is brought back to life—is something loud like laughter or shouting. Here, Jesus cracks a joke by reminding everybody that a girl who has been sick, experienced death, and is now alive is hungry! Of course she needs to eat! All twelve year-olds have ravenous appetites! This practical, timely and kind statement from Jesus breaks all the tension, pent-up grief and amazement present in the room among the girl’s parents and Jesus’ three disciples. I read this scene as Jesus’ cracking a joke. And the proper appreciation of a joke is laughter.


This Bible History Daily feature was originally published on August 21, 2013.


Robin BranchRobin Gallaher Branch received her Ph.D. in Hebrew Studies from the University of Texas in Austin in 2000. She was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship for the 2002–2003 academic year to the Faculty of Theology at North-West University. Her most recent book is Jereboam’s Wife: The Enduring Contributions of the Old Testament’s Least-Known Women (Hendrickson, 2009).


 

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49 Responses

  1. […] “A cheerful heart is a good medicine.”—Proverbs 17:22 […]

  2. Adam says:

    You didn’t mention the humor that occurs in the original language (Hebrew) in the Hebrew Bible. For example: Isaac means “he laughs”. One of the parshas (divisions of the Hebrew Bible that are read weekly) is called “lech lecha”. Lech being the command (m) form for Go! and lecha meaning “to yourself”. It’s the chapter where G-d tells Abram (Abraham) to leave his father’s house and go to Canaan. Of course that might have been due to space constraints you had for the article.

  3. zeke says:

    Having a jewish who pointed out in the movie, “King of Kings” where Mary asks Jesus to fix a broken chair and he says to her “I’ll do that tomorrow” the next day He is being beaten and nailed to the cross!

  4. David E Schwartz says:

    Robin Gallaher Branch, a truly excellent piece of writing, you did. Thank you.
    It was just what I was looking for to answer my question: “Why do people believe that G_d has no sense of humor?”

  5. Jahshn Owain Gwendolyn True blood King of wales says:

    Be of good cheer my bother.You will have your chance now to see if your house will stand. I have word that you testing cometh and will not tarry.And to be sure if you a in America then you are in Egypt, Look and see that Ephriam hath brought Egypt and his Gods with him. Pyramids adorn every city and Horus’s eye is incorparated in every county ,state and judicial building on the lay out and landscaping and to be sure the bulls are worshiped here in Austin,Tx we also have the Frost bank you can see its in the form of molech whom they make their Children to pass through the fire the catacombs are also set up under the city for tombs and when Our Lord passes Through they will bring to bones of kings and princes whom the have slain .The Frost tower is an owl whom they worship here along the river i seen in oct hooting like owls as calls to each other all along the water ways chanting witches” is he gonna die is he gonna die die.” To Christians who came upon their pagan idol worship.Also the glass inthe tower is a bluish glass thats only found in one other building the world its sister in New York 3 to the 3 power 33 or 3times square times square. Thr Chrysler building a idol also and the boiller next to it is Prometheus a idol and time dosent permite me to Go over the whole sceam but you can believe there are eight mabey more Buildings and stucture dedicated to Demons and the worship of them. Not to mention the goddess of liberty on a build suppose seperated by law church and state.But it okay with everybody in America that the Babylonian transvestit be given a temple that whar it is a big temple to a hermaphrodite a bearded he she with teets and Armenianes on Washington and the city set on point according to heights measurment grooves, bodys of water and refective ponds, graven images, to water gods tree nymphs the doller is a witch craft tile set up as a spell to bring us back in unity with Egypt “one” the chain on the pyramid,horus,magi and the the other bound the star of David,Ephraim and Manassas and eagle,armed forces a little owl in the hidden place as the hidden hand.This is that same cult of temple worshipers stephen peach to before they stoned him Said you stiffnecked fool ye aways did resist to Holy spirit who say we wouldnt have killed the prophets i f we had live in our fathers day
    said you are witness that you are the children of them that killed the prophets that the blood from righteous Able and all the prophets till now upon your heads they killed Christ the murdered Christian being the military arm of the Catholic Church till Pope got spooked then they took Pope captive in 1798 during thr french revelation.The first beast reciving it deadly wound Rev 13 and then and now serve the 2 beast coming out of the sea two horns like a lamb but speaking like a dragon exercising all the authority of the first beast and propping up the first beast making an image to it setting the mark it is the Protestant Church Tha Angelican Crusades that left all the true Church and Her doctrine burnt one the countryside my peo people burned at the stakes in England and by those puritan frauds that have a zeal in out apperances and works of the flesh

  6. Kirk says:

    My guiding/guardian angel came to me in a dream one night to explain my mind was troubled because I was taking myself too seriously. She said God doesn’t take your mistakes any more seriously than you took those your little 3 year old child made – in fact, if you’ll recall, you were charmed and amused at his sincere but mistaken ideas. You may be an adult but never believe you are too old to be more or less than a beloved child of God. So lighten up, look in the mirror… and laugh!
    I tried It. It works.

  7. Art says:

    To me the funniest part in the Bible is when Jesus goes on a long talk ending with “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” Then Phillip says “But when do we get to see the Father?” I always picture all the other apostles looking quietly at Phillip while Jesus closes his eyes and drops his head.

