The Parables (19)
A Time for Laughter
(Bible Study - July 1999)

There is a time to weep, and a time to laugh (Ecclesiastes 3:4)

I once heard a brother say from the platform that "there was nothing funny in the Bible." If he had meant by this that the messages in the scripture could not be taken lightly, then I would have entirely agreed with him. Unfortunately, when I asked him about it, he made it clear that his comment applied to the style and language of the Word, as well as the substance.

If we consider the scriptures to be devoid of humor, then let it be said nothing could be further from the truth. As Solomon said, there is definitely: "a time for laughter."

Nevertheless, it is often difficult, from our perspective, to recognize humor in the scriptures. It would be a mistake to relate humor in ancient times to what we see today by standup comics or in such venues as TV sitcoms. Yet slapstick and other types of physical humor were practiced in Biblical times and one might argue that the tradition of the pratfalls of a court jester goes back to very ancient roots. Ancient people often made cruel sport of unusual people; dwarfs, hunchbacks, giants and other abnormalities were the butt of jokes in ways we would (thankfully) find to be most insensitive in our culture today. It is probably this type of lowbrow cruel humor, where a defenseless individual is made the object of the jest (sometimes quite lewdly), that the Apostle Paul argues against when he told the Ephesians not to participate in filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting (Eph. 5:4). Such is not the type of levity that we are considering.

Humor depends on culture
Humor depends very much on the social context of both the storyteller and the audience. Without the social context, something very funny in one age or in one particular place, may seem totally lacking in humor in another country or to a different generation. There is a great deal of humor in the scriptures, but much of it is lost to us today because we lack the linguistic and cultural context.

The easiest way to understand the importance of cultural context to humor is with a true-to-life Christadelphian story. Many years ago my ecclesia invited a well-known and much-beloved English brother who was visiting the United States to come to our ecclesia in Long Island and give a study weekend. This brother had a well-justified reputation for being an insightful and witty speaker.

He chose as his topic "Israel in the Wilderness" and commented on Numbers 11:5, where the Israelites complained as they rehearsed how good they had it as slaves in Egypt. They remembered the leeks, onions, and garlic. "Who could possibly imagine anyone yearning for leeks, onions and garlic," the British visitor said, expecting at least a chuckle from the audience. Instead, nothing but blank, dour faces stared back at him. He turned around and whispered to me: "Did I say something wrong or offensive, Brother John?" "No! I’ll explain it to you later," I said.

At the coffee break, I explained that Christadelphian audiences in New York are composed almost entirely of brothers and sisters from Italian and other ethnic cultures; to us leeks, onions and garlic are not a laughing matter! He assured me later that the line had always gotten at least a giggle in the UK! That was precisely the point, he wasn’t in Great Britain!

I have also had to learn to be very careful about humor when speaking in other countries. What is funny to North Americans is not always even meaningful, let alone humorous to Brits, Aussies, Europeans, etc. Hence we need to know the cultural context of first-century Palestine in order to appreciate the humor inherent in some of the parables of our Lord Jesus Christ. We also need to ask ourselves a fundamental question: Why would the Bible contain humor in the first place?

Reasons for humor
Bible humor is never frivolous; it is usually employed to make an emphatic point. Furthermore, humor is a story-telling device that makes a memorable impact on the listener or reader. Such stories as the mote and the beam are well known even among those who have never opened their Bibles.

Secondly, humor involves the listener; it demands an emotional response, which immerses us almost unwittingly in the story.

Thirdly, it focuses our attention; it is much harder to turn our concentration away from a humorous story than one that is sad or tragic. Invariably if someone says he has a good joke to tell us, we will pause and pay attention no matter how busy we may be.

Finally, the hearer of a humorous story is trapped, in the sense, once he laughs even though on reflection he may very well be the butt of the joke, he is forced to face up to the reality of the message that may be hidden in the humor. It is also sometimes easier to get a difficult concept across with humor because it is the rare person indeed who will refuse to laugh at a funny story. It has been said that: "Men will confess to treason, murder, arson, false teeth, or a wig (but)...How many of them will own up to a lack of humor?" (Frank Colby, 1865-1925, Essays I).

