This morning, I thought it would be a terrific wheeze to write a post about biblical humour, inspired by this story about Italian researchers working on the subject. It put me in mind of an argument by David Chidester in his book Christianity: A Global History.
Chidester argues that much of Jesus's advice for life is subversive, if not downright cheeky. The idea, for example that if someone asks for your cloak you give him your shirt as well. Chidester says men in first century Palestine wore only two pieces of clothes; take off your shirt and you'd be starkers, which would be a good way of embarrassing anyone foolish enough to ask for your cloak. Not a sidesplitter, I know. Nobody around here thought it was funny either.
Then I thought about it a more, and discovered this article. It quotes the episode when Elijah challenges the worshippers of Baal to light a fire by appealing to their God. When nothing happens, Elijah taunts them thus: "Cry aloud, for he is a god; either he is meditating, or he is busy, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is sleeping and must be awakened" (1 Kgs.18:27). Again, it's definitely sarcasm, and might be funny if properly delivered, but it's hardly Catch 22.
But if God's omnipotent, why can't he get some gags into his revelation? Maybe Depeche Mode were right, and the whole of creation is a monumental gag. "I don't want to start any blasphemous rumours / But I think that God's got a sick sense of humour / And when I die / I expect to find him laughing."
