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“You know God has a sense of humor, just look at _____!”. “More has been written about Jesus in the last twenty years than in the previous nineteen centuries combined.” Stephen Prothero American Jesus: How the Son of God Became a National Icon. Library of Congress: 17,000 books.
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“More has been written about Jesus in the last twenty years than in the previous nineteen centuries combined.” Stephen Prothero American Jesus: How the Son of God Became a National Icon
Library of Congress: 17,000 books …only 1 about Jesus’ humor: The Humor of Christ – Elton Trueblood, 1964
Christ laughed, and … He expected others to laugh … a misguided piety has made us fear that acceptance of His obvious wit and humor would somehow be mildly blasphemous or sacrilegious. Religion, we think, is serious business, and serious business is incompatible with banter. Elton Trueblood The Humor of Christ
There are numerous passages … which are incomprehensible when regarded as sober prose, but which are luminous once we become liberated from the gratuitous assumption that Christ never joked. Elton Trueblood The Humor of Christ
[This is why some Christians] are theologically orthodox but comedically heretical. Mark Driscoll Religion Saves & Nine Other Misconceptions
There is a time for everything … a time to weep and a time to laugh. Ecclesiastes 3:1a, 4a
If there is a single person within the pages of the Bible that we can consider to be a humorist, it is without a doubt Jesus … Jesus was a master of wordplay, irony and satire, often with an element of humor intermixed. Leland Ryken Dictionary of Biblical Imagery
U starts happy happy ending potential tragedy
Comedy & derivatives: 200 times Laugh & derivatives: 40 times
Bible Names • Achan – Trouble • Careah – Baldy • Eglon – Fat Cow • Esau – Hairy • Harumaph – Flat Nose • Nabal – Fool • Noharis – Snorer • Parshandatha – Dung
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of Godmay be thoroughly equipped for every good work. 2 Timothy 3:16-17
[“Good work” includes] knowing when to laugh and when to make fun of others for a prophetic purpose that is deadly serious. Mark Driscoll Religion Saves & Nine Other Misconceptions
The prophet Jeremiah attacked idolaters, Jesus attacked self-righteous Pharisees, Paul attacked Judaizers, Irenaeus attacked Gnostics, and Luther attacked the papists. Douglas Wilson A Serrated Edge: A Brief Defense of Biblical Satire & Trinitarian Skylarking
Noah began to be a man of the soil, and he planted a vineyard. He drank of the wine and became drunk and lay uncovered in his tent. Genesis 9:20-21
The boys grew up, and Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the open country, while Jacob was a quiet man, staying among the tents. Genesis 25:27
Then Jacob continued on his journey and came to the land of the eastern peoples. There he saw a well in the open country, with three flocks of sheep lying near it because the flocks were watered from that well. The stone over the mouth of the well was large. When all the flocks were gathered there, the shepherds would roll the stone away from the well’s mouth and water the sheep. Then they would return the stone to its place over the mouth of the well. Genesis 29:1-3
While he was still talking with them, Rachel came with her father’s sheep, for she was a shepherd. When Jacob saw Rachel, daughter of Laban, and Laban’s sheep, he went over and rolled the stone away from the mouth of the well and watered the sheep. Genesis 29:9-10
When morning came, there was Leah! So Jacob said to Laban, “What is this you have done to me? I served you for Rachel, didn’t I? Why have you deceived me?” Genesis 29:25
The midwives answered Pharaoh, “Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women; they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive.” Exodus 1:19
“They gave me the gold, and I threw it into the fire, and out comes this calf!” Exodus 32:24b
Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, “Choose one of the bulls and prepare it first, since there are so many of you. Call on the name of your god, but do not light the fire.” So they took the bull given them and prepared it. Then they called on the name of Baal from morning till noon. “O Baal, answer us!” they shouted. But there was no response; no one answered. And they danced around the altar they had made. 1 Kings 18:25-26
About noontime Elijah began mocking them. “You’ll have to shout louder,” he scoffed, “for surely he is a god! Perhaps he is daydreaming, or is relieving himself.Or maybe he is away on a trip, or is asleep and needs to be awakened!” 1 Kings 18:27
It is better for a man to live on the roof of his house than inside with a contentious, nagging woman. Proverbs 21:9 also: Proverbs 25:24
Like a gold ring in a pig’s snout is a beautiful woman without discretion. Proverbs 11:22
Then the Lord answered Job out of the storm. He said, “Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge? Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me.” Job 38:1-3
“Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! … Have you ever given orders to the morning, or shown the dawn its place? … Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea or walked in the recesses of the deep? … … Tell me, if you know all this! … Surely you know, for you were already born! You have lived so many years!” Job 38:4-5, 12, 16, 18b, 21
You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel! Matthew 23:24
Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Matthew 7:3
It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God. Matthew 19:24
Jesus and the Pharisees • He called them a bag of snakes (Matthew 23:33) • He said their moms had slept with the Devil (John 8:44) • Jesus made fun of the way they prayed (Matthew 6:5) • Jesus made fun of the way they fasted (Matthew 6:16) • Jesus made fun of the way they tithed (Matthew 23:23)
To what, then, can I compare the people of this generation? What are they like? They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling out to each other: “We played the flute for you, and you did not dance! We sang a dirge, and you did not cry!” Luke 7:31-32