Laughter
Laughter
(, ), an action usually expressing joy (Gen 21:6; Psa 126:2; Ecc 3:4; Luk 6:21); sometimes mockery (Gen 18:13; Ecc 2:2; Jam 4:9); and occasionally conscious security (Job 5:22). When used concerning God (as in Psa 2:4; Psa 59:8; Pro 1:26) it signifies that he despises or pays no regard to the person or subject. SEE ISAAC.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Laughter
LAUGHTER
The two words found in NT for laughter correspond almost exactly in significance with the two commonly occurring in OT. (Mat 9:24 || Mar 5:40 and Luk 8:53) = , which always means scornful, derisive laughter (e.g. Pro 17:5, Isa 37:22, Psa 2:4). On the other hand, (Luk 6:21) = , which is the more general term, and while sometimes implying derision (as in Job 30:1, Pro 1:26), is more usually found in the sense of merry laughter, as opposed to the gloom of sadness (e.g. Pro 29:9, Ecc 3:4; Ecc 2:2; Ecc 10:19, Pro 14:13). But, while in OT these words and others denoting mirth and gleefulness are often found, their parallels are very rare in NT. Beyond the two passages already mentioned, there is only one (Jam 4:9) in which laughter is referred to,and this is obviously a reminiscence of Christs sayings as reported in Luk 6:21; Luk 6:25,and one other in which jesting ()* [Note: See Trench, Synonyms, s.v.; and cf. the pleasantries of fools ( ), Sir 20:13.] is forbidden to the Christian by St. Paul (Eph 5:4). The word which does occur in NT, and which is characteristic of it, is (53 times), (6 times); but this is almost always a restrained and chastened joy rather than one which breaks out into laughterdescribing the condition of the mind rather than the expression of the emotions. A stronger word, implying more emotional demonstration, is ; see esp. Luk_Luk 10:21, where it seems to be implied that Jesus manifested His joy by outward signs; the word in Luk 1:41; Luk 1:44, Luk 6:23 () is stronger still, and can hardly be used except where almost extravagant demonstrations of pleasure are intended.
It has been too readily inferred from the comparative absence in NT of allusions to mirth, that Jesus was characterized by a certain sobriety of demeanour which precludes us from thinking of Him as ever laughing or even smiling, and that Christianity from the first discouraged anything in the form of laughter-provoking mirth. Thus the statementsWe are never told that (Jesus) laughed, while we are once told that He wept (Farrar, Life of Christ, p. 242); we never read that Jesus laughed, and but once that He rejoiced in spirit (Jer. Taylor), and similar statements are based on nothing more than a dim and untrustworthy tradition, [Note: The alleged Ep. of P. Lentulus, Procons. of Judaea, to the Roman Senate.] and convey an impression which is far from being warranted by the general tenor of the Gospel narrative. The common use of the title Man of Sorrows, dictated no doubt by the deepest motives, and the conventional portraits of Christ, showing Him always pensive and often sorrowful, have been responsible for fostering the thought of a Christ who was constantly grave, if not sad. A writer like Renan goes to the opposite extreme; but there is at least as much support for his representation of a teacher whose sweet gaiety constantly found expression in lively reflexions and kindly pleasantries. [Note: Vie de Jsus, 1879, p. 196.] What evidence there is, indeed, is on the whole against the traditional view. Jesus definitely dissociated Himself from the austerer school of His time (Luk 5:33 ff., Mat 9:14, Mar 2:18); He made it a habit to enter convivial assemblies, and was a guest at feasts where laughter, jest, and song were a part of the order of the day; [Note: Edersheim, describing marriage-feasts, says, Not a few instances of riotous merriment and even dubious jokes on the part of the greatest Rabbis are mentioned (Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, i. p. 355).] He watched, if He did not join in, the merry games of children (Luk 7:32), and loved their company. He chose, as an analogy for the joy of God over a redeemed soul, the exuberant merry-making (Luk 15:23; Luk 15:25) of a father to whom his son was restored,* [Note: in Lk. is specially used of convivial mirth (see Luk 12:19; Luk 15:23).] and in bidding His disciples rejoice in their very tribulations, uses a word which suggests vehement demonstrations of joy (Luk 6:23). There is nothing in the Gospels to encourage the supposition that He frowned upon innocent mirth or checked its exhibition in His followers. On the contrary, on one occasion at least, He declined to interfere with a spontaneous outburst of exhilaration on their part (Luk 19:37). He bade them, even when they fasted, not be of a sad countenance (Mat 6:16), and His chief concern was not so much to regulate the manner of their joy as to purify its motive (Luk 10:30).
