Read Ebook: Hebrew Humor and Other Essays by Chotzner J Joseph

Font size: 10 px 15 px 20 px 25 px 30 px 35 px

Background color: BlackWhiteGrayLight GrayDark GrayDim Gray

Text color: BlackWhiteGrayLight GrayDark GrayDim Gray

Apply/Save settings

Ebook has 400 lines and 70600 words, and 8 pages

ERRATA

Page 79, line 14, read ??????? . . . ???????? instead of ?????? . . .???????.

HUMOUR OF THE BIBLE

The Hebrew Bible rightly deserves to be termed the Book of Books in the world of letters: it is distinguished from other literary productions by the richness of its sentences, its charm of style and diction, its pathos, and also by the flashes of genuine humour, which here and there illuminate its pages. Naturally its humour differs materially from the broad, rich humour of Sterne, Cervantes, Voltaire or Heine, but it has a stamp of its own, which is in some respects akin to that found in certain passages of the ancient classics. One or two examples will serve.

The extravagance, wantonness, and luxurious habits of the fair daughters of Zion, Isaiah denounces in the following drastic lines:--"Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet . . . it shall come to pass that instead of sweet smell there shall be bad odour, and instead of a girdle a rent, and burning instead of beauty" . And just as Isaiah reproves the Hebrew women for their pride and arrogance, so he censures the cowardice and effeminate habits of the men of Zion, whose motto, he says, was "Let us eat and drink; for to-morrow we die" .

With equal humour Isaiah makes merry over the false prophets of Israel, whom he compares to blind watchmen and to dumb dogs. "His watchmen," he says, "are blind: they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot even bark; they lie down as if dreaming, and are fond of slumber" .

Sometimes the butt of Isaiah's sarcasm were persons of high standing, who belonged to nationalities other than his own, such as the Babylonians, the Egyptians, the Moabites, and others. Highly diverting is the sarcastic address which he directed to one of the Babylonian kings who, after making an unsuccessful attempt to conquer Palestine, had been ignominiously defeated in his own country. It is to be found in the fourteenth chapter of Isaiah, a short extract from which runs as follows:--"The whole earth is now at rest and quiet; people break forth into singing. Yea, even the fir-trees rejoice at thee, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying, Since thou art laid down, no feller is come up against us. Hell from beneath is astir at thy coming; it rouseth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it has raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations. All they shall speak and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? art thou become like unto us? . . . how art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!"

In an equally amusing and drastic manner is Babylon's fall described by Isaiah. "And Babylon," he says, "the glory of the kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah . . . neither shall the Arabian pitch his tent there, nor shall the shepherds make their fold in that place. But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there. And the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate houses, and dragons in their pleasant places" .

????, ?????? ?????? ? ????. ?????? ???? ?? ??????

. Or, to quote Koheleth's own words: "Behold that which I have seen: it is good and comely for one to eat and to drink, and to enjoy the good of all the labour that he taketh under the sun all the days of his life, which God giveth him: for this alone is his portion" .

What Koheleth thought of scribblers and tedious preachers may be gathered from the following: "But more than all these, my son, take warning for thyself: avoid the writing of endless books, as well as much preaching, which is a weariness of the flesh" . The bookworm, too, was no great favourite of his, for he refers to him with, as it were, a pitiful smile: "Where there is much study, there is much vexation, and he that increases knowledge, increases pain" . And again: "The wise have no bread, nor the man of understanding riches, nor the man of knowledge power" .

In the same book there is a humorous description of a drunkard, which ought not to be omitted, when examples are quoted to prove the existence of light humour in the Bible. It runs as follows: "Who hath woe? who hath pain? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of the eyes? They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed drinks. . . . Thine eyes shall behold strange things, and thine heart shall utter nonsensical words. Yea, thou shalt be as one that lieth down in the midst of the sea, as one that reposeth on the top of a mast. Oh, how they have stricken me , how they have beaten me, and I felt not; when shall I awake? I shall yet seek it again."

These quotations may have already sufficiently supported the argument stated in the introduction to this essay concerning the existence of genuine humour in the Bible. The following are intended to show that even some of the most austere Biblical personages, such, for instance, as the prophets Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Moses himself, possessed a vein of light humour, which they sometimes used with considerable effect.