    I also picture Jesus quietly eating His meal after appearing to the apostles post-resurrection. Then He looks up to see everyone staring at Him with their jaws dropped. What the Bible doesn’t tell us that as Jesus sees everyone gaping at him He says “What?”

  8. SethZ says:

    One of the funniest lines in the whole tanach is exodus 14:11.
    The setup: Egypt, then as now, was well-known & famous for its tombs. The Old Kingdom pyramids were already centuries old by the time of the Exodus. The Egyptians are pursuing the Jews; any other people, having just seen all the miracles of the plagues, would beseech G-d & Moses for another. Not us; we say, “What?!? There weren’t enough tombs in Egypt? You had to take us out here to the desert to kill us?” The line could be in any Jewish comic’s current standup routine. Sarcastic. Nasty. Smartass. Hysterical. Obviously us.

  9. Larry Giddens says:

    I have always seen the humor in the statement of Jesus to the woman at the well…”You are right to say you have no husband. You’ve had 5 husbands that the man you have now is not your husband.”

  10. Mary says:

    What I find humourous in the Bible are the accounts where Christ is telling the disciples to beware of the leaven of the pharisees and the sadducees and the disciples concluding He’s saying that because they (the disciples) forgot to buy bread. I am quite a bread eater, and this has me in stitches every time I read it. It sounds exactly the type of thing I would have said if I had been there with them in person! And of course our Saviour reminds them of the miracle of feeding the 4,000 and 5,000 and all the baskets of leavings saved afterward – which the disciples had forgotten about! Plus, it seemed as if they were worried about the fact there was just one loaf left (in one account) when they had no need to worry obviously having seen the miracles of Christ multiplying the loaves and fishes.

    Another thing I find humouous is the account where Christ says some accuse John the Baptist of having a demon, whereas Christ came eating and drinking and was accused of being a glutton and a winebibber. What got me laughing was (in one account) about 2 verses later some of these people are inviting Christ over for a meal! It would have been so funny if Christ had said: “What do you want me over for a meal for? I might eat you out of house and home (or more humourous words to make the point)!” haha. These things have had me in stitches a lot lately hahaha.

  11. Tiago says:

    There is a difference between men’s humor from that humor that comes from God. It is very different from the situation when God, with the power of supreme judge, is humor, the situation that the same is done by foolish men on which rests the words:
    “18 And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where Shall the ungodly and the sinner Appear?” 1 Peter 4:18;
    “Wherefore, my beloved, the ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” Philippians 2:12;
    “Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and {your} joy to heaviness.”
    James 4: 9

    It is very different (special) when there is a happy laugh in brotherhood around blissful realities achieved in the communion of the People of God, in the power of the Holy Spirit. Sarcastic laughter, laughter that can occur when unfortunate realities are revealed unexpectedly, are different types of laughter.

    Laughter is not a final escape for depressing situations where there is no consistency or understanding, or holiness. Sometimes laughter is like another round of a illegal drug-addiction. We must take care that this is not so.

  12. kayode bidemi Ayodele says:

    GOD IS great

  13. Kimberly says:

    I found a gem of a joke in Isaiah 26 Read verses 16-18 very closely.
    My husband and I had a good laugh at the implications of that passage.

  14. John Rothschild says:

    I think Jarius’s daughter was very ill and sleeping, not dead. Jesus said that she was not dead, but just sleeping. This is not similar to other situations where Jesus referred to a dead person as being sleeping. In all those instances he did not say that they were outright dead, as he did in this instance. There is no reason to disbelieve what Jesus said, and it does not lessen what he did. He is still Jesus, the only begotten Son of God.

  15. Ed Chy says:

    Just because it occasionally says someone “laughed” doesn’t mean the bible has humor. If you were to do a stand up comedy routine with all of these “humor” quotes from the bible then nobody in the room would laugh. As the gnostics said – the bible was written by the demiurge (satan), hence why you can’ find any real humor in any of it.

  16. Chuck Somerville says:

    I like what in my college days at U. of Michigan we would have called a “Cleveland joke” in John 1:45-46. Jesus is just beginning to gather disciples when Philip tells Nathanael about Jesus…

    45 Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote–Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”
    46 “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” Nathanael asked…

    (Smart alec!) 🙂

  17. Charles says:

    My favorite one is the sarcastic remark made by Elijah against Baal: “Cry aloud: surely he is a god; either he is meditating, or he has wandered away, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened” (1Kings 18:27) – all things that a real God doesn’t do, especially the “journey” part which may be a euphemism for using the toilet.

  18. James D. Burgoon says:

    Love your stuff.
    Check mine: http://www.biblehumor.com.
    Jim Burgoon,

  19. Wynterr says:

    My favourite is in John. John and Peter are going to the empty tomb and John mentions THREE times that he beat Peter there.lol

  20. James D. Burgoon says:

    Robin,

    Love your stuff. Been doing the same for the past decade. Check the product on our website http://www.biblelimericks.com. Of course, I’d like to hear your comments and suggestions for improvement.

    Jim Burgoon

  21. Mary Anne Britnell says:

    Thank you for pointing out the humor in the bible. My old bible is 62 years old and never once in any service I attended did a minister point out any humor associated with it. I can now point out to my grandchildren that God found great humor in creating man which he passed on to them.

