Evening star., 1911-08-27
THE HUMoR OF THE BIBLE.
Effective Way Of Combating Folly
of q Sinful Life.

VI u ClUIul Lille.
From the Literary Digest
Humor does not always mean levity
and the humor of Juvenal or Lueretius
is too stern. earnest and scathing to he
looked upon as funny. Ii would be absurd
to think that so great, so human and sc
universal a book as the collection OF
Hebrew writings. whose rhetoric is mul.
tiform. whose tropes and smiles are sc
striking. should be devoid of humor
especially. as Dr. G. 2. Eckman says In
the Methodist Review. when We remem-
Der that many people are more Influenced
by ridicue than by moral suasion in
choosing the right path. OF Bible humor
this writer says:
1T would be preposterous 10 class the
Bible with facetious books. and one rea-
son for the failure justly to appraise its
humor is our proneness to test II by our
modern ideas of the comic. This is a
fatal and perfectly irrational blunder
The Hebrew consciousness expressed itself
in moral and religious modes. IL is this
which differentates its literature in large
part from that of other races. There is
a decided flavor of morality in all genu-
inc humor but this quality pre-eminently
distinguishes the humor of the Bible. In
defending the propriety of employing hu-
NOR in religious discourse an English
clergyman has very justly said: If you
can not make men ashamed of doing
of being ridiculous. A man who does
not feel that he is sinful may often pe
convinced that he is absurd The humor
of the Bible serves this precise purpose.
Its exposures of the folly of a sinful
life are all the more effective because
they are. in many instances, suffused
with humorous quality
He cites. as an example. the humor
of the great champion against the Phil
istines. of which he speaks as follows:
THE wit of Samson's riddle. PROFOUND
ed as a wager at his own wedding feast.
is obvious to all as soon as the circum-
stances which originated 1t are @ppre-
hended. Out of the eater came forth
meat, and out of the strong came forth
sweetness. One can see the sunny-haired
giant gleefuily felcitating himself on the
impossibilty of his competitors ever
guessing the secret of the honey in the
lions carcass. The way in which he
paid the wager. when IL had been lost
through the treachery of his bride. Illus
trates the mans sense of humor: And
he went down to Ashketon. and slew thirt.
men of them, and took their spoil. and
gave change of garments unto them
which expounded the riddle. One car
imagine him smacking his lips over the
grim jest of making his enemies pay his
debt of honor. The same spirit is mani
fest in his Staying of thousand mer
with the jaw-bone of an ass. He evident
ly finds a sardonic delight in the instru-
ment with which he accomplishes this
bloody feat, for he makes q pun about
it which it is impossible to reproduce in
translation. The word chamor which he
employs has two meanings: an ass and q
heap. 4 modern Hebrew scholar. DR. j
Chotzner has attempted to bring out
the humor of the words describing Sam
sons exultation over his triumph by the
following paraphrase:
With the jaw bone ~ an
Have I penteous asses slain:
Smtten thus 1t came to pass
Fell a thousand on the plain.
THE drastic quality of Samsons humor
appears again in the episode of the three
hundred foxes sent scurrying through the
corn fields of the Philistines with fire.
brands tied to their tails. One can easily
fancy the reckless jester clapping his
hands and prancing about with unholy
joy as he beholds the conflagration he
has produced"
The wit of the central figure of the
New Testament has frequently been COM
mented upon and DR.. ES kman well sum-
when he writes of the teaching of Christ
"Observe His quaint characterizatfonss
of those who carefully cleanse the out
side of the cup and platter. forgetting
that they drink and feed from the inside
of these vessels; of men who carefully
strain at a gnat but incontinently swal-
low a camel Notice how He hits off the
absurdity of trying to serve two masters,
of feeding pearls to swine. of putting a
light under a bushel. of proffering a stone
instead of bread, or serpent instead of a
fish, or a scorpion instead of an egg. OF
pitting Beelzebub against Himself. What
a grotesque thing it is for a camel to
attempt to squeeze throught the eye of
a needle. or for blind man to try to
lead another sightless mortal. with the
result that both pitch into the gutter.
How preposterous ii is for man with a
beam in his eye to offer to remove a
mote from his brothers eye. Consider
the ludicrous plight of the architect who
places a house on the shifting sands. of
the general who goes to war without
thinking ii worth while to estimate the
possible resourt es of his enemy. of the
man who makes himself the laughing
stock of the town by commencing to build
a tower which he has no means to fin
ish. These are delicious bits of. our Lord $
humor with a high moral purpose. Think
of the quaint shrewdness of admonishing
His disciples not TO think Of the morrow.
because that was characteristic of the
Gentiles nor to depend upon the worldly
policy of loving their friends, since that
was the habit OF the pubiicans. Remem-
ber the pathetic humor of his response
when the Pharisees warned him that
Herod was on his track: Go ye. and tell
that fox. Behold. l asst out devils and
/ do cures today and tomorrow. and the
third day l shall be perfected, for
it can not be that a prophet perish out
of Jerusalem Recall his quiet remark.
probably accompanied by tremulous
smile, when the disciples brought out
two old swords with which to confront
the world. 1t is enough" Run through
his parallels, and observe how rich vein
of humor pervades nearly all of the more
important ones. What further need is
there of Observation-Disclosures the number
of those not mentioned here is very con-
III It ie nyy3I hnA a
brew humor did not fail when He came of
whom Moses in the law, and the prophets,
did write