Against the a priori view that Jesus never laughed, a view which is based upon a misdirected reverence and a one-sided conception of His nature, has to be set the consideration that such a view tends to dehumanize the Son of Man. The faculty for laughter, as recent psychologists have shown, is eminently human, and its absence is a defect. [Note: See James Sully. Essay on Laughter.] There may be saintly men to whom anything like boisterous hilarity is impossible, but he whose face is never lit with a smile, and whose voice never has the infectious ring of joy, is lacking in fullorbed humanity (cf. Carlyle, Sartor, ad init.). If Jesus showed the natural emotions of sorrow, there is every reason to suppose that He showed those of joy.
There is as little support for the view that the NT encourages a religion in which laughter finds no legitimate place. The first disciples of Jesus, like those of St. Francis, who became known as joculatores Domini, appear to have shown a vivacity and cheerfulness in complete contrast to the rigid and frigid demeanour engendered by Pharisaism; and this attitude was encouraged by their Master, who did not expect the sons of the bride-chamber to mourn so long as the bridegroom was with them (Mat 9:15; cf. Mat 15:1-2).
But there is more to be said. Nearly all the worlds greatest teachers have employed laughter, in one or other of its subtler forms, as a means of gaining a hearing for the truth they had to deliver. Was Jesus an exception to this rule? Is there any real reason for refusing to apply to His case the saying, Ridentem dicere verum quid vetat? Can it be said that He never used the Socratic method of proving the reasonableness of His teaching by showing the incongruous and even ridiculous position in which those who rejected it involved themselves? It has been very generally assumed that such a method was beneath the dignity, or foreign to the nature of the Son of God. Thus it is said, He brought peace wherever He came, but He never awakened mirth The inquiry whether Jesus had the sense of humour is not simply trivial and irreverent; it betrays a fundamental misconception of that holy life of redeeming love. [Note: See art. Our Lords Use of Common Proverbs, Expositor, Dec. 1902.] The question, however, cannot be so easily disposed of. In the Gospels there are sayings of Jesus which a rational exegesis finds it almost impossible to explain apart from the assumption that they show a vein of humour. Indeed, the writer just quoted admits that Jesus deigned to make use of the quaint and often humorous maxims so dear to the common folk. It is allowed by writers of the most orthodox school that irony and satire were used by Jesus upon occasion; if He saw fit to employ these sterner weapons, the gentler one of humour would not be beneath Him. When Jesus says to the Jews, Many good works have I showed you from my Father; for which of these works do ye stone me? the touch of irony is unmistakable (Joh 10:32),* [Note: Westcott, in loc.] as it is also in the expression everlasting tents (Luk 16:9). When He says to His disciples, Sleep on now (Mar 14:41), it is in a tone of gentle raillery; [Note: F. W. Robertson, Serm. (2nd ser.) xx. The Irreparable Past.] and His conversation with the Syrophnician woman is in the same tone (Mar 7:25 ff.). His answer to the lawyer, This do and thou shalt live, seems to be most naturally interpreted as ironical (Luk 10:28). The reply to His critics, I came not to call the righteous, but sinners (Mar 2:17), is in the same vein, as is the passage, Full well () do ye reject the commandment of God (Mar 7:9). In Mat 6:2, literalists have sought in vain to prove that it was a practice among Pharisaic almsgivers to sound a trumpet; obviously the passage is satirical. The element of satire runs through the scathing denunciations of the Pharisees and scribes (23, etc.). But the crucial instance is the parable of the Unjust Steward (Luk 16:1-9). Commentators have exhausted their ingenuity in devising all possible and impossible explanations of Christs commendation of the steward, through failing to see that the whole passage is sarcastic, pouring laughter upon the futile trust that men put in the power of mammon; Luk 16:9 in particular is a sudden turn of the sublimest and most crushing irony. [Note: See Expositor, Dec. 1895; Good Words, Oct. 1867.]
But if it was in keeping with the mission of Jesus that He should use irony, still more natural was it that humour (wh. see) should enter into His speech. Humour is in its nature both human and humane. The greatest humorists have been the best lovers of men and the most endowed with sympathy (e.g. gentle Shakspeare and Charles Lamb). The foremost religious teachers have almost invariably been possessed of humour, and have proved the truth of Miltons dictum (Preface to Animadversions upon the Remonstrant) that the vein of laughing hath ofttimes a strong and sinewy force in teaching and confuting. It is probable that the reluctance, which has existed from early times, to admit any tone of raillery or playfulness in Christs teaching, has been responsible for the loss of the original force of some of His sayings. Jesus has suffered from His reporters. Yet enough passages remain to show that this element was often present. The pictures of a man endeavouring to serve two masters at once (Mat 6:24), of another who feeds swine with pearls (Mat 7:6), of a camel trying to get through a needles eye (Mat 19:24), of a light being put under a bushel (Mat 5:15), of him who sees a splinter in his brothers eye, but fails to notice the beam in his own (Mat 7:8), of Beelzebub at variance with Beelzebub (Mat 12:24 ff.), of men who have eyes but do not see (Mar 8:18), of one blind man guiding another (Mat 15:14), of a father who should give his son a stone instead of a loaf (Mat 7:9)these are all instances of that perception of the incongruous which is the soul of humour. [Note: the Logion of Grenfell and Hunt: Thou hearest with one ear (but the other thou hast closed).] We know that Jesus sometimes used words with a play upon their meaning (Luk 5:10, Mat 4:19, Luk 9:60). The ready way in which He answers a question by propounding another which at first seems irrelevant (Mat 20:22; Mat 21:24), His unexpected manner of turning the tables upon a critic (Luk 7:36 ff.), His use of illustrations which would cause, by their homely aptness, an involuntary smile (Mar 2:21, Luk 11:6), His epigrammatic way of putting a truth so as to give a sudden satisfaction (Mar 2:27), and His use of daring hyperbole (Luk 19:40),|| [Note: | Cf. the obscure saying, reported by Papias and quoted by Irenaeus (adv. Hr. v. 33. 3), of the vine with ten thousand stems. In its exuberant playfulness of fancy it exceeds anything in the Gospels; it is probably based on an actual saying of Christ (see Westcott, Introd. p. 433).] are indications that Jesus thought it not beneath Him to laugh with those that laugh.
