Do any religious texts contain any jokes?
Are there any jokes in any of the famous religious texts, or don't religion and comedy mix?
Update:Yeah... I'm not really happy with any of the answers. The 'nagging wife' quotes are the closest I suppose however they could quite easily be taken literally like many of the other suggestions listed, especially as they are proverbs.
This leaves me to conclude that it's all open to interpretation.
However, I guess if there were obvious jokes in religious texts then it would be very difficult to preach the joke as something to follow, because it would be meant as a joke and not as something to be taken literally. Therefore if parts of a religious text are not meant to be taken literally that would invite questions about other parts, and it drifts off topic.... I was hoping for clearer examples really but thanks anyway.
Comments
yes. all of them
Well, I can only speak about the Bible, since it's the only "famous religious text" I've read enough to catch the humor. A lot of it is very funny, even though it's true. (I like humor when it's true, too.)
For instance? Ever read Jonah? That was definitely God's humor on Jonah, who never got the obvious - God gets his way no matter what we decide. (And, it's not just three days in a fish stomach. He kept going. lol)
The whole deal that the "Fathers" of Christian and Jewish faith were "strong willed" is also hilarious. Check out some of these strong willed big names. (All of them tend to lack the heroic persona assoicated with most stories.) Gideon was chosen as he hid away from all the big bad danger around him. Isaac was pretty much a chump, yet God still used him. Job, who God called "a righteous man," was very good at whining (and he had plenty of excuses to whine.) Abraham, the big brave Father figure, tried to pawn his wife off to save his butt two times. And Peter? I love Peter. He was a wimp after my own heart. He did exactly what I would have done - chickened out when the big moment to prove himself came along, yet God still said, "And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." That's a play on words - Peter means Rock.
Sure, God has a sense of humor. It's we people who seem stuck on all the solemn, reverence stuff.
Yahveh has a great sense of humor. Yah used Solomon to show some of His comedic thoughts. There are verses that reveal Yah's comedic side, no doubt. A few are as follows:
Prov. 21:9
It is better to live on a corner of the roof
than to share the house with a nagging wife.
Prov. 21:19
It is better to live in the desert
than with a nagging, irritable wife.
Prov. 27:15
A leak that keeps dripping on a rainy day
and the nagging of a wife are the same —
16 whoever can restrain her can restrain the wind
or keep perfume on his hand from making itself known.
Philemon 10 My request to you concerns my son, of whom I became the father while here in prison, Onesimus. 11 His name means “useful,” and although he was once useless to you, he has now become most useful — not only to you but also to me;
Judges 10:3-4 contains a pun: After him arose Jair the Gileadite, and he led Israel for twenty-two years. (He had thirty sons, who rode on thirty burros and owned thirty boroughs in the region of Gilead; these are called Havvoth-jair to this day.)
It turns out Hebrew has one word that means both "donkey" and "town." The Jewish Publication Society translation, given above, is the only one I know that reproduced the pun in English, using "burros" and "boroughs." (They are justly proud of this accomplishment, to which they call attention in a footnote.)
There's certainly humor elsewhere in the Bible, starting with Adam and Eve passing the blame in Genesis 3:12-13. The Jacob story is full of humorous (and not very nice) tricks, played on Esau or back and forth between Jacob and Laban.
Three cheers for the writer above who mentioned Jonah: a pure send-up of the whole idea of prophets.
"Regarding humor in the Bible, here are some jokes from the New Testament (John 1:45-51):
Philip found Nathanael and said unto him, "We have found him of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph." Nathanael said to him, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" [Joke!] Philip said to him, "Come and see!" [Boom!] Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and said of him, "Behold, an Israelite indeed in whom there is no guile" ["Hey, here's an honest Jew" — joke]. Nathanael [not getting it] said to him, "How do you know me?" Jesus answered him, "Before Philip called you, I saw you yesterday, standing under a fig tree." Nathanael said [losing his cool], "Rabbi, you are the son of God! You are the king of Israel!" Jesus answered him, "Because I said I saw you standing under a fig tree, believest thou?" [Big joke! Gets laughs!] "You shall see greater things than these." [Release.] And he said to him, "Truly, truly I say unto you, you shall see the heavens opened and the angels of the Lord ascending and descending upon the Son of Man." [Boom!]
Preserving humor through translations from Aramaic to Greek to Latin to English is problematic, but with a little sympathy for the intent of the speaker, you can find a lot.
— Del Close, Chicago"
I bet there's many others in the Bible and many holy texts IF you take Del's last sentence into account.
There are some funny things said in the bible but they're not exactly jokes. Like when Aaron tells Moses: "We threw all our gold in the fire, and this gold calf came."
There is humor. My favorite is Aaron's defense of the golden calf to Moses - "I cast it (the gold) into the fire, and this calf came out" (Ex 32:24)
I think it was funny when the angel said to come out oh mighty man of valor, to Gideon who was hiding. I could just see this human trembling in fear and the angel saying Yahweh is with you, you mighty man of valor!"
"In the beginning God created the heavens and the Earth". Makes me laugh every time.
the only joke we know of is when Jesus said "Except ye eat my flesh."
Unfortunately the punchline was missing.