  22. links: this went thru my mind | preachersmith says:

    […] Bible & humor: Laughter in the Bible? Absolutely! […]

  23. Catherine Riegel says:

    When I see some of Gods creatures on Discovery channel how funny looking they are I say yes God does have a great sense of humor Amen!

  24. La Voz del Santo Nombre: Junio de 2014 | SSNJ, Parroquia Madre Cabrini says:

    […] http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-topics/bible-interpretation/laughter-in-the-bible-… […]

  25. diana says:

    Thank you for sharing this.
    Jonah is my favorite book when I need to remind myself that resistance towards doing the right thing is futile when you have God guiding your life. His childish reactions are so funny. Like a normal 10year old told to clean up his room.
    The Bible is serious work but God did gift us with laughter so humor must be part of His Word.

  26. Grant says:

    In the Visual Bible’s book of Matthew video, Bruce Marchiano does a wonderful job of portraying a joyful Jesus
    who plays and wrestles with his disciples even as he acts out parables with them. Also he brings out the humour
    In the sermon on the mount — imagine the concept of someone with a beam of wood in their own eye! And trying
    to see around that to advise someone else with a sliver in theirs. So obviously humorous, but so often missed.

  27. yossi says:

    Hi Robin,

    I totally agree in that humor conveys no disrespect to religious matters, on the opposite, it reaffirms that the religious matter is a serious one, but all human ventilate pretty well through humor, something that exemplifies this I saw at http://www.titanpoker.com/bible.html

    thnx
    Yossi

  28. yossi says:

    Hi,

    I totally agree with you Robin, among most human reaction, laughter takes definitely a central point in human behavior to harshness. I came across this Poker Bible, with content that exactly proves this, http://www.titanpoker.com/bible.html
    wdyt? is this sacrilege?

  29. Does God Have a Sense of Humour? - The Imaginative Conservative says:

    […] New Testament, claims a professor in Biblical Archeology magazine, “abounds with laughter.” One wonders if she’s using the Latin Vulgate, the King James […]

  30. Dan Troller says:

    How about Acts20:9-12…Paul, talking his head off, puts a guy to sleep who then falls from the 3rd floor window and dies. Paul rushes down, raises him from the dead, then runs back upstairs, breaks bread, eats and resumes talking until dawn…at which time the others take the formerly dead guy home to rest…ROTFL!!!

  31. David Z says:

    I now you don’t mean it like this but that picture is offensive to Jews. We are very careful with our sacred books out of respect (I have spoken to Christians and been surprised that they don’t even have a concept of not taking the Bible into the bathroom). Anyway, NOTHING goes on top of a Bible in Jewish Law (especially the khumash–the Pentateuch. To do so is very disrespectful. And in the picture you have there the only book lying down with English books on top it is the… khumash! Please remove the picture in the interest of comity. Thanks.

  32. A realist God is changing to an optimist says:

    Then there’s the saying that proves we can make God laugh. “Tell God your plans. He loves to laugh.”

  33. Krzysztof says:

    Yeh.
    Also to call “Moses” the author of “….the servant of God,Moses died there in Moab” (Deutoronomy 34:5) is super laughable.

  34. Grant Bright says:

    I wish I was able to read the Bible in its original languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek). I’m sure a lot of humor is buried in the original lanugages that included alternate meanings and “double entendre”. The meanings of names also can be humorous at times. The account in Genesis 19 is a good example. God tells Lot, after he flees Sodom, to go to the mountains. Lot, however, in fear of fleeing to the mountains, requests to go to a nearby city. “Is it not a small thing?” he states. This has double meanings. It can be taken to mean that his request was a “small thing”, however the city he wishes to go to was named “Zoar” which name means “small thing”! Also humorous is that fact that Lot eventually leaves Zoar to go to the mountains anyway! God must have laughed!

  35. Julia says:

    The greatest mirth I derive from Scripture, as a whole, is that God always has the last word over all our situations and all the other people in our lives.

  36. Mark David says:

    Thanks for the article Robin. Thanks also to the respondents. I was interested to read J Allen’s response with reference to the parable of the Good Samaritan. Whilst you do recognise the punch line, I think you have – in some ways missed the joke. Jesus does set up his listeners for a surprise by his use of the first two characters – both of whom his Jewish listeners would have readily identified with and whose actions they would have been surprised by (“impurity” is not an issue as they are headed away from the Temple and it is not a permanent state). We’re not really sure why they didn’t assist. I’d say fear might have played a big part in their response as it would mine – which is what Jesus is asking us to consider. Amy Jill Levine, published elsewhere in this publication, suggests that by having a Priest and Levite walk by that the audience would have then expected an Israelite. That the third character is a Samaritan is indeed surprising, especially if we consider that the accosted man might have been Jewish: after all enmity between Jews and Samaritans seems to have been mutual. I think we need to be careful that our humour is not at the expense of the other and doesn’t rely on anti-Jewish stereotypes.

  37. Paul Ballotta says:

    Larry, her interpretation is consistant with Exodus 20:25,26, in that she found humor in natural occuring scriptural formations. Monty Python’s “Life of Brian” is an example of an alter decorated with stones imported from elsewhere. Although I suspect it is true that the rulers then did not like to be laughed at as is the case today.
    In the Babylonian Talmud Shabbat 33b, we have the story of Rabbi Simeon bar Yohai who was forced to study in self-imposed exile because the Roman authorities didn’t like his off-the-cuff remarks when responding to praises heaped on the accomplishments of the Roman Empire; “They made markets, they made bathhouses, they made bridges.” To which Rabbi Yohai responded, “What they made, they made for themselves. they made markets so they could set prostitutes there, bathhouses so they could enjoy themselves, bridges to collect a toll.”