Humorous use of hyperbole
What types of humor were used in the scriptures? For starters let us first consider exaggeration. An hyperbole is something blown out of proportion to make an effect. Sometimes this is a mere literary device, such as the phrase in Deuteronomy 9:1 that the Canaanites had "cities great and fenced up to heaven." The walls of these cities were not literally fenced to heaven. This was an exaggeration for effect, meant to illustrate the great power of the enemy. Similarly, we might tell our spouse, or sweetheart, that he/she is the most handsome, or most beautiful, person in the world. This is an exaggeration (difficult to prove or disprove!) meant again for effect to show how much we care. But exaggeration can also invoke humor.

The late comedian Henny Youngman used to tell the story of coming home and finding the family car in the living room. He asked his wife how did it get there. "Easy, I made a right turn when I left the kitchen!" The joke has hidden in its tickle the element of truth that touches anyone who has ever been married and been critical of the driving of his/her spouse.

Similarly, Jesus tells the Pharisees: "You, blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel" (Matt. 23:24). The imagery is ludicrous: How can one swallow a camel? The exaggeration is clearly for effect, meant to show that the religion of the Pharisees was focused on miniscule, petty rituals which they were careful to observe. Yet they had swallowed whole large-scale sins without ever realizing their importance.

Use of the pun
The parabolic phrase "strain out a gnat but swallow a camel" has hidden in it another form of humor known as the pun. It is a point completely lost in translation to the English language and cannot be appreciated without understanding the cultural context at the time of our Lord Jesus Christ. Puns are plays on words, and they are almost completely rooted in the language and culture of the speaker. A pun is therefore about the hardest form of humor to translate.

For example, if the editor of this magazine spelled his name with an "i" instead of a "y" one might make up the following pun: Stiles has great style in his writing. One does not have to necessarily agree with the sentiment to appreciate that it is a play on words about the quality of the editor’s writing. It would be difficult to translate this into most other languages and still catch the pun. Similarly, the pun is concealed in the English translation of the words of Jesus concerning the gnat and the camel.

The everyday spoken language of first century Jews was Aramaic and this was doubtless the language of Jesus when speaking parables to the people. In Aramaic, the words for gnat and camel are phonetically related. This short parable could be rendered: "You blind guides! You strain out a gnat (galma) but swallow a camel (gama)." In English the phrase presents a ludicrous comparison that pokes fun at the Pharisees’ obsession with miniscule details of ritual while they were completely blind to the weightier matters of the law (Hos. 6:6, Matt. 23:23). In Aramaic, we get this lesson plus the clever play on words (galma – gama) which made the idea memorable, and, as with most witty sayings, made the audience want to tell it again and again to their friends who were not present. Hence the comment probably spread rapidly mouth-to-mouth and the Pharisees became the wide-spread object of laughter.

Jesus could just as easily have said: The Pharisees are concerned with minor details but ignore the big, important principles of the Law, but the prophets had already given this message in plain speech and the lesson had not been taken. We are in the same position today; as a people we are dedicated to the Word, yet we can sometimes lose focus. Incredible controversies can arise in ecclesias over small things, and without even realizing it we can strain at the gnat and yet swallow a camel!

Straining at gnats today
We can point to relatively minor things that cause great upset in ecclesias. To cite just a few examples -- related to the way one dresses, or the manner in which we use the name of the LORD, or even which version of scripture should be used. Such things can and do hurt many in the congregation and are a detriment to our outreach efforts. They destroy the unity of the body and lead us to forget the great wealth of common belief that brought us together in the first place.

The same point could be made of all our relationships, between husband and wife, parent and child, with friends and neighbors and so on. Nothing kills a relationship more than constant dwelling on petty things that are of no consequence in the bigger picture. We need to have the wisdom to recognize the difference between what is truly important and what is merely a small annoyance that should and must be overlooked. Let us remember the words of our Lord Jesus Christ the next time we become obsessed with an issue and make sure that we are truly not straining out a gnat while swallowing a camel!

John C. Bilello

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