About the Bible

The Bible Is a collection of short books in two parts written by God with the help of human authors. The Bible is composed of 66 books, by about 40 different writers of various backgrounds, living during a period of about 1,600 years -- yet they present one message. Such a miracle can only be explained by there being one divine Author, who was in control of all these human writers.This seems far more likely than the alternative explanation, that the books were written by 40 or more authors over a period of about 1,600 years. We are not quite sure why God needed human authors. His picture on the roof of the Cistine Chapel clearly shows him with a right hand capeable of hilding a biro or punching a celestial keyboard, but there is no record of God going to primary school, so maybe He did not learn how to write.

Divine revelation
The Bible is a Divine Revelation. In the Bible we find out what God wants mankind to know about Himself and His plan. The only difficulty seems to be deciding which of the many inconsistent bits are the real plan. God probably made the Bible inconsistent so that each of us can get whatever message we want from it. Because each of us can read our own preconceptions into the Bible, we are all able to agree that the Bible contains perfect truth (and kill any damn heathen who doesnt see our exact version of our perfect truth therefore resulting in a much higher percentage of people going to hell...naturally god did this for the lulz and because he shortchanged his building contracter when building heaven so theres not enough space for everybody).

The Bible is funny
For a serious discussion of humor in the Old Testament go to Humor in the Hebrew Bible by Hershey Friedman.

Satire in the Bible
Some people think the whole Bible is a satire, but there are many specific examples of satire in the Old and New Testament, and plenty of evidence that God has a sense of humor (even if some of their followers don't). Go to the original Bible to look up these examples:

• Ecclesiastes 5:10-20 Here we see satire in proverbial literature. These proverbs deal with the futility of trying to find satisfaction in money: It doesn’t satisfy one permanently (verse 10), wealth is attended by numerous anxieties (verse 12), and so on. The satiric norm appears in verses 18-20: The antidote to the futile pursuit of wealth is acceptance of what God gives you.

• The Book of Jonah is satire in narrative form. While most of the satire in the Bible is serious, the Book of Jonah is a masterpiece of humor in the Bible — the story of a pouting prophet whose career is a veritable handbook on how not to be a prophet. Jonah embodies the nationalistic, ethnocentric zeal that views God as the exclusive property of the Jews.

• The Book of Amos is an example of satire in prophetic literature. As a plainspoken satirist, the prophet Amos spews out a kaleidoscopic collection of literary forms and objects of attack. What unifies the book is its satire: From start to finish, Amos either attacks vice or appeals to a standard of virtue from which the wealthy and privileged classes of his society have departed.

• The parable of the Good Samaritan embodies satire in parable form. The object of attack is self-centeredness, indifference, and lack of compassion toward people in need. The Good Samaritan’s acts of mercy embody the satiric norm of love and compassion. • For an example of satire in visionary literature, look at Zechariah 5. It is a fantastic vision of a flying scroll, a woman named Wickedness, and two flying women with stork-like wings. The objects of attack are people who steal and lie.

• This is but a small selection of biblical satire. As you read these and other samples of satire in the Bible, you might agree that satire is a fundamentally subversive genre. Its aim is to unsettle us and undermine our complacent belief that people and institutions are basically good.