  38. Larry says:

    I “think” this was intentionally humorous: Early in Genesis, God explains how to make an altar, don’t make it fancy out of stones, and don’t add a staircase to get up to it, “lest your naked parts be seen on the way up”

  39. J Spiers says:

    As a child brought up in a very straight laced family I was shocked when our new Minister cracked jokes from the pulpit! Many years later I was equally shocked by the portrayal in a television programme of Jesus having fun with his followers. Now in my late sixties I am so grateful that our God has a great sense of humour. It has carried us through many difficult times. Prof Robin Gallaher Branch has an knack of finding and pointing out what should perhaps be obvious and helps us to see humour in Scripture where we had perhaps not seen it before . Thank God for laughter.

  40. 5 Minute Bible | Humour in the Bible elsewhere says:

    […] If you have been enjoying my series on humour you may be interested in an article at BAR:  Laughter in the Bible? Absolutely! I think Branch suffers from the lack of criteria and I’d be less confident of some of her […]

  41. tim johnson says:

    Isn’t the story of Jesus kneeling, writing in the dirt, waiting for the stones to come against the woman caught in adultery, supposed to include maybe a zinger He wrote?

    Plus, the oft-missed detail that when the lone rock came whizzing by from the back of the crowd, the Lord says: “MOTHER!!”

  42. Allan Rchardson says:

    Which reminds me of an old story. Father O’Malley was driving through Boston and was stopped by a police officer for speeding. The cop noticed his silver flask on the passenger seat, and asked what was in it. The priest replied that it was holy water, and the cop asked to check it. Opening the lid, he sniffed, then tasted, a fine Irish whiskey. Confronted with this evidence, the priest exclaimed, “Saints be praised! It’s a MIRACLE!”

  43. Allan Rchardson says:

    Jesus was lucky the “revenooers” didn’t catch Him at Cana! Which brings up the question, did the Romans tax homemade Jewish wine? I doubt it, but if anyone finds a receipt for alcohol taxes, please let us know.

  44. Rabbi Benjamin Lefkowitz says:

    This is a lovely article with some delightful examples, but there have been others who have written on this topic. In particular, I refer to the work of the late Rabbi Samuel Sandmel, in his book “The Enjoyment of Scripture” had a significant discussion of the use of humor in the Tanakh.

  45. Carol says:

    My favorite humorous story in the New Testament (Covenant) is at Cana when Mother Mary tells Jesus to help and he tells her it’s not time yet but he goes and has the head waiter fill the jars with water and when they taste it, it’s better than the wine they were drinking! After my husband and I had a trip to Israel a long time ago and tried the Cana wine– it really is funny.

  46. Nancylee says:

    My favorite humorous story in the Hebrew Bible is Moses confronting Aaron with the golden calf. Aaron stammers it wasn’t his idea — he just took the gold they brought “and I threw it in the fire, and our came this calf!” (Ex. 32:24) Cracks me up every time I read it! So glad to see scholars talking about humor in the Bible. God gives us freedom, and nothing is more liberating than laughter.

  47. Allan Rchardson says:

    I have long thought that Christian moral teaching based on the LITERAL reading of His parables would have taken a different turn had the Gospel writers not dropped the “laugh track” from their manuscripts. Getting a camel (a non-Kosher beast, by the way) through the eye of a needle, literally or metaphorically, is inherently ludicrous, for example. Straining out gnats (which even today’s observant Jews strive to do, in order to avoid even ACCIDENTALLY eating non-Kosher insects with their salads) but swallowing camels (totally not Kosher) is, in Jewish culture, an obvious joke on the hypocrites, which would have made the crowd laugh.

    The best use of humor by Jesus, bordering on the offensive or “non-PC” in his culture, is in the parable of the Good Samaritan. A man of UNSPECIFIED race, religion, and ethnicity is robbed and left on the road for dead. The priest and the Levite pass by on the other side of the road, not only because of their lack of compassion, but to avoid touching blood, or possibly a dead man, which would have made them ritually impure and required a waiting time and a cleansing ritual before they could resume their duties (many poor people in His audience would have likely seen that behavior in their “betters”). In other words, their allegiance to their religious beliefs CAUSED them (or at least provided a valid excuse) to avoid helping a human being. One example of this attitude today is the hostile attitude toward health care reform by politicians who have a quasi-religious ideology telling them that IF people can only get help THAT WAY, then the people who need help should not BE helped.

    But the SAMARITAN, the man who was considered RACIALLY inferior, RELIGIOUSLY wrong and wicked, who would NEVER have been able to make himself ritually pure (or marry their daughters!) in the eyes of the most pious Jews in His audience; HE IS THE ONE praised by Jesus for his compassion.

    Jesus certainly taught His followers to obey the Torah to the best of their ability, but he also taught that the ETHICAL and humanitarian commandments have a higher PRIORITY than the ritual commandments, if they come into conflict (a lesson which later Diaspora Jews have also emphasized; the Israel Defense Force is open for business 7 days a week, and will respond to attacks even on Yom Kippur). And in this parable, He pointed out that even people who do NOT belong to the fellowship of the Torah know the most important parts of it instinctively, as part of being human, and can please the Lord more than uncompassionate, bigoted religious extremists. By the way, humanity’s suffering would be relieved, and the planet saved from much misery, with less population growth; are you listening, Cardinals and Holy Father?

