The Big Questions About the BibleSample

Is There Humour in the Bible?

Of course, there’s humour in the Bible! Around 35 different people wrote the Bible. The fact God inspired them didn’t fry their brains or erase their personalities and sense of humour.

Humour is personal, so some Bible writers can be funnier than others. It’s hard, for example, to imagine the prophet Jeremiah cracking a joke. He’s not called the weeping prophet for nothing.

The Bible is a serious book, but sometimes it deals with serious issues with a bit of a smile. The Bible doesn’t ban laughing; it encourages it! Humour that is appropriate and doesn’t come at the expense of others represents some of the best of human interaction. If human beings get everything good from God, then God has a sense of humour. I’m sure God had a chuckle as he reviewed what the authors of the Bible had written.

The thing about humor is it’s very dependent on your language and culture. Shakespeare’s plays, for example, were hilarious in their own time. They were full of the humor of the gutter. Today, when we read them, the humour goes over our heads because we live in a different time and culture. Today we think Shakespeare’s plays are all very serious and only for the cultured.

Some examples of humour in the Bible would have been hilarious in their original context.

How about when Elijah mocks the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel:

At noon, Elijah began making fun of them. “Pray louder!” he said. “Baal must be a god. Maybe he’s daydreaming or using the toilet or traveling somewhere. Or maybe he’s asleep, and you have to wake him up” (1 Kings 18:27, CEV).

Interestingly, only some contemporary Bible translations are brave enough to translate what is toilet humor. Some translators don’t think there’s humour in the Bible, either!

How about when David pretended to be insane in front of Achish, the king of Gath, so the king wouldn’t return him to Saul. King Achish said:

“Must you bring me a madman? 15 We already have enough of them around here! Why should I let someone like this be my guest?” (1 Sam. 21:14-15, NLT).

How about what the Bible says about the death of king Jehoram of Judah:

No one was sorry when he died (2 Chron. 21:20).

It’s not the Bible’s purpose to be funny and entertain us, and translators have often made the humour in the Bible difficult to see. But yes, there is humour in the Bible. Because of cultural reasons and language differences, much of it is humour we may not “get,” but there’s still humour there at which we can have a chuckle.

– Eliezer Gonzalez