Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!dali.cs.montana.edu!caen!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!cis.ohio-state.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!dimacs.rutgers.edu!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: hudson@athena.cs.uga.edu (Paul Hudson Jr) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: Humor in the Bible (was Hell) Message-ID: Date: 27 May 91 03:20:48 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: University of Georgia, Athens Lines: 11 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu One of my favorite outright jokes in the Bible, is when Elijah is taunting the prophets of Baal, when they are trying to make their God set fire to their sacrifice by cutting themselves. Elijah asks where Baal is. "Maybe he is sleeping. Maybe he went to the bathroom!" (my paraphrase.) the KJV uses "pursuing." Actually, it is pretty funny, and it is a rather obvious joke. (obviously a joke to someone who knows Hebrew, I suppose, or who looks up what is meant.) Along the same lines, Jesus asks if the disciples do not realize that whatever a man eats goes into the mouth, through the belly and is (KJV) "cast intothe draught." This is not really a joke, but it is similar. I think the meaning of the words in Greek and Herbew are even similar.