  48. links: this went thru my mind | preachersmith says:

    […] Humor in the Bible: Laughter in the Bible? Absolutely! […]

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49 Responses

  1. […] “A cheerful heart is a good medicine.”—Proverbs 17:22 […]

  2. Adam says:

    You didn’t mention the humor that occurs in the original language (Hebrew) in the Hebrew Bible. For example: Isaac means “he laughs”. One of the parshas (divisions of the Hebrew Bible that are read weekly) is called “lech lecha”. Lech being the command (m) form for Go! and lecha meaning “to yourself”. It’s the chapter where G-d tells Abram (Abraham) to leave his father’s house and go to Canaan. Of course that might have been due to space constraints you had for the article.

  3. zeke says:

    Having a jewish who pointed out in the movie, “King of Kings” where Mary asks Jesus to fix a broken chair and he says to her “I’ll do that tomorrow” the next day He is being beaten and nailed to the cross!

  4. David E Schwartz says:

    Robin Gallaher Branch, a truly excellent piece of writing, you did. Thank you.
    It was just what I was looking for to answer my question: “Why do people believe that G_d has no sense of humor?”

  5. Jahshn Owain Gwendolyn True blood King of wales says:

    Be of good cheer my bother.You will have your chance now to see if your house will stand. I have word that you testing cometh and will not tarry.And to be sure if you a in America then you are in Egypt, Look and see that Ephriam hath brought Egypt and his Gods with him. Pyramids adorn every city and Horus’s eye is incorparated in every county ,state and judicial building on the lay out and landscaping and to be sure the bulls are worshiped here in Austin,Tx we also have the Frost bank you can see its in the form of molech whom they make their Children to pass through the fire the catacombs are also set up under the city for tombs and when Our Lord passes Through they will bring to bones of kings and princes whom the have slain .The Frost tower is an owl whom they worship here along the river i seen in oct hooting like owls as calls to each other all along the water ways chanting witches” is he gonna die is he gonna die die.” To Christians who came upon their pagan idol worship.Also the glass inthe tower is a bluish glass thats only found in one other building the world its sister in New York 3 to the 3 power 33 or 3times square times square. Thr Chrysler building a idol also and the boiller next to it is Prometheus a idol and time dosent permite me to Go over the whole sceam but you can believe there are eight mabey more Buildings and stucture dedicated to Demons and the worship of them. Not to mention the goddess of liberty on a build suppose seperated by law church and state.But it okay with everybody in America that the Babylonian transvestit be given a temple that whar it is a big temple to a hermaphrodite a bearded he she with teets and Armenianes on Washington and the city set on point according to heights measurment grooves, bodys of water and refective ponds, graven images, to water gods tree nymphs the doller is a witch craft tile set up as a spell to bring us back in unity with Egypt “one” the chain on the pyramid,horus,magi and the the other bound the star of David,Ephraim and Manassas and eagle,armed forces a little owl in the hidden place as the hidden hand.This is that same cult of temple worshipers stephen peach to before they stoned him Said you stiffnecked fool ye aways did resist to Holy spirit who say we wouldnt have killed the prophets i f we had live in our fathers day
    said you are witness that you are the children of them that killed the prophets that the blood from righteous Able and all the prophets till now upon your heads they killed Christ the murdered Christian being the military arm of the Catholic Church till Pope got spooked then they took Pope captive in 1798 during thr french revelation.The first beast reciving it deadly wound Rev 13 and then and now serve the 2 beast coming out of the sea two horns like a lamb but speaking like a dragon exercising all the authority of the first beast and propping up the first beast making an image to it setting the mark it is the Protestant Church Tha Angelican Crusades that left all the true Church and Her doctrine burnt one the countryside my peo people burned at the stakes in England and by those puritan frauds that have a zeal in out apperances and works of the flesh

  6. Kirk says:

    My guiding/guardian angel came to me in a dream one night to explain my mind was troubled because I was taking myself too seriously. She said God doesn’t take your mistakes any more seriously than you took those your little 3 year old child made – in fact, if you’ll recall, you were charmed and amused at his sincere but mistaken ideas. You may be an adult but never believe you are too old to be more or less than a beloved child of God. So lighten up, look in the mirror… and laugh!
    I tried It. It works.

  7. Art says:

    To me the funniest part in the Bible is when Jesus goes on a long talk ending with “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” Then Phillip says “But when do we get to see the Father?” I always picture all the other apostles looking quietly at Phillip while Jesus closes his eyes and drops his head.

    I also picture Jesus quietly eating His meal after appearing to the apostles post-resurrection. Then He looks up to see everyone staring at Him with their jaws dropped. What the Bible doesn’t tell us that as Jesus sees everyone gaping at him He says “What?”

  8. SethZ says:

    One of the funniest lines in the whole tanach is exodus 14:11.
    The setup: Egypt, then as now, was well-known & famous for its tombs. The Old Kingdom pyramids were already centuries old by the time of the Exodus. The Egyptians are pursuing the Jews; any other people, having just seen all the miracles of the plagues, would beseech G-d & Moses for another. Not us; we say, “What?!? There weren’t enough tombs in Egypt? You had to take us out here to the desert to kill us?” The line could be in any Jewish comic’s current standup routine. Sarcastic. Nasty. Smartass. Hysterical. Obviously us.

