Are there any jokes in the Bible? I look for humor in nearly everything, but I’ve never been able to find any in the Bible. I realize most current humor is either sexually oriented, scatological, and/or disparaging to some group or other, all of which is quite antithetical to the Bible’s purpose. But no humor at all? It’s a long book and theoretically speaks to every aspect of the human condition. I’m not a biblical scholar and thus look to you and your vast research abilities to explain the total lack of frivolity, humor, or gaiety in this book. –Willard Cloutier
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Cecil must say that, vast though his knowledge is, yea, even of things biblical, he has never read the Good Book with a view to looking up the funny parts. Therefore, I have consulted specialists, who have furnished several candidate jokes. I am not saying that if these were on Christian TV you would necessarily want to skip Letterman to hear them. However, they do employ the stuff of wit, such as wordplay, riddles, etc. Examples:
(3) Subversive wit. In Mark 5 Jesus asks a man possessed by devils, “What is your name?” The devils reply, “My name is Legion; for we are many.” Conceivably this is a pun on legion in the sense of “a vast bunch of” and legion in the sense of a Roman military unit. The devils beg to be sent into a nearby herd of swine, which stampedes into the sea and drowns. One can construe this (not without some strain) as a sly prayer that the Romans, an unwelcome presence at the time, all take a running jump.