Of Ezekiel's humour no specimens can be given here. It is, like Swift's, rather coarse, and not altogether palatable. The curious may be referred to the sixteenth and twenty-third chapters of the Book of Ezekiel.

With the jaw-bone of an ass Have I plenteous asses slain: Smitten thus it came to pass Fell a thousand on the plain.

These remarks will, it is hoped, help to show the wealth of hidden meaning contained in the Bible, which can only be detected by the study of the original Hebrew text, and which the translators, either through oversight or inability, have failed to reproduce.

Footnotes:

The Hebrew term ???????? is probably derived from ?????, meaning "false" or "deceiving."

Cp. Eccles. v. 11.

"A sheep or goat they may not eat, but human flesh they may."

Immunis aram si tetigit manus, Non sumptuosa blandior hostia Mollivit aversos Penates Farre pio et saliente mica.

Cp. Amos iv. 1.

THE BIBLE AND THE ANCIENT CLASSICS

For several centuries past, previous to the middle of the eighteenth century, a general notion used to prevail that the contents of the Hebrew Bible consisted entirely of purely theological matter. This idea originated from the circumstance that most of the commentators of the Bible living in those times had treated it as a book that was full of religious mysticism, which theory had commonly been accepted by their readers as the only correct and plausible one.

These commentators have gone so far as to declare most emphatically that even the "Song of Songs," that masterpiece of Hebrew poetry, and one of the few ancient literary gems extant in the world of letters, was but a mystical allegory with much religious colouring about it. They thus altogether ignored its many poetical charms, just as they disregarded those to be met with here and there in other parts of the Bible. Fortunately, however, a book appeared about the middle of the eighteenth century, which brought about a great modification in these ideas. It contained a number of lectures which Bishop Lowth had delivered in Latin at the University of Oxford on "Ancient Hebrew Poetry^," and in which he essayed to prove that the Old Testament contained, besides much theological matter, several other highly interesting things. In his opinion its contents were of a varied description, and of such a nature that they could not fail to attract the attention of religiously inclined people, as well as of all those readers who had a taste for poetry, history, philosophy, or oratory.

These lectures at once attained great popularity, and were eagerly read in England and on the Continent, so much so that the ideas expressed therein concerning the actual contents of the Bible were soon adopted and further enlarged upon by several English and foreign Biblical scholars. Some of them, and more especially Herder and Sir William Jones , devoted their earnest attention to the study of the sacred volume. Sir William, who was one of the most eminent Orientalists of the day, wrote about it as follows: "I have regularly and attentively perused the Old Testament, and am of opinion that this book, independently of its divine origin, contains more true sublimity, more exquisite beauty, more important history, and finer strains of poetry and eloquence than can be collected from all other books that may have been written^." One of the most interesting parts of Bishop Lowth's book is that which deals with the metaphors and similes of the Hebrew Bible, and the object of the present essay is to attempt to show that there is a striking similarity between them and several of those employed by some of the classical writers. As the subject is too extensive to be fully discussed within the limits of a short essay, a radical and minute investigation cannot be expected. The result, however, may be sufficient to conduce to a wider and more careful study of the contents of the Bible in their relation to the ancient classics.

Turning now to some parallels found in the Greek and Latin classics, we meet one in the fifth ode of the fourth book of Horace, in which the latter implores the absent Emperor Augustus to return speedily to the Roman capital, where his noble presence was anxiously looked for by his loving subjects. The stanza in question runs thus:--

Lucem redde tuae, dux bone, patriae; Instar veris enim vultus ubi tuus Affulsit populo, gratior it dies, Et soles melius nitent.

Restore, Great Sir, your country's light; For, as in spring the sun is softly bright, So, when on us thy countenance's beams arise, Fairer days appear, and smile o'er the skies^.

As the red star shows his sanguine fires Through the dark clouds, and now in night retires: Thus through the ranks appear'd the godlike man, Plunged in the rear, or blazing in the van; While streamy sparkles, restless as he flies, Flash from his arms, as lightning from the skies.

What miracle thus dazzles with surprise; Distinct in rows the radiant columns rise! The walls, wherein my wondering sight I turn, And roofs amidst a blaze of glory burn. Some visitant of pure ethereal race With his bright presence, deigns the dome of grace^.

Not less prolific in metaphors of the same description is Virgil.

Now, when the night her middle race has rode, And his first slumbers had refreshed the god, The time when early housewives leave the bed; When living embers on the hearth they spread, Supply the lamps, and call the maids to rise; With yawning mouth, and with half-opened eyes They ply the distaff by the winking light, And to their labour add the night^.

We pass now to another fruitful subject, from which the writers of the Bible have often taken metaphors, viz. the sea, the torrent, and the waters, generally that mostly serve to typify calamity. So Job has a long and quite Homeric metaphor, formed from a torrent, which begins with the words: "My brothers have dealt deceitfully as the torrent, nay, as a channel of torrents that pass away."

Like a mountain billow that foams and raves, Where some swoll'n river disembogues his waves; Full in the mouth is stopp'd the rushing tide, The boiling ocean works from side to side, The river trembles to his utmost store, And distant rocks re-bellow to the roar: So fierce to the charge great Hector led the strong, Whole Troy embodied rush'd with shouts along.

As flames among the lofty woods are thrown On different sides, and both by winds are blown; The laurels crackle in the sputtering fire; The frighted sylvans from their shades retire: Or as two neighbouring torrents fall from high, Rapid they run; the foamy waters fry; They roll to sea with unresisted force, And down the rocks precipitate their course: Not with less rage the rival heroes take Their different ways; nor less destruction make.

Like leaves on trees the race of man is found, Now green in youth, now withering in the ground. Another race the following spring supplies, They fall successive, and successive rise: So generations in their course decay, So flourish these, when those are passed away.

Speaking about metaphors from vegetation mention should be made of an exceedingly pretty simile composed in German by the late Ludwig August Frankl, of Vienna, and probably borrowed from the beautiful lines occurring towards the end of the fifty-fifth chapter of the Book of Isaiah, viz. "As the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not hither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater," &c. In his simile Frankl compares the heaven with a bridegroom who weds the earth in springtime as his bride, and she late in the summer season bears lovely fruit. The English version runs somewhat as follows:--

The Beautiful Month of May.

This charming month is like a kiss, Given by heaven to his bride, the earth; Telling her with a hidden blush That a mother's joy will soon be hers.

As when the winds their airy quarrel try, Justling from every quarter of the sky; This way and that the mountain oak they bend; His boughs they shatter, and his branches rend; With leaves and fallings most they spread the ground; The hollow valleys echo to the sound; Unmoved, the royal plant their fury mocks, Or shaken, clings more closely to the rocks.

As the young olive in some sylvan scene, Crowned by fresh fountains with eternal green, Lifts the gay head, in snowy flowerets fair, And plays and dances to the gentle air; When lo! a whirlwind from high heaven invades The tender plant, and withers all its shades; It lies uprooted from its genial bed: A lovely ruin, now defaced and dead.

As from some rocky cleft the shepherd sees Clustering in heaps on heaps the driving bees, Rolling and blackening, swarms succeeding swarms With deeper murmur and more hoarse alarms; Dusky they spread, a close embodied crowd, And o'er the vale descends the living cloud: So from the tents and ships, a lengthened train Spreads all the beach, and wide o'ershades the plain: Along the region runs a deafening sound; Beneath their footsteps groans the trembling ground.

Towards the end of the Book of Ecclesiastes a comparison is made between an old man who gradually loses his white locks and an almond-tree that sheds its white blossoms. Anacreon has in one of his Odes a few exceedingly pretty lines, which recall the foregoing figure. They run as follows:--

Oft I am by women told, Poor Anacreon! thou grow'st old; Look how thy hairs are falling all: Poor Anacreon! how they fall!

As when in tumults rise the ignoble crowd, Mad are their motions, and their tongues are loud; And stones and brands in rattling volleys fly, And all the rustic arms that fury can supply: If then some grave and pious men appear, They hush their noise, and lend a listening ear: He soothes with sober words their angry mood, And quenches their innate desire for blood^.

The few observations offered here will no doubt give some idea of the importance attaching to a closer investigation of the whole subject^. Many volumes are annually devoted to the study of the Old Testament, but these are almost exclusively written from a religious point of view. Surely, it could not but gain in popular estimation if its great literary worth attracted more general attention.

Footnotes:

Share on: WhatsApp @Hash Facebook Tweet