  9. Larry Giddens says:

    I have always seen the humor in the statement of Jesus to the woman at the well…”You are right to say you have no husband. You’ve had 5 husbands that the man you have now is not your husband.”

  10. Mary says:

    What I find humourous in the Bible are the accounts where Christ is telling the disciples to beware of the leaven of the pharisees and the sadducees and the disciples concluding He’s saying that because they (the disciples) forgot to buy bread. I am quite a bread eater, and this has me in stitches every time I read it. It sounds exactly the type of thing I would have said if I had been there with them in person! And of course our Saviour reminds them of the miracle of feeding the 4,000 and 5,000 and all the baskets of leavings saved afterward – which the disciples had forgotten about! Plus, it seemed as if they were worried about the fact there was just one loaf left (in one account) when they had no need to worry obviously having seen the miracles of Christ multiplying the loaves and fishes.

    Another thing I find humouous is the account where Christ says some accuse John the Baptist of having a demon, whereas Christ came eating and drinking and was accused of being a glutton and a winebibber. What got me laughing was (in one account) about 2 verses later some of these people are inviting Christ over for a meal! It would have been so funny if Christ had said: “What do you want me over for a meal for? I might eat you out of house and home (or more humourous words to make the point)!” haha. These things have had me in stitches a lot lately hahaha.

  11. Tiago says:

    There is a difference between men’s humor from that humor that comes from God. It is very different from the situation when God, with the power of supreme judge, is humor, the situation that the same is done by foolish men on which rests the words:
    “18 And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where Shall the ungodly and the sinner Appear?” 1 Peter 4:18;
    “Wherefore, my beloved, the ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” Philippians 2:12;
    “Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and {your} joy to heaviness.”
    James 4: 9

    It is very different (special) when there is a happy laugh in brotherhood around blissful realities achieved in the communion of the People of God, in the power of the Holy Spirit. Sarcastic laughter, laughter that can occur when unfortunate realities are revealed unexpectedly, are different types of laughter.

    Laughter is not a final escape for depressing situations where there is no consistency or understanding, or holiness. Sometimes laughter is like another round of a illegal drug-addiction. We must take care that this is not so.

  12. kayode bidemi Ayodele says:

    GOD IS great

  13. Kimberly says:

    I found a gem of a joke in Isaiah 26 Read verses 16-18 very closely.
    My husband and I had a good laugh at the implications of that passage.

  14. John Rothschild says:

    I think Jarius’s daughter was very ill and sleeping, not dead. Jesus said that she was not dead, but just sleeping. This is not similar to other situations where Jesus referred to a dead person as being sleeping. In all those instances he did not say that they were outright dead, as he did in this instance. There is no reason to disbelieve what Jesus said, and it does not lessen what he did. He is still Jesus, the only begotten Son of God.

  15. Ed Chy says:

    Just because it occasionally says someone “laughed” doesn’t mean the bible has humor. If you were to do a stand up comedy routine with all of these “humor” quotes from the bible then nobody in the room would laugh. As the gnostics said – the bible was written by the demiurge (satan), hence why you can’ find any real humor in any of it.

  16. Chuck Somerville says:

    I like what in my college days at U. of Michigan we would have called a “Cleveland joke” in John 1:45-46. Jesus is just beginning to gather disciples when Philip tells Nathanael about Jesus…

    45 Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote–Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”
    46 “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” Nathanael asked…

    (Smart alec!) 🙂

  17. Charles says:

    My favorite one is the sarcastic remark made by Elijah against Baal: “Cry aloud: surely he is a god; either he is meditating, or he has wandered away, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened” (1Kings 18:27) – all things that a real God doesn’t do, especially the “journey” part which may be a euphemism for using the toilet.

  18. James D. Burgoon says:

    Love your stuff.
    Check mine: http://www.biblehumor.com.
    Jim Burgoon,

  19. Wynterr says:

    My favourite is in John. John and Peter are going to the empty tomb and John mentions THREE times that he beat Peter there.lol

  20. James D. Burgoon says:

    Robin,

    Love your stuff. Been doing the same for the past decade. Check the product on our website http://www.biblelimericks.com. Of course, I’d like to hear your comments and suggestions for improvement.

    Jim Burgoon

  21. Mary Anne Britnell says:

    Thank you for pointing out the humor in the bible. My old bible is 62 years old and never once in any service I attended did a minister point out any humor associated with it. I can now point out to my grandchildren that God found great humor in creating man which he passed on to them.

  22. links: this went thru my mind | preachersmith says:

    […] Bible & humor: Laughter in the Bible? Absolutely! […]

  23. Catherine Riegel says:

    When I see some of Gods creatures on Discovery channel how funny looking they are I say yes God does have a great sense of humor Amen!

  24. La Voz del Santo Nombre: Junio de 2014 | SSNJ, Parroquia Madre Cabrini says:

    […] http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-topics/bible-interpretation/laughter-in-the-bible-… […]

  25. diana says:

    Thank you for sharing this.
    Jonah is my favorite book when I need to remind myself that resistance towards doing the right thing is futile when you have God guiding your life. His childish reactions are so funny. Like a normal 10year old told to clean up his room.
    The Bible is serious work but God did gift us with laughter so humor must be part of His Word.

