Life on the rubbish dumb in Mae Sot is "Better than Burma" Amos spoke about justice (photo by Jacob Baynham)

In Understanding the prophets: Part one I spoke about the “Three Cons” as a key to reading the prophetic books of the Old Testament with understanding and in ways which are faithful to their original intention. In this second part we’ll look at an example from Amos 5:18ff. and apply this approach. The result will be an uncomfortable word from God for us today.

Here are the slides from that talk: Understanding the Prophets: Part Two: Amos 5:18ff. There are some podcasts that deal with the book of Amos here and there is a detailed free online commentary with a wealth of background information and pictures here.

Cow Dung Patties (photo by mary jane watson)

If podcasts can have dedications, then this one is dedicated to Robert Carroll. The podcast is full or irony, first that of an introvert who spoke before thinking and who failed to read or digest a fine work by an admired teacher and friend, and then that of a frequently (and often mordantly) humorous Irishman who denies title humour to black humour so like his own. And then in the end, in Ezekiel 4:9ff. I’ll suggest there is both irony and (black) humour in the account of the Lord GOD conceding a customary prohibition to his staunch, righteous and rigorous prophet, while demanding that nevertheless he break the clear commandment of Scripture.

Here’s the audio: Humour in the Bible: book 26: Ezekiel

In this podcast I refer to:
Chotzner, Joseph. “Humour of the Bible.” In Hebrew humour and other essays, 1-12. Luzac & co., 1905. (The quotation is from page 12.)

and especially to:

Carroll, Robert P. “Is humour also among the prophets?” In On humour and the comic in the Hebrew Bible, edited by Yehuda T. Radday and Athalya Brenner. 169-189. Continuum International Publishing Group, 1990.

Massebah at Gezer (Photo by Tim Bulkeley)

Back to the longer series, just in case you thought I’d forgotten. Jeremiah has a harsh and cutting humour on almost every page. In this post we’ll look at Jer 2:26-28. And just so you don’t think I am inventing the humour I find there I’ll cite some proper scholarship.¹

Here’s the audio: Humour in the Bible: Book 24: Jeremiah

1. William R. Domeris, “When metaphor becomes myth: A socio-linguistic reading.” In Troubling Jeremiah, edited by A. R. Diamond and Society of Biblical Literature. Composition of the Book of Jeremiah Group. Continuum, 1999, 257.

How Raffael imagined Ezekiel's vision, but what was the point? (Raffaello Sanzio, Wikimedia Commons)

I am doing a three part series at South City Baptist Church on Sunday afternoons on Understanding the prophets. This week thinking, about what a prophet was and how they spoke, I used the title: “What does a prophet? What does it profit?” these are the slides from the talk.

A key idea in this talk was the ideas in my Prophets: three principles to unlock the code another podcast that uses the same idea (but to address a New Testament prophet) is: The teachings of Jesus the prophet. There are many more of these 5 minute audio teaching about the Hebrew prophets and about particular prophetic texts. Just use the menu above > OT > and choose a prophetic book.

Another good place to explore the nature and contents of biblical prophecy is the book of Amos. My commentary with also a huge amount of Bible Dictionary type material is here Amos: Postmodern Bible.

Hut in a field on the Thai-Burma border (photo by Tim Bulkeley)

At last, I’m on the home straight, the first of the prophets The prophetic books are packed with humour. But right at the start we’ll need to get one thing clear. Humour is not just the comic, entertainment that promotes a giggle or a smile. There is humour also in tragedy, at times when “you either have to laugh or cry” and those when the sharp scalpel of cutting wit is needed to cut through defenses.

I’ll try to explain this idea of tragic (as well as comic) humour in exploring Isaiah 1, and will also argue that in this passage (at least in Isaiah 1:8ff) all but two of the “signs of humour” we have been working with are present. One that isn’t is “lighthearted mood” but you’d hardly expect that if there is such a thing as “tragic humour”, as I am claiming.

So, listen to the podcast and tell me if YOU think that tragic humour exists, and if I’ve rightly named it!

Humour in the Bible: book 23: Isaiah: tragic humour

A fine pile of manure.

I never said all the humour in the Bible was gentle or polite. We have come to expect harsh even toilet humour from the prophets, but in this reading Leviticus outdoes Ezekiel sharpening his toilet humour and even making it shorter and more pointed.

In this podcast I’ll compare Ezek 6:3-6 with Lev 26:30, and even throw in some Hebrew and a reference to Cuneiform, just to show how serious Leviticus’ humour really is

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So, here’s the link to the audio:
Humour in the Bible: Book 3 Leviticus

By Tokistar (Template:The artist)

The prophet Jonah (at least as his story is told in the book that bears his name) is perhaps the most orthodox if perhaps the most heteropractic¹ prophet in the Bible!

Yet this book perhaps better than any other in the Old Testament encapsulates the essential truths of Scripture.

[For more on the "Perspicuity of Scripture" see The Perspicuity of Scripture or see the podcasts listed here.]

The next podcast on Jonah should return to a detailed look at a small chunk of the book, this one is big-picture stuff, just to keep you interested

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1. The prefix “ortho-” straight or right and “hetero-” different or wrong are used as opposites. The endings “-dox” to do with worship or theology and “-praxis” to do with action. So orthodox is right-thinking and heteropractic is wrong-doing.

God as creator from the Sistine Chapel (photo Wikipedia)

I’ve already a podcast on Jonah 1:7-8 Direct speech in biblical narratives if you want a fill in between the last podcast and this one.

Had you noticed? We were eight verses into the book and Jonah had not said one word. In Jonah 1:1-8 not a peep out of Jonah the prophet, so 1:9 where he finally speaks has to be significant…

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"It was slightly disturbing to find giant 'Thomas the Tank Engine' faces looking up from the ground" by oxyman

In these two verses we get some more clues about how to read the book of Jonah, we’ll notice how everything is big, and how the ship has personality. I’ll suggest that Jonah is in some ways like a children’s story, larger than life and painted in bright primary colours. I’ll even suggest that there are hints the telling is like Thomas the Tank Engine

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Jonah and the Whale. Photographer: Brams. Hvidbjerg Kirke in Hvidbjerg Sogn in Thyholm Kommune, Denmark.

In this short series (of two podcasts) I’ll describe two things I think I know, two stakes in the ground when I come to think about the topic of “universalism” that has been much discussed (and even more an excuse for slanging matches) recently around the Bible-focused blogs.

Let’s start by admitting there are many many things on this topic that we simply do not know. I list a few of the many things that I am firmly agnostic about in a blog post OK, till now I’ve held my peace, and avoided discussing that Bell fella and universalism. But….In this podcast and the next one I’ll offer two things that I do know related to this topic. Today from the book of Jonah (for other podcasts that may give a fuller idea about how I read Jonah go here) and tomorrow from Psalm 69. In both cases the set text is intended to be typical of a major strand of thinking and expression in the Bible.

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