The Great Leslie asks Lily Olay if she is a native of Boracho.  She replies, I ain’t no native, I was born here.

Push the button, Max!

(Theologically, Christmas correlates with Good Friday, the theme of diminishment and tragedy assailing divine initiative.  FWIW, the correlate of Easter is the Transfiguration, the theme of ultimate victory over tragedy.)

Mark, shall the Twain meet? to David R. Graham
You are probably familiar with one of the Marx brothers — don’t remember which — remarking that comedy is just tragedy plus time.  It was used as a line in a Woody Allen film in the ‘80’s IIRC.  Anyway, I’ve always thought the observation was not just astute enough, it is in keeping with the fact that when the Athenians conjured up theatre, tragedy was first followed by the satyr play which evolved into the stand alone form of comedy.  I could be wrong, but I’m not sure there is anything Biblical that is in and of itself of a comic nature.  In the most general sense there is paradise, corruption in its various forms which begets tragedy and then a reversal in the form of redemption.

David R. Graham to Mark, shall the Twain meet?
I think this is a really, really fascinating and important observation/question.  I see others also feel challenged by the subject.

In the sense you mean of stand alone comedy, yes, I also do not see any in the Bible.  However, other comedic forms abound, and in both Testaments.

Our ears and eyes today are trained, by and large, to ignore the Bible or to regard it as primly, even menacingly prodigious.  Long ago it was observed that were the Bible translated verbatim, it would be banned in Boston, meaning the sententious would hike their skirts, shrieking, and kick it away.

But beyond its numerous scatological, obscene, and profane notes, the Bible, both Testaments, is masterful at portraying qualities which define comedy: incongruity (a Royal born in a stable, with shepherds, although his namesake was a shepherd!), comeuppance for baddies (Elijah at Carmel), ridicule (Jeremiah describing Israel as a she donkey sniffing the air for a male in heat), even slapstick (Peter slicing off a policeman’s ear).

From 30K feet, scenes such as these have comedic content — and, I feel, should be taken as having — that custom and modern cultural expectation teach us to disregard.  Glenn Beaton, about whom Scott Johnson posted two or three days ago, produced a fine example of access to the comedic content of the Bible in a post on his blog The Aspen beat.  Glenn titled the post Here’s what I know, Jesus is not our mom.

(Abraham Joshua Heschel said often that the world’s most Anti-Semitic book is the Hebrew Bible, and Johannes Paulus Tillich said often that the Bible, both Testaments, is anti-religion altogether.)

Mark, shall the Twain meet? to David R. Graham
That last point — the highly self critical nature of the OT abounds.  It’s the root of the American Jeremiad guilt complex.  As for the former, all of the elements are there for comedy like satire, clever inversions and such.  I read that post by Beaton yesterday?  Maybe Christmas Day?  I’d forgotten about it.  You’re right about the failure to be a kind of cultural blindness to the comic content.  Certainly the Romans had comedy, but I don’t think anything like the Hellenistic influence.  I don’t have much opportunity to have exchanges like this, so I’m kind of prattling on stream of thought.

David R. Graham to Mark, shall the Twain meet?
Roger all that.  Overall, the self-critical habit is precious so long as it shares driving responsibilities with self-confidence.  Self-abasement is salutary but not self-denigration.  The point of self-criticism, of course, is course correction.  Maybe self-examination is a better term than self-criticism, but they mean the same thing: watch what you are doing to make sure it is actually taking you to where you intend to go.  Self-criticism, self-examination, is a kind of life navigation tool.  And it has to be done voluntarily and eagerly, not on orders under resentment.  Now I am stream of thought-ing. I guess it’s fun, otherwise we would not do it.

Max Cossack to Mark, shall the Twain meet?
The Books of Jonah and Esther are definitely in the realm of Jewish humor.  But a lot gets lost in translation, not to mention over the centuries.

Mark, shall the Twain meet? to Max Cossack
That’s true.  There is the same dynamic with original Greek with puns and other word play.   But I was thinking about it in terms of the directness of comedy in the form of Ancient Greek theatre.   It’s self awareness — if that makes sense.

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Happiness and sorrow have to be experienced in the worldly life as they are inevitable like the sunset and sunrise.  You think new year will give better experiences; this is not correct.  It is the mind that is responsible for pleasure and pain.  If your mind is good, you will find anything good.  You are embodiments of the Divine which is nothing but bliss.  While being so, is it not folly on your part to say that you are suffering from pain and grieve over this?  Some want to have uninterrupted happiness.  When you eat at 10 a.m. you do not go on eating every hour thereafter without break.  So also when you experience pleasure it has to be digested before you meet with another bout of such experience.  Just as you have to do some exercise for helping the food to digest, you have to go through the exercise of confrontation of pain after experiencing pleasure.  Therefore, you must take whatever is given by God as good for you.

Sathya Sai Baba – Divine Discourse, January 1, 1994

Update 1:
kevinstroup
Not believing in religion is not the same as not believing in God. You can be spiritual without being religious.

David R. Graham to kevinstroup
Well, Tillich is famous for saying that Christianity is the world’s great anti-religion religion.  I add Hinduism to that description, but that will be a bridge too far for many at this time.

Dragblacker to David R. Graham
I’m not sure I follow.  Does it mean that Christianity and Hinduism have elements in them that lead some people to eschew religion entirely?

David R. Graham to Dragblacker
Yes, that is what it means.  It also is in Hebrew Prophetism.  Religion is a means, not an end, much less the end.  Like all means, it is fraught with danger because it can lead either Godward or Godaway because there are right ways to be religious and wrong ways.  In fact, far more wrong ways than right ways.  Far, far more.  Religion is very dangerous in the absence of experienced and skilled guidance.  Religion (Latin re + ligare) means binding up that which has become unbound.  Once a body is repaired, its ligaments (ligare) grown or tied back together, it has no need for the doctor who or the procedures which repaired it.

Lawman45 to David R. Graham
Tillich is correct.  Christianity, shorn of the Elmer Gantrys of the world, is a great handbook to living in a large society.  Just remember that the substance is correct but all the rest is B.S.  And, as I learned at Notre Dame, the “Priests”, the “Rabbis”, and the “Ministers” are just ordinary folk who live life free off of the insecurities of others.

Βασιλεία του Θεού