In the Biblical sense
Does anyone have a laugh in the Bible? I don't mean do they rejoice or sound the trumpets with gladness or any of that but is there any mucking about at all? Or is there any play-acting for pleasure? Do they have performances of anything? And again, not feigning weakness like Samson or dissembling love so you can cut off someone's head like Judith. Does anyone know? I wondered idly today. I'm reading Peter Ackroyd's Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem and I've just got to a bit about the power of the Victorian music-hall over the Bible-soaked imaginations of the poor. Stirring stuff.
posted by Anonymous @ 6:37 pm
3 comments
3 Comments:
At least as I was taught it in Buttass, North Carolina, the bible ain't for joshing around - though wasn't one of Job's complaints based around God's repeated use of a whoopee cushion? And when the Serpent squirted Adam with the seltzer bottle, that was very funny stuff. On the whole, though, the bible (as I remember it)not only lacks levity or a sense of people having fun together, it lacks any of the comradely "brothers in arms" spirit you might expect in a series of stories about overcoming troubles. It's all about perseverance, but sans shared good humour and support of one another - ie not only is there no levity, there's not even a sort of Three Musketeers spirit when faced with trouble. There's never really a break from the fierceness, if I remember it correctly.
Wasn't Eco's Name of the Rose(?) predicated a priest's belief that laughter was incompatible with a godly life?
Mat 9:23 And when Jesus came into the ruler's house, and saw the minstrels and the people making a noise,
Mat 9:24 He said unto them, Give place: for the maid is not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed him to scorn.
Gen 17:16 And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her: yea, I will bless her, and she shall be [a mother] of nations; kings of people shall be of her.
Gen 17:17 Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall [a child] be born unto him that is an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear?
Paulus (A level religious studies!)
http://www.blueletterbible.org/tmp_dir/words/l/1155901519-5002.html
We were chatting about this on Sat night with Paul, and I had an urge to look it up. Part of the problem when searching the Bible is the use of language (particularly by the translators of the King James version). The word 'laugh' is used by them mostly in connection with derision or irony. If you use the word 'merry' (as in 'make merry') there are quite a few hits. There are a couple of makings merry, for example, in the parable of the prodigal son (they all get happy with the fatted calf at the end, if you recall - see Luke ch. 15).
Although it's not explicit, there's clearly a good time being had by all at the wedding in Cana (see John ch. 2) - Jesus even helps them out by turning some water into wine.
Genesis ch. 9 tells us how Noah got trolleyed (although God isn't happy)
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