On this whole subject nothing can be more just than the words of A. B. Bruce (Parabolic Teaching of Christ, p. 149):
With pathos often goes humour, and so it is in the parables. The spirit of Jesus was too earnest to indulge in idle mirth; but just because He was so earnest and so sympathetic, He expressed Himself at times in a manner which provokes a smile; laughter and tears, as it were, mingling in His eyes as He spake. It were a false propriety which took for granted that an expositor was necessarily off the track, because in his interpretation of these parables an element of holy playfulness appears blended with the deep seriousness which pervades them throughout.
Literature.Martensen, Chr. Ethics, i. 186 ff.; D. Smith in Exp. Times, xii. [1901] 546; Expositor, ii. viii. [1884] 92 ff.: Welldon, Fire Upon the Altar, 105; G. H. Morrison, Sun-rise, p. 43.
J. Ross Murray.
Fuente: A Dictionary Of Christ And The Gospels
Laughter
LAUGHTER.Laughter is used in the Bible in three ways. (1) It is opposed to weeping, as Ecc 3:4; Ecc 7:3, Job 8:21, Psa 126:2, Luk 6:21. (2) It expresses incredulity, as Gen 17:17; Gen 18:12. (3) It signifies derision, as Ps 2:14, Bel 18.
Fuente: Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible
Laughter
lafter (, cahak, , sahak, to laugh, , sehok, laughter; , gelao, , katagelao): (1) Laughter as the expression of gladness, pleasurable surprise, is the translation of cahak (Gen 17:17; Gen 18:12, Gen 18:13, Gen 18:15; Gen 21:6), which, however, should perhaps be laugh at me, not with me, as the King James Version and the Revised Version (British and American) (so Delitzsch and others; see also Hastings in HDB), not in the sense of derision, but of surprise and pleasure. In the same verse for God hath made me to laugh, the Revised Version (British and American) gives in margin, hath prepared laughter for me, and this gave his name to the son, the promise of whose birth evoked the laughter (Yichak, Isaac); gelao (Luk 6:21, Luk 6:25) has the same meaning of gladness and rejoicing; sehok, laughter, has also this sense (Job 8:21; Psa 126:2). It is, however, laughed to scorn in Job 12:4; the Revised Version (British and American) laughing-stock; so Jer 20:7; compare Jer 48:26, Jer 48:27, Jer 48:39; Lam 3:14, derision. (2) Sahak is used (except Job 29:24; Ecc 3:4) in the sense of the laughter of defiance, or derision (Job 5:22; Job 41:29); in Piel it is often translated play, playing, merry (3) Laagh is to scorn to laugh to scorn (2Ki 19:21; Neh 2:19); sahak has also this sense (2Ch 30:10); cehok (Eze 23:32); sehok (Job 12:4); katagelao (Mat 9:24; Mar 5:40; Luk 8:53); the simple gelao occurs only in Luk 6:21, Luk 6:25; see above. Katagelao is found in Judith 12:12, laugh to scorn (Ecclesiasticus 7:11; 20:17; 1 Macc 10:70, the Revised Version (British and American) derision).
For laugh (Job 9:23) the Revised Version (British and American) has mock; for mocked of his neighbor and laughed to scorn (Job 12:4) laughing-stock; for shall rejoice in time to come (Pro 31:25), laugheth at the time to come; laughter for laughing (Job 8:21).
Fuente: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Laughter
A time for
Ecc 3:4
Attributed to God
Psa 37:13; Psa 59:8; Pro 1:26 Happiness; Joy
Fuente: Nave’s Topical Bible
Laughter
denotes “laughter,” Jam 4:9. This corresponds to the kind of “laughter” mentioned above (see LAUGH, No. 1).