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You're listening to Tim Bulkeley's 5 minute Bible
Humour in the bible
Book 3
Leviticus
Humour in the Bible is quite often
sharp, sarcastic, it's very often like that when it's wielded by the prophets
cutting to the bone
their surgery is very seldom
keyhole surgery
listen to Ezekiel chapter six verses three to five
And I will destroy your high places your altars shall become desolate, and your incense stands shall be broken
and I will
throw down your slain in front of your idols
i will lay the corpses of the people of the Israel in front of their rivals
and I will scatter your bones around your altars
you wouldn't think that Leviticus could outdo that would you?
but it does
it says almost exactly the same thing, in far less words and with far more sharpness!
in Leviticus 26:30
this isn't nice gentle humour, I warn you
Leviticus 26:30
I will destroy your high places and cut down your incense altars I will put your carcases
on the carcases
of your idols, I will abhor you
doesn't sound very funny does it?
But just to get a feel for
what it sounds like here's the Hebrew
vehishmati
et bamotekem vehikrati
et hamonekem
venatati et pigrekem
al pigre gelulekem
vegalah naphshi etkem
it's nicely alliterative
but with a sharpness that suggests the underlying sarcasm
which of course is on the surface with the comment
I will put your carcasses on the carcasses of your idols
picturing those images which are supposed to represent superhuman powers
as... dead
but then the sarcasm and the humor
is scarcely buried in Hebrew
in the word for idol, gillul
in cuneiform sources the word-pair ilanu "gods"
and elenu
ghosts of the dead
appears quite often
and so putting together the gillule
and the corpses
may make really good, if humorous, sense
and then there's all the wordplays going on with this word gillul
gillulim
idols
sounds very like
elilim "gods"
which in its turn sounds like elil "weak"
but here with gelul it's worse
although gilulim is used
in many places through the Bible to talk about idols
not just here but in 1 Kings 15:12 and numerous times in Ezekiel
it's derived from the Hebrew word galal which means
dung or excrement
so these gods
carcasses, are also excrement
I told you the humour wasn't soft or gentle
it's hard and it's harsh
it's sharp
and just like the prophets
Leviticus here is trying to
bring the point its spear home to its hearers
and notice how it ended
the NRSV has the
rather incipid: "I will abhor you" for
vegalah naphshi etkem
ga'al too is an interesting word
they'd like to word for redeem
but also, especially
in the feminine form we have here very like the word
for the exiles the golah
so, more puns going on quite possibly
and strengthened
by not simply saying
I will abhor you
but saying my soul or my spirit
will throw you away
gaal cast you out, abhor
have nothing to do with you
there is humour in Leviticus
but it's a sharp humour, humour that cuts like a knife
But then, human idolatry needs to be cut out
Fit the humor to the crime
gentle? no! punny? yes!