  26. Grant says:

    In the Visual Bible’s book of Matthew video, Bruce Marchiano does a wonderful job of portraying a joyful Jesus
    who plays and wrestles with his disciples even as he acts out parables with them. Also he brings out the humour
    In the sermon on the mount — imagine the concept of someone with a beam of wood in their own eye! And trying
    to see around that to advise someone else with a sliver in theirs. So obviously humorous, but so often missed.

  27. yossi says:

    Hi Robin,

    I totally agree in that humor conveys no disrespect to religious matters, on the opposite, it reaffirms that the religious matter is a serious one, but all human ventilate pretty well through humor, something that exemplifies this I saw at http://www.titanpoker.com/bible.html

    thnx
    Yossi

  28. yossi says:

    Hi,

    I totally agree with you Robin, among most human reaction, laughter takes definitely a central point in human behavior to harshness. I came across this Poker Bible, with content that exactly proves this, http://www.titanpoker.com/bible.html
    wdyt? is this sacrilege?

  29. Does God Have a Sense of Humour? - The Imaginative Conservative says:

    […] New Testament, claims a professor in Biblical Archeology magazine, “abounds with laughter.” One wonders if she’s using the Latin Vulgate, the King James […]

  30. Dan Troller says:

    How about Acts20:9-12…Paul, talking his head off, puts a guy to sleep who then falls from the 3rd floor window and dies. Paul rushes down, raises him from the dead, then runs back upstairs, breaks bread, eats and resumes talking until dawn…at which time the others take the formerly dead guy home to rest…ROTFL!!!

  31. David Z says:

    I now you don’t mean it like this but that picture is offensive to Jews. We are very careful with our sacred books out of respect (I have spoken to Christians and been surprised that they don’t even have a concept of not taking the Bible into the bathroom). Anyway, NOTHING goes on top of a Bible in Jewish Law (especially the khumash–the Pentateuch. To do so is very disrespectful. And in the picture you have there the only book lying down with English books on top it is the… khumash! Please remove the picture in the interest of comity. Thanks.

  32. A realist God is changing to an optimist says:

    Then there’s the saying that proves we can make God laugh. “Tell God your plans. He loves to laugh.”

  33. Krzysztof says:

    Yeh.
    Also to call “Moses” the author of “….the servant of God,Moses died there in Moab” (Deutoronomy 34:5) is super laughable.

  34. Grant Bright says:

    I wish I was able to read the Bible in its original languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek). I’m sure a lot of humor is buried in the original lanugages that included alternate meanings and “double entendre”. The meanings of names also can be humorous at times. The account in Genesis 19 is a good example. God tells Lot, after he flees Sodom, to go to the mountains. Lot, however, in fear of fleeing to the mountains, requests to go to a nearby city. “Is it not a small thing?” he states. This has double meanings. It can be taken to mean that his request was a “small thing”, however the city he wishes to go to was named “Zoar” which name means “small thing”! Also humorous is that fact that Lot eventually leaves Zoar to go to the mountains anyway! God must have laughed!

  35. Julia says:

    The greatest mirth I derive from Scripture, as a whole, is that God always has the last word over all our situations and all the other people in our lives.

  36. Mark David says:

    Thanks for the article Robin. Thanks also to the respondents. I was interested to read J Allen’s response with reference to the parable of the Good Samaritan. Whilst you do recognise the punch line, I think you have – in some ways missed the joke. Jesus does set up his listeners for a surprise by his use of the first two characters – both of whom his Jewish listeners would have readily identified with and whose actions they would have been surprised by (“impurity” is not an issue as they are headed away from the Temple and it is not a permanent state). We’re not really sure why they didn’t assist. I’d say fear might have played a big part in their response as it would mine – which is what Jesus is asking us to consider. Amy Jill Levine, published elsewhere in this publication, suggests that by having a Priest and Levite walk by that the audience would have then expected an Israelite. That the third character is a Samaritan is indeed surprising, especially if we consider that the accosted man might have been Jewish: after all enmity between Jews and Samaritans seems to have been mutual. I think we need to be careful that our humour is not at the expense of the other and doesn’t rely on anti-Jewish stereotypes.

  37. Paul Ballotta says:

    Larry, her interpretation is consistant with Exodus 20:25,26, in that she found humor in natural occuring scriptural formations. Monty Python’s “Life of Brian” is an example of an alter decorated with stones imported from elsewhere. Although I suspect it is true that the rulers then did not like to be laughed at as is the case today.
    In the Babylonian Talmud Shabbat 33b, we have the story of Rabbi Simeon bar Yohai who was forced to study in self-imposed exile because the Roman authorities didn’t like his off-the-cuff remarks when responding to praises heaped on the accomplishments of the Roman Empire; “They made markets, they made bathhouses, they made bridges.” To which Rabbi Yohai responded, “What they made, they made for themselves. they made markets so they could set prostitutes there, bathhouses so they could enjoy themselves, bridges to collect a toll.”

