Saturday 24 January 2015

Bible Humour?

Tim Bulkeley has embarked on a bold new project demonstrating that the Bible contains humour.
[T]his series will argue that humour is widespread in Scripture and will attempt to begin classifying and organising it to enable clearer discussion of its presence and function.
Humour? In the Bible? Widespread?

Tim's initial posts indicate that he will be focusing - among other places - on the parables of Jesus. Is there humour in the reference to splinters and beams in eyes, for example, in Matthew 7?

Tim isn't talking about humour being read into passages in the Bible by creative preachers, nor the possibility of a hilarious reading of certain texts (Revelation in Monty Python voices perchance?)  No, he seems to be saying the humour is intentional.

I'm happy to be convinced on this question, but have to admit to a degree of scepticism at the outset. It'll be an interesting series to follow, and I'll be keeping (as much as lieth within me) an open mind. You can follow Tim's postings over at Sansblogue.

1 comment:

  1. Of course there's humor in the Bible. Consider Psalm 137:9: "Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones." I get a belly laugh out of that one every time I read it. John 3:16 translated into Hawai'i Pidgin is also pretty good: “God wen get so plenny love an aloha fo da peopo inside da world, dat he wen send me, his one an ony Boy, so dat everybody dat trus me no get cut off from God, but get da real kine life dat stay to da max foeva."

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