HUMOR IN THE BIBLE

Rabbi Rifat Sonsino, Ph.D

The Bible is a revered book, and many think that it is strictly serious. Yet, a critical analysis of the text shows that some “biblical writing may have been intended primarily to entertain the reader” (The Anchor Bible Dict.3/325). It is not easy to translate humor from one culture to another, and old texts like the Bible emerged in a social environment that is very different from ours. Still, we find many biblical passages that are humorous and off handed. Here below are some examples:

The patriarch Abraham is a trickster when in Egypt he passes his wife  as his sister (Gen. 12:13).

IN Gen. 18, the matriarch Sarah overhears  an angel (or God)  telling Abraham , 100 years old, that his elderly wife of 90 will bear a child, and Sarah “laughs” (v. 12) at this absurdity. 

We find sarcasm in Gen. 37 when it states that the brothers of Joseph pointed at him saying, “here comes the dreamer” (v. 19).

In Ex. 32, when Moses returns from the mountain and catches the Israelites worshiping  an idol, he demands an explanation from Aaron, his brother ,who said that people gave him gold, and he threw it into the fire, and “ out of it came this calf!” (v.24). 

In Numbers 22, Balaam, a gentile prophet and diviner,  has a donkey that speaks, saying to his master , “Look, I am the ass that you have been riding all along until this day!(v. 30).

In Judg. 3, Ehud, an assassin, visits the obese king Eglon of Moab. Ehud stabs the king’s enormous belly with his sword that disappears  inside him. Ehud escapes and  the servants saw that the doors of the upper chamber were locked and assumed that he is “relieving himself in the cool chamber.” (v.24).

There is ridicule in  I K 18, when it states that in facing the prophets of Baal, the Israelite prophet Elijah  openly mocked them  saying, “shout louder! After all, he is a god. He may be in conversation, he may be detained, or he may be on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and will wake up” (JPS, v. 27). 

WE find humor even in wisdom literature, such as, “ Like a gold ring in a snout of a pig is a beautiful woman bereft of sense” (JPS, v. 11:22).

The book of Esther is a funny political satire, a farce:  Ahasuerus is a clueless king; Haman , the villain, is a buffoon; Esther is a manipulative queen; Mordecai is a courageous fool.  

Biblical writers did have a sense of humor , and they entertained their readers just as they instructed them about God and religion. 

What is your favorite humorous episode in the Bible?