  38. Larry says:

    I “think” this was intentionally humorous: Early in Genesis, God explains how to make an altar, don’t make it fancy out of stones, and don’t add a staircase to get up to it, “lest your naked parts be seen on the way up”

  39. J Spiers says:

    As a child brought up in a very straight laced family I was shocked when our new Minister cracked jokes from the pulpit! Many years later I was equally shocked by the portrayal in a television programme of Jesus having fun with his followers. Now in my late sixties I am so grateful that our God has a great sense of humour. It has carried us through many difficult times. Prof Robin Gallaher Branch has an knack of finding and pointing out what should perhaps be obvious and helps us to see humour in Scripture where we had perhaps not seen it before . Thank God for laughter.

  40. 5 Minute Bible | Humour in the Bible elsewhere says:

    […] If you have been enjoying my series on humour you may be interested in an article at BAR:  Laughter in the Bible? Absolutely! I think Branch suffers from the lack of criteria and I’d be less confident of some of her […]

  41. tim johnson says:

    Isn’t the story of Jesus kneeling, writing in the dirt, waiting for the stones to come against the woman caught in adultery, supposed to include maybe a zinger He wrote?

    Plus, the oft-missed detail that when the lone rock came whizzing by from the back of the crowd, the Lord says: “MOTHER!!”

  42. Allan Rchardson says:

    Which reminds me of an old story. Father O’Malley was driving through Boston and was stopped by a police officer for speeding. The cop noticed his silver flask on the passenger seat, and asked what was in it. The priest replied that it was holy water, and the cop asked to check it. Opening the lid, he sniffed, then tasted, a fine Irish whiskey. Confronted with this evidence, the priest exclaimed, “Saints be praised! It’s a MIRACLE!”

  43. Allan Rchardson says:

    Jesus was lucky the “revenooers” didn’t catch Him at Cana! Which brings up the question, did the Romans tax homemade Jewish wine? I doubt it, but if anyone finds a receipt for alcohol taxes, please let us know.

  44. Rabbi Benjamin Lefkowitz says:

    This is a lovely article with some delightful examples, but there have been others who have written on this topic. In particular, I refer to the work of the late Rabbi Samuel Sandmel, in his book “The Enjoyment of Scripture” had a significant discussion of the use of humor in the Tanakh.

  45. Carol says:

    My favorite humorous story in the New Testament (Covenant) is at Cana when Mother Mary tells Jesus to help and he tells her it’s not time yet but he goes and has the head waiter fill the jars with water and when they taste it, it’s better than the wine they were drinking! After my husband and I had a trip to Israel a long time ago and tried the Cana wine– it really is funny.

  46. Nancylee says:

    My favorite humorous story in the Hebrew Bible is Moses confronting Aaron with the golden calf. Aaron stammers it wasn’t his idea — he just took the gold they brought “and I threw it in the fire, and our came this calf!” (Ex. 32:24) Cracks me up every time I read it! So glad to see scholars talking about humor in the Bible. God gives us freedom, and nothing is more liberating than laughter.

  47. Allan Rchardson says:

    I have long thought that Christian moral teaching based on the LITERAL reading of His parables would have taken a different turn had the Gospel writers not dropped the “laugh track” from their manuscripts. Getting a camel (a non-Kosher beast, by the way) through the eye of a needle, literally or metaphorically, is inherently ludicrous, for example. Straining out gnats (which even today’s observant Jews strive to do, in order to avoid even ACCIDENTALLY eating non-Kosher insects with their salads) but swallowing camels (totally not Kosher) is, in Jewish culture, an obvious joke on the hypocrites, which would have made the crowd laugh.

    The best use of humor by Jesus, bordering on the offensive or “non-PC” in his culture, is in the parable of the Good Samaritan. A man of UNSPECIFIED race, religion, and ethnicity is robbed and left on the road for dead. The priest and the Levite pass by on the other side of the road, not only because of their lack of compassion, but to avoid touching blood, or possibly a dead man, which would have made them ritually impure and required a waiting time and a cleansing ritual before they could resume their duties (many poor people in His audience would have likely seen that behavior in their “betters”). In other words, their allegiance to their religious beliefs CAUSED them (or at least provided a valid excuse) to avoid helping a human being. One example of this attitude today is the hostile attitude toward health care reform by politicians who have a quasi-religious ideology telling them that IF people can only get help THAT WAY, then the people who need help should not BE helped.

    But the SAMARITAN, the man who was considered RACIALLY inferior, RELIGIOUSLY wrong and wicked, who would NEVER have been able to make himself ritually pure (or marry their daughters!) in the eyes of the most pious Jews in His audience; HE IS THE ONE praised by Jesus for his compassion.

    Jesus certainly taught His followers to obey the Torah to the best of their ability, but he also taught that the ETHICAL and humanitarian commandments have a higher PRIORITY than the ritual commandments, if they come into conflict (a lesson which later Diaspora Jews have also emphasized; the Israel Defense Force is open for business 7 days a week, and will respond to attacks even on Yom Kippur). And in this parable, He pointed out that even people who do NOT belong to the fellowship of the Torah know the most important parts of it instinctively, as part of being human, and can please the Lord more than uncompassionate, bigoted religious extremists. By the way, humanity’s suffering would be relieved, and the planet saved from much misery, with less population growth; are you listening, Cardinals and Holy Father?

  48. links: this went thru my mind | preachersmith says:

    […] Humor in the Bible: Laughter in the Bible? Absolutely! […]

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