Humor in the Hebrew Scriptures

Humor, as noted above, is a worldwide experience, and it has been established in other writings of the Ancient Near East. Humor is also found in ancient Israelite literature including the Hebrew Scriptures (Meltzer 326-8). Humor is not the opposite of seriousness; humor is not the opposite of despair (Hyers 51). Viewing humor not as a contradiction to seriousness is helpful in gaining a better perspective of the possible uses of sacred humor (Danbom 668-72).

The God of Isaac (Yishaq) which is translated as "laughter" is the God of Israel. Conrad Hyers writes:

The history of Israel begins—if it does not sound too impious—with a joke, a divine joke. The laughter of Abraham and Sarah at this joke was not so much a laughter of unbelief as of disbelief, as when we say "You can't be serious" or "You've got to be kidding." Yet it was a laughter that became the laughter of faith. Abraham and Sarah would be less inclined in the future to declare the impossible. And their laughter, in turn, would become the laughter of faith and hope for generations to follow. (10)

God gave laughter to Sarah. Sarah declared, "God has brought me laughter! All who hear about this will laugh with me" (Gen. 21:5, NLT). Sarah had stopped dreaming that she and Abraham would have a baby, but the Lord was gracious to Sarah and did for Sarah "exactly what he had promised" (Gen. 21:1, NLT). God later told Moses that "I am the God of your ancestors—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob" (Exod. 3:6, NLT). It turns out to the Hebrew reader that Laughter (Isaac) is the father of Israel (Jacob).

Humor and laughter is found in the beginning of the Hebrew Scriptures. It is also found throughout the Hebrew Scriptures. The author of Ecclesiastes writes that there is "a time to cry and a time to laugh, a time to grieve and a time to dance" (Eccles. 3:4, NLT). Much of life is tragic and this is evident in the Hebrew Scriptures. But earthly calamity is replaced by grace. Donald Demaray writes of the Ecclesiastes text, "The sequence is significant. There is winter before spring, grief prior to joy, death before resurrection" (Laughter, Joy, and Healing 35).