A Wicked Sense of Humor

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to investigate the way that Jesus’ sense of humor would have functioned in a first-century Galilean political and religious context. Drawing on both rhetorical and social-scientific criticisms, as well as form-critical reconstructions of the sayings of Jesus, it explores the possibility that neuolinguistic research into the phenomenon of linguistic genius may shed some light on the historical Jesus. It therefore proposes that many of the sayings of Jesus, which have traditionally been taken “seriously” might be better understood as humorous subversions of oppressive discourses by a Galilean peasant with a wicked sense of humor.