Sense of humor in the Bible and beyond

  • Thread starter Thread starter QwertyGirl
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
Then, there’s the talking donkey.

And the whole set of events in Jonah. What, with Jonah getting a call, and going in the opposite direction, and that Flower bit coming up quickly, and dying just as quickly.

And Elijah mocking the prophets of baal, telling them to talk louder in case baal was taking a nap.

The list goes on. Yes, there is a sense of humor in the Bible.

Edit. It’s Jonah who did those goofy things, not Job. I blame it on a senior moment. Blush.
 
Last edited:
God’s jokes are great. But it takes billions and billions of years for him to get to the punchline.
 
What about when He nicknamed James and John “Sons of Thunder?” 🤣

Jonah is sort of a funny story, all parts of it. Old crabby Jewish man…
 
Last edited:
Totally agree. When God shows mercy and Jonah is all “I knew you were gonna be merciful when I made myself look an idiot!” and God shows him he cares more about a pot plant than human beings.
 
Yes. The back and forth between those two is funny. And then the fig? tree that shades him and then withers and dies…
 
No, He is not jewish.

He is the High Priest of the Catholic Church, the true religion, which He inaugurated during His life on earth.

Ancient judaism was one of the propotypes of the true religion. Taugh by God, downgraded by Moshe (because the heart of men was hard) and perfected by Jesus Christ.

😉
 
It’s the last phrase of the book of Jonah that I think is the funniest:
And should I not be concerned over the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who cannot know their right hand from their left, not to mention all the animals?
Click to expand...
Where did that come from?
 
Last edited:
I read a book called The Bible on Location, from the Jewish Publication Society (JPS). The author is a tour guide in Israel, and she (is Jewish) associates the Bible verses for her book tour of the Holy Land.

Well, she’s in stitches because when Joshua sent two scouts to size up the opposition in Jericho (as I recall) well they end up, of all places, in a brothel, with the famous Rahab the harlot. Well, it turns out, of course, that that is very fortunate and Rahab helps Joshua to defeat the town. But the author is holding her sides because she almost says, can’t you guys keep your mind on your job??

Then there’s another incident in Joshua, where Joshua is supposed to go out and defeat some kings or somebody. Well, God assures him that HE will produce the victory and he orders Joshua NOT to take out 15,000 men to oppose the kings (or whoever it was. To PROVE that the victory is at the hands of God, he orders Joshua to have some men get a drink of water from a stream. Now some of the men bend over and apparently scoop up some water in their hands to drink. But, there are some other men who bend over to lap up the water, like DOGS!! Well, the author refers to these men as ‘doofuses’ who don’t know how to drink water. So, God tells Joshua to send just 300 of those men to battle the kings (or whoever) and God gives Joshua and the Israelites the victory through these simple men, The author finds this incident very amusing.

Now, JPS has an entire commentary on the book of Esther (about $38) and that author thinks that the entire book is hilarious. It’s like a roadrunner cartoon in some respects. Ya know, the coyote is chasing the roadrunner and sets all these traps, but ends up falling into his own traps? That’s exactly what happens in Esther, where Hamon gets the king to issue a decree (far fetched as it is) to exterminate the Jews on a certain date. In a reversal that you read about in the book, it’s actually Hamon that gets sent to the gallows. The reason the book is in the Bible is significant for two reasons: One is to show the origin of the great celebration of Purim. The commentary says if you’re not having a good time on Purim you haven’t been drinking enough wine. But, two, the story is significant because it shows the establishment of a holiday that was not mandated in the Torah (first 5 books of the Bible.)

There are other too-strange-to-be-true twists in the story, like the queen refuses the order of the king to dance --ahem-- in front of all his guests. Or, that the king issues a decree for the extermination of the Jews – foolish idea in itself, killing your slaves – and then supposedly being unable to rescind the order (no such prohibition known in the ancient middle east).

I don’t recall ‘Esther’ being read in a Mass liturgy. The Septuagint has some additions to ‘Esther’ to make it more solemn - without these additions, the book would not have mentioned "“God” in it. Disregarding the apparent humor of the book, it boils down to another case of God delivering the Jews
 
Going on records to say that I really like your contributions to the forums!
 
The stories of Jonah and Tobit both contain humour (they are almost like comic operas).

Jesus must have a sense of humour. Many of his parables were so exaggerated that his audience would have got the joke. A plank in your own eye. A camel trying to get through the eye of a needle. (Yes, I know the other thought related to a gate but let’s roll with exaggeration for now.) The forgiven but unforgiving servant (his debt would have been an impossible amount to pay off and yet somehow he thinks he might manage it). I also find the story of Zacchaeus amusing - the idea of this important little man scrambling up a tree like a child just to see Jesus.
 
I think that there are many Hebrew puns in the OT

For example in Daniel 13 Susannah’s accusers are killed in ways that sound similar to the tree they claim she was under.
 
I remember this one guy - who told me God - " mooned " Moses -
and there is a scripture -
God walked past - and showed Moses his hinder parts - 😀
 
TheOldColonel said:
God’s jokes are great.
Click to expand...
That’s got to be the explanation for my year teaching fifth grade in a Catholic school . . .

As the song says, “If you want to hear God laugh, tell Him your plans.”

He sure had a good laugh that year . …

🤣

hawk
 
Sir, with all due respect, I honestly think you described some truths, distorted some information, and omitted other many important truths.

First, the following are truths that you said. a) Yes, His (with capital H because He is king and God) parents were jewish; b) He was circumcised as jews of the old covenant should be; c) He was presented to the Temple as the old law prescribed; d) He participated in jewish festivals and days of rememberance; e) He read and was fully aware of the whole Old Testament (not only Isaiah and Psalms).

Second, the following are comments on the distorted information you said. a) He was not a citizen of Israel. In fact, He was a citizen of Judea (not Israel), which was a puppet state of the Roman Empire, and was born under king Herod the Great. b) Being called “rabbi” by others means nothing by itself; He was called other things as well. c) He was tried by the Sanhedrin because He was arrested and taken by force; they were really mad because they were being denounced by Him. d) Pilate handed Jesus Christ over to Herod Antipas because He (Our Lord) was known as a galilean, so this was really a matter of jurisdiction (and Pilate trying to don’t get his hands dirty). e) Yes, Pilate, a pagan, called Jesus Christ the king of the jews. So what? Besides, He is not only king of the jews, but also king of the whole world. f) To say that Jesus Christ was not jewish is absolutely NOT anti-semitic; this is almost sounded like some leftist calling a conservative a nazi; so, please, be very careful with your statements because calling one anti-semitic is extremely serious.

Now, the important truths you omitted and that were not mentioned by me on the former paragraphs. a) After Jesus Christ began His ministries, He bested all the old Laws. b) He instituted the TRUE Passover Sacrifice, the only one capable of redeeming mankind; the previous one was just not good enough; it was only a prototype of the real sacrifice. c) The word “catholic” means universal, just like His kingdom, which is also universal; so, yes, catholic, in its deepest meaning, has been the name of His Church since day one; you want to call it Universal Church instead? Fine. This is about the essence, the meaning of the Church, not the form it is called.

The most important concept every Catholic must understand is that Our Lord is the center of the universe.
His life, ministry, Passion, Death, Resurrection, Ascension and everlasting kindgom are the main theme. Everything that happened before and after Him orbits orbits around the Gospels. PER IPSU, ET CUM IPSO, ET IN IPSO, EST TIBI DEO PATRI OMNIPOTENTI, IN UNITATE SPIRITUS SANCTI, OMNIS HONOR, ET GLORIA…

Please refer to the Roman Catechism for more details.

Now I’m curious. Are